Should I include insurance and my car payment in cost per mile?

Not in the number you use to judge an offer. Insurance, registration and a car payment are fixed costs you pay whether or not you accept the next delivery, so they do not change the decision. Include them in the separate all-in figure you use to decide whether driving is worth doing at all, or whether to keep the car.

Your Real Cost Per Mile: The Number That Decides Everything

Q: What is the average cost per mile to drive in 2026?

AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study puts the all-in average for a new vehicle driven 15,000 miles a year at 77.18 cents per mile, of which 24.03 cents is operating cost (13.00 cents fuel plus 11.04 cents maintenance, repair and tires). The rest is insurance, registration, finance charges and depreciation. A paid-off used car costs far less than the all-in figure.

Q: What is a good cost per mile for gig driving?

For accept-or-decline decisions the number that matters is marginal cost - fuel plus maintenance plus the depreciation those extra miles add. Rebuilding AAA's components at the $4.096 a gallon price the EIA reported for the week ending July 27, 2026 puts that in the range of roughly 32 to 37 cents a mile for an ordinary gas car. Hybrids and EVs land lower, pickups higher.

Q: Does the 76-cent IRS rate mean each mile costs me 76 cents?

No. The 76-cent business rate for July 1 through December 31, 2026 (Announcement 2026-11) is a deduction rate built on full new-vehicle ownership costs including insurance, registration and depreciation. Your out-of-pocket cost for one more mile is usually much lower. Use your own cost per mile for offer math and the IRS rate only at tax time.

Q: How do I calculate my own cost per mile?

Fill the tank, write down the odometer, drive normally, then fill up again and record gallons and the new odometer. Miles divided by gallons is your real MPG; gas price divided by that MPG is your fuel cost per mile. Add twelve months of maintenance, tire and repair receipts divided by twelve months of miles, then add a depreciation allowance.

Q: How much does gas cost per mile right now?

Divide the pump price by your measured MPG. The EIA put the U.S. regular average at $4.096 a gallon for the week ending July 27, 2026, up from $3.777 four weeks earlier. At 24 MPG that is about 17 cents a mile; at 32 MPG it is about 12.8 cents; at 45 MPG in a hybrid it is about 9.1 cents.

Q: What offers should I decline?

Any offer whose pay minus miles times your cost per mile leaves too little for the time it takes. A $7.00 offer covering 9 miles in 18 minutes costs about $3.15 in car at 35 cents a mile, leaving $3.85 - about $12.83 an hour before tax. The same 18 minutes spent on shorter trips usually pays more.

Q: Does an older paid-off car have a lower cost per mile?

Usually yes, and by a lot. AAA's figures cover new vehicles carrying finance charges and steep early depreciation. An older economy car has no payment and has already taken its worst depreciation, so the marginal cost is mostly fuel plus maintenance - though repair risk becomes lumpier and belongs in a repair fund.

GigOdo Team · Published August 2, 2026 · Figures sourced to AAA, the EIA, and the IRS

TL;DR

AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study puts a new vehicle's operating cost at 24.03 cents a mile - 13.00 cents fuel plus 11.04 cents maintenance, repair and tires.
That fuel line assumes $3.151 gas. Regular averaged $4.096 a gallon the week ending July 27, 2026 (EIA), which lifts the same average car to about 16.9 cents of fuel per mile.
Two numbers, two jobs: all-in cost (77.18 cents a mile at 15,000 miles) says whether the work is worth it; marginal cost (roughly 32 to 37 cents) says whether to take the offer.
Yours comes from your fill-ups and receipts, not a national average.
The 76-cent IRS rate is a deduction, not a cost. Keep it out of your offer math.

What cost per mile actually means

Cost per mile is what one mile of driving takes out of your pocket. Every accept-or-decline decision in gig work is a bet that an offer pays more than the miles it burns, and you cannot make that bet honestly without the number. Most drivers have never calculated it, so they judge offers on gross pay alone.

The frustrating part is that there is no single correct answer. The cost of a mile depends on your car, your fuel economy, the price at your pump, how you drive, and whether you count the payment and insurance you would owe anyway. So the useful question is not "what does a mile cost" but "which cost am I deciding with."

The two numbers: all-in and marginal

All-in cost per mile divides everything the car costs in a year - fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, finance charges, depreciation - by the miles you drove. Marginal cost counts only what changes when you drive one more mile: fuel, wear, and the depreciation those extra miles add. Offers are decided by the marginal number.

The distinction matters because the fixed half is large. In AAA's data the ownership block - insurance, license and registration, depreciation, finance charges - runs $7,973 a year, while operating costs run 24.03 cents a mile. Your insurance bill does not care whether you accept the next delivery. Your gas tank does.

Use the all-in figure for the big questions: is this car right for this work, is gig driving worth doing at these rates, should you sell. Use marginal cost twenty times a shift, for offers.

