2025 GSA Per Diem Rate
For 2025, the GSA Per Diem Rate figures are $110 (Standard CONUS lodging rate), $68 (Standard CONUS M&IE rate), $68 (Lowest M&IE rate tier) and $92 (Highest M&IE rate tier).
Effective 2024-10-01 through 2025-09-30Source: Maximum Per Diem Reimbursement Rates for the Continental United States (CONUS), FY 2025 (GSA Per Diem Bulletin FTR 25-01) (GSA)Verified 2026-09-02
Compared with 2024
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard CONUS lodging rate | $107 | $110 | +$3 (+2.8%) |
| Standard CONUS M&IE rate | $59 | $68 | +$9 (+15.3%) |
| Lowest M&IE rate tier | $59 | $68 | +$9 (+15.3%) |
| Highest M&IE rate tier | $79 | $92 | +$13 (+16.5%) |
Who it applies to
Federal employees travelling on official business inside the continental United States, and the agencies that reimburse them. These are maximum reimbursement rates set by GSA under the Federal Travel Regulation: an agency may pay up to the lodging rate for a night's room and up to the M&IE rate for a day's meals and incidental expenses, in any location GSA has not set a non-standard rate for. They are not the IRS high-low per diem rates, which are what a private employer or a self-employed taxpayer uses to substantiate a business travel deduction.
What changed this year, and why
Both halves of the per diem moved for fiscal 2025. The standard CONUS lodging rate went from $107 to $110 a night, and the M&IE rates were revised for the first time in three years: the standard CONUS M&IE rate goes from $59 to $68 a day and the non-standard area tiers go from a band of $59 to $79 up to a band of $68 to $92. No new non-standard area was added.
Common questions
- What is the standard CONUS lodging rate for fiscal 2025?
- $110 a night, for travel performed on or after October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.
- What is the standard CONUS M&IE rate for fiscal 2025?
- $68 a day, up from $59.
- What are the M&IE tiers for fiscal 2025?
- $68 at the bottom and $92 at the top, raised from $59 and $79.
- Why does this page give one standard rate instead of the rate for my city?
- GSA publishes the per-city and per-county lodging and M&IE rates only as a lookup grid at gsa.gov/perdiem, where a location's row crossed with a column holds a bare amount with no sentence around it. This site publishes figures a document states in words, so what it carries is the standard CONUS rate the Federal Register notice states in its own prose. A city GSA has not listed takes that standard rate anyway.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The How much of the M&IE rate your spending leaves takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
The first and last day of a trip pay three quarters of the M&IE rate
A trip's first and last day are not reimbursed at the full meals and incidental expenses rate. GSA pays three quarters of the M&IE rate for the traveller's temporary duty location on each of those two days, on the reasoning that a departure day and a return day do not each contain a full day of meals away from home. The rate that gets cut is the one for the place being travelled to, not the one for the traveller's own official duty station, which is the part people get wrong when they work a reimbursement out by hand. GSA publishes the already-reduced amount for every location in the meal breakdown table on its own site, under a heading for the first and last day of travel, so the arithmetic does not have to be redone.
On the first and last travel day, Federal employees are only eligible for 75 percent of the total M&IE rate for their temporary duty travel location (not the official duty station location).
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
What happens when no room can be had at the maximum rate
The lodging figure on this page is a ceiling on ordinary reimbursement, not a promise that a room exists at that price. Where a federal traveller cannot find one within the established rate, the Federal Travel Regulation lets the employing agency authorise the actual expense allowance instead and reimburse what the room actually cost, up to triple the established per diem rate for that location. It is an authorisation rather than an entitlement: the agency has to approve it, normally before the travel happens, and GSA's own guidance asks the traveller to check FedRooms first to confirm that nothing is available at the per diem rate. The Federal Travel Regulation sets the allowance out in its own actual expense subpart, which is the part of the rules an agency travel manager will point to when approving one.
In addition, if a Federal employee cannot find a room within the established per diem rates, the travel policy allows the agency to reimburse the actual hotel charges up to 300 percent of the established per diem rates.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Standard locations, non-standard areas, and the city that is on neither list
GSA sets a rate of its own for the non-standard areas, which are the places the federal community travels to often enough for GSA to review them every year. Everywhere else is a standard CONUS location, and standard locations are deliberately not listed one by one on the per diem site. So an address that returns nothing from GSA's lookup has not been left out by mistake. Check the county first: where the city is unlisted but its county is listed, the county's rate governs the whole county, that city included. Where neither the city nor the county appears, the location takes the standard CONUS rate published at the top of this page. That is why the standard rate is what most federal travel is actually reimbursed against, rather than an obscure fallback.
