Per Diem Rates 2026: GSA Lodging and Meal Rates Explained

What per diem covers

A federal per diem rate has two parts. The lodging part is a maximum allowance per night. The M&IE part, meals and incidental expenses, is a fixed amount per day that covers breakfast, lunch, dinner and incidental expenses. GSA sets both for the continental United States, the 48 contiguous states plus the District of Columbia. One standard rate applies to most of that area, and about 300 non-standard areas get their own higher rates. For FY 2027 GSA counts 295 of them.

Outside the federal government the rates matter too: the IRS lets taxpayers use per diem rates to substantiate the amount of business travel expenses, and it publishes its own simplified high-low rates for the same October to September year, covered further down.

The fiscal year: October 1 to September 30

GSA rates follow the federal fiscal year, which starts on October 1. FY 2026 ran from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, so a trip in calendar 2026 falls under two sets of rates depending on the date. For FY 2026, GSA kept the rates at the FY 2025 level. For FY 2027 the standard lodging rate rose by $3, while the M&IE tiers were not revised; GSA last revised them in FY 2025 and plans the next review for FY 2028.

The GSA lookup for a specific city lets you pick the fiscal year, which matters for a trip that crosses October 1.

The M&IE breakdown

Every M&IE rate in the continental US is one of five tiers. GSA splits each tier into meals and incidentals so that a traveler can deduct a meal that someone else paid for. The last column is the first and last day amount at 75 percent.

Incidentals are $5 at every tier; only the meal amounts rise. The deduction applies when a meal is provided by the government or included in a registration fee, such as a conference lunch. Meals from a common carrier, like an airline snack, and a complimentary hotel breakfast do not reduce the allowance.

The first and last day at 75 percent

The Federal Travel Regulation, at 41 CFR 301-11.101, sets how much M&IE each day earns:

• Trip of 24 hours or more: 75 percent on the day of departure, 100 percent on each full day, 75 percent on the last day.
• Trip of more than 12 but less than 24 hours: 75 percent for each calendar day in travel status.

The rule ignores the clock time. Leaving at 6 a.m. or at 6 p.m. earns the same $51 at the standard rate. Lodging is paid per night, so a trip with three calendar days has two nights of lodging.

Worked example: a 3-day trip at the standard rate

Three days in a standard-rate town, leaving on a Monday and returning on Wednesday, at the FY 2027 rates that apply since October 1, 2026:

The same trip before October 1, 2026, at $110 lodging, came to $390. If the conference fee included lunch on day 2, the $19 lunch amount of the $68 tier comes off, for $377. The lodging figure is a ceiling: the federal rules reimburse the actual cost of the room up to the maximum, so a room at less than $113 a night counts at its price, and when the rates fall short, the regulation allows actual expense reimbursement in some cases. The travel budget calculator adds flights, activities and a buffer to a figure like this.

The IRS high-low rates

Instead of looking up hundreds of local rates, a taxpayer can use the IRS high-low substantiation method: one daily rate for any high-cost locality and one for everywhere else in the continental US. The IRS publishes them in an annual notice for the year starting October 1.

From October 1, 2026 the high rate is up $10 and the low rate $5; the meals parts did not change. A high-cost locality is a place with a federal per diem rate of $280 or more (it was $272 in the previous notice), sometimes only for part of the year. New York City, Boston and Cambridge, San Francisco and Seattle are high-cost all year; beach and ski towns are often high-cost only in season. Notice 2026-60 added Tucson, San Mateo, Albuquerque and Cody, Wyoming, to the list and removed Panama City, Florida.

The same notices set two smaller rates: $5 a day for the incidental expenses only deduction, and special M&IE rates for the transportation industry of $80 inside and $86 outside the continental US. For travel in the last three months of a calendar year, the notice points to transition rules in Rev. Proc. 2019-48.

Driving and the rest of the trip

Per diem covers where you sleep and what you eat, not how you get there. Driving your own car is reimbursed per mile; the IRS mileage rate guide has the 2026 rates, and the mileage reimbursement calculator logs trips at them. Freelancers who bill a client for travel days can set the daily fee with the day rate calculator and add the per diem figures for the trip on top, as a separate line.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• GSA, Federal Register notice of Per Diem Bulletin FTR 26-01 (FY 2026 covers travel from October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026; standard lodging rate unchanged at $110; standard M&IE unchanged at $68; M&IE tiers $68 to $92)
• GSA: FY 2027 per diem highlights (standard rate $181, $113 lodging and $68 M&IE; 295 non-standard areas; lodging up from $110; M&IE tiers not revised, last revised in FY 2025, review in FY 2028; actual expense reimbursement under FTR 301-11.23)
• GSA: M&IE breakdowns (the five CONUS tiers with breakfast, lunch, dinner, incidentals and the first and last day amount; deduct meals provided by the government or included in a registration fee; common carrier and complimentary hotel meals do not count)
• GSA: Per diem rates lookup (standard rate for most of CONUS, individual rates for about 300 non-standard areas)
• eCFR, 41 CFR 301-11.100 (lodging is reimbursed at actual cost, not to exceed the maximum lodging rate)
• eCFR, 41 CFR 301-11.101 (M&IE at 75 percent on the day of departure and the last day of travel, 100 percent on full days, 75 percent for trips of more than 12 but less than 24 hours)
• IRS Notice 2025-54 (high-low rates of $319 and $225 with $86 and $74 for meals, high-cost threshold $272, transportation industry rates $80 and $86, incidental expenses only $5, effective October 1, 2025)
• IRS Notice 2026-60 (high-low rates of $329 and $230 with $86 and $74 for meals, high-cost threshold $280, localities added and removed, effective October 1, 2026, supersedes Notice 2025-54)

General information based on the sources above, not tax, legal or financial advice.

Written by Tobias. Updated October 26, 2026.