What the national data says

AAA's Your Driving Costs study prices five years and 75,000 miles of ownership across 45 top-selling models in nine categories. The 2025 edition, still the current one as of August 2026, puts the weighted-average total at $11,577 a year at 15,000 miles - 77.18 cents per mile. The operating slice, the part that scales with driving, is 24.03 cents.

Operating cost per mile (fuel plus maintenance, repair and tires). Source: AAA Your Driving Costs 2025, at $3.151 per gallon.

Miles driven per year	All-in cost per mile	Total cost per year
10,000	99.95¢	$9,995
15,000	77.18¢	$11,577
20,000	66.10¢	$13,220

Read that table twice. Adding 5,000 miles a year raises the annual bill by $1,643 but drops the cost per mile by nearly 11 cents, because the fixed block spreads across more miles. High-mileage drivers own a cheaper mile than commuters do - that is real, and it is the strongest argument for driving the car you already pay for rather than buying one for the work.

AAA's fuel line is already out of date

AAA's 13.00 cents of fuel is based on regular gasoline averaging $3.151 a gallon over the twelve months ending May 2025. Prices have moved since. The EIA put the U.S. regular average at $4.096 a gallon for the week ending July 27, 2026, up from $3.777 four weeks earlier - a 30 percent jump over AAA's assumption.

You can rebuild the line yourself. AAA's own numbers imply an average of 24.2 MPG across the study vehicles - $3.151 divided by 13.00 cents. At $4.096, that same car burns about 16.9 cents a mile in fuel. Add AAA's 11.04 cents of maintenance and the operating cost is roughly 27.9 cents, not 24.03.

This is also why the IRS moved mid-year. The business standard mileage rate started 2026 at 72.5 cents (Notice 2026-10) and rose to 76 cents for July 1 through December 31 under Announcement 2026-11, with fuel prices given as the reason. Rate changes and pump prices track the same thing your cost per mile does.

Measure your own fuel cost from fill-ups

Your MPG is the one input where a national average is genuinely useless, and it is the easiest to measure. Fill the tank, note the odometer. Drive a normal week or two of gig work. Fill up again and record gallons and the new odometer. Miles divided by gallons is your real MPG, stop-and-go and idling included.

Then divide your local pump price by that MPG. At $4.096 a gallon, a car returning 24 MPG costs 17.1 cents a mile in fuel; 32 MPG costs 12.8 cents; a hybrid at 45 MPG costs 9.1 cents. Over 20,000 work miles a year the gap between the first and third is about $1,600.

Two fill-ups give you a usable number, but the honest one takes several months, because winter idling, summer air conditioning, and the difference between highway blocks and dense city delivery all move it. GigOdo's fuel log does this arithmetic across every fill-up you record, so the cost per mile it uses is measured rather than assumed.

Maintenance, tires, and the repair fund

Maintenance is the line drivers underestimate because it arrives in lumps. AAA's 11.04 cents a mile covers routine service, wear-item repairs, and one set of replacement tires across five years - about $1,656 a year at 15,000 miles. Gig driving front-loads all of it: brakes, tires, and oil changes are mileage-driven, not calendar-driven.

To get your own figure, add twelve months of maintenance, tire and repair receipts and divide by the miles you drove in that span. If you have no history yet, start with AAA's 11.04 cents and correct it as receipts accumulate. Set the money aside per mile rather than per month - a per-mile transfer scales with the wear you are actually causing.

One caution on older cars: the average is lower but the variance is much higher. A paid-off sedan can run 6 cents a mile for two years and then hand you a $1,400 repair. That is still cheaper than a car payment; it just needs a fund behind it.

Depreciation: the cost you do not feel until you sell

Depreciation is the largest single cost in AAA's study - $4,334 a year, about 28.9 cents a mile at 15,000 miles - and the one drivers ignore because nobody invoices for it. It is also mostly time-driven rather than mileage-driven, which changes how it belongs in your decisions.

AAA quantifies that split usefully. Going from 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year adds only $442 of annual depreciation - 8.8 cents for each of those extra 5,000 miles, against 28.9 cents on the average mile. Most of your car's value loss was happening anyway. We work through what that means at trade-in time in the guide to what gig miles do to your car's resale value.

So marginal cost per mile for the average car at today's pump price comes to roughly 16.9 cents of fuel, 11.04 cents of maintenance, and 8.8 cents of added depreciation: about 37 cents a mile. A small sedan on the same math lands near 32 cents; a half-ton pickup runs well past 40.

Turning it into an accept-or-decline threshold

Once you have a marginal number, offer math is subtraction. Multiply the offer's miles by your cost per mile, subtract that from the pay, and divide what is left by the minutes it will take. That converts every offer into net dollars per hour - the only figure that compares a short cheap trip against a long expensive one.