If the city is not listed, but the county is, then the per diem rate is the rate for that entire county. If the city and the county are not listed, then that area receives the standard CONUS location rate.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Who this rate is actually for
Per diem is an allowance that covers lodging, meals, and incidental expenses. GSA sets the per diem reimbursement rates that federal agencies use to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses while on official travel within the continental United States (CONUS), which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. These rates are not for the general public, state employees, private-sector travelers, or government contractors; they apply specifically to federal civilian employees traveling on official business. Travel outside CONUS falls under different authorities: the Department of Defense sets rates for non-foreign areas outside CONUS (Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories and possessions), and the Department of State sets rates for foreign areas. GSA's published figures therefore represent the maximum lodging and meals allowance available to a federal employee on official travel inside the 48 states and D.C., subject to the rules of the Federal Travel Regulation.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) establishes the per diem reimbursement rates that federal agencies use to reimburse their employees for subsistence expenses incurred while on official travel within the continental U.S. (CONUS), which includes the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
What you have to keep and hand over to get reimbursed
For any official temporary travel destination, a federal traveler must provide a receipt to substantiate claimed travel expenses for lodging, as well as receipts for any authorized expenses that cost over $75. If a receipt is unavailable, the traveler must supply a reason acceptable to their agency explaining why the necessary receipt could not be provided. These documentation requirements come from the Federal Travel Regulation at 301-11.25. In practice, this means that to be reimbursed for lodging, meals, or incidental expenses on official travel, the employee must keep and turn in receipts (or an acceptable explanation) before the agency will pay the claim.
For any official temporary travel destination, you must provide a receipt to substantiate your claimed travel expenses for lodging and receipts for any authorized expenses incurred costing over $75, or a reason acceptable to your agency explaining why you are unable to provide the necessary receipt (see Federal Travel Regulation 301-11.25).
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
Money you do not spend on the room cannot be shifted to meals, or the other way around
The lodging portion and the meals-and-incidental-expenses (M&IE) portion of the per diem are separate allowances. If a federal traveler spends less than the lodging rate allows, the unused lodging money cannot be added on top of the M&IE rate, and the M&IE per diem cannot be given up or transferred to cover lodging costs. In other words, a traveler cannot shift savings from one category into the other to boost their total reimbursement. The Federal Travel Regulation at sections 301-11.100 and 301-11.101 spells out that the two allowances remain distinct.
Therefore, there is no “extra” lodging per diem to add to the M&IE rate. Likewise, the M&IE per diem cannot be given up or transferred to lodging costs. See FTR 301-11.100 and 301-11.101 for more information.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
GSA's rate does not automatically govern a contractor's pay or a trucker's tax deduction
If a contractor is working under a federal contract, the contractor should check with the contracting officer to see what the contract says about travel reimbursement, and should also review the travel regulations of their own company. GSA's published CONUS lodging and M&IE rates therefore do not automatically determine what a contractor is paid or how a contractor's expenses are handled. Contractors operate under the terms of their individual contracts and their employer's policies, not directly under GSA's per diem rules.
GSA establishes per diem rates and related policies for federal travelers on official travel only, and cannot address specific inquiries concerning the payment of contractors.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
A hotel's advertised GOV rate is not the same thing as the federal per diem rate
Hotels sometimes advertise a "GOV" rate, but that rate is not the same as the federal per diem rate. A GOV rate can be higher or lower than GSA's published figures. If the GOV rate is higher than the per diem, the traveler needs approval for actual expense prior to travel in order to receive full reimbursement. It is the traveler's responsibility to know the federal per diem reimbursement rates and not to assume a GOV rate matches them. The relevant rules are in the Federal Travel Regulation Chapter 301, Subpart D, on Actual Expense, and travelers should also follow their own agency's guidelines.
It is the traveler’s responsibility to know the federal per diem reimbursement rates, and should not assume a GOV rate is the same as the federal per diem rate.
Per diem rates frequently asked questions (GSA)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
- Standard CONUS lodging rate
the standard CONUS lodging rate is increasing from $107 to $110.
- Standard CONUS M&IE rate
the standard M&IE rate is increasing from $59 to $68.
- Lowest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE NSA tiers are increasing from $59-$79 to $68-$92
- Highest M&IE rate tier
The M&IE NSA tiers are increasing from $59-$79 to $68-$92