Take two offers at 35 cents a mile. A $7.00 delivery covering 9 miles in 18 minutes costs $3.15 in car, leaving $3.85, or $12.83 an hour. A $9.00 delivery covering 4 miles in 13 minutes costs $1.40, leaving $7.60, or $35.08 an hour. The first offer grosses 78 cents a mile; the second grosses $2.25.

That is where the familiar "dollar a mile" rule comes from, and also where it breaks. A dollar a mile leaves about 65 cents a mile for your time and your taxes. Whether 65 cents is enough depends entirely on how many miles you cover in an hour in your market, which only your own trip log knows.

The same arithmetic ranks platforms rather than offers when you run it over a week instead of a trip. That per-platform comparison of net earnings after fuel is what usually changes a driver's schedule, and it works from your own trips without linking any platform account - useful context given the current pressure on third-party apps that connect to driver accounts.

Your cost per mile is not the IRS mileage rate

The 76-cent business rate for the second half of 2026 is a deduction rate, not a measurement of your spending. It bundles gas, repairs, tires, insurance, registration and depreciation into one number built on full new-vehicle ownership - including 35 cents a mile treated as depreciation under Notice 2026-10.

That is why the deduction usually exceeds what a mile actually costs you, and the gap is legal and intended. Treating 76 cents as your cost would make almost every offer look unprofitable. Treating it as your cost saving is the other error: a deduction lowers taxable income, it does not hand you 76 cents. Run your miles through the 2026 mileage deduction calculator to see both 2026 bands.

Cost per mile does feed one tax decision, though. If your real operating costs plus depreciation run well above the standard rate - an expensive truck, a heavy repair year - the comparison in standard mileage versus actual expenses is worth running before you file.

What to do with the number this week

Start with one fill-up. Record the odometer and gallons at your next two fill-ups, divide, and you have real MPG within two weeks. Divide your pump price by it for fuel cost per mile, add 11 cents as a maintenance placeholder, add 9 cents for depreciation, and you have a working threshold today.

Then correct it. Replace the maintenance placeholder with your own receipts once you have a year. Recheck the fuel figure whenever pump prices move more than about 20 cents, which in 2026 has meant checking monthly. Keep the number visible while you are deciding on offers, because a threshold you cannot recall at the moment of the ping does nothing.

Tracking every work mile automatically is what makes this maintainable, and it is free with no trip cap - only multi-device sync is paid, at the founding mileage tracker pricing of $2.99 a month. More on the economics of the work in the earnings and strategy guides for gig drivers.

Bottom line

A mile of gig driving costs most drivers somewhere between 30 and 40 cents at today's fuel prices, and about 77 cents all-in if the car is new and financed. The exact number is yours to measure, and it takes two fill-ups to start. Until you know it, every accept-or-decline is a guess about your own money.

Know what a mile costs you

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FAQ

What is the average cost per mile to drive in 2026?

AAA's 2025 study puts a new vehicle at 77.18 cents per mile all-in at 15,000 miles a year, of which 24.03 cents is operating cost - 13.00 cents fuel and 11.04 cents maintenance, repair and tires. A paid-off used car costs far less than the all-in figure.

What is a good cost per mile for gig driving?

For offer decisions, use marginal cost: fuel, maintenance, and added depreciation. Rebuilt at the $4.096 gas price the EIA reported for the week ending July 27, 2026, that runs roughly 32 to 37 cents a mile for an ordinary gas car. Hybrids and EVs land lower; pickups higher.

Does the 76-cent IRS rate mean each mile costs me 76 cents?

No. The 76-cent rate for July 1 to December 31, 2026 (Announcement 2026-11) is a deduction built on full new-vehicle ownership costs. Your out-of-pocket cost for one more mile is usually much lower. Use your own number for offers and the IRS rate at tax time.

How do I calculate my own cost per mile?

Fill up, note the odometer, drive, fill up again and record gallons and the new odometer. Miles divided by gallons is your MPG; pump price divided by MPG is fuel cost per mile. Add a year of maintenance and tire receipts divided by that year's miles, plus a depreciation allowance.

Should I include insurance and my car payment?

Not in the number you judge offers with - those are fixed costs you owe whether or not you take the next delivery. Include them in the separate all-in figure you use to decide whether the work is worth doing, or whether to keep the car.

How much does gas cost per mile right now?

Divide the pump price by your measured MPG. At the EIA's $4.096 average for the week ending July 27, 2026: about 17.1 cents a mile at 24 MPG, 12.8 cents at 32 MPG, and 9.1 cents at 45 MPG in a hybrid.

What offers should I decline?

Any offer where pay minus miles times your cost per mile leaves too little for the time. A $7.00 offer covering 9 miles in 18 minutes costs $3.15 in car at 35 cents a mile, leaving $12.83 an hour before tax - usually beatable with shorter trips.

Does an older paid-off car have a lower cost per mile?

Usually, and by a lot. AAA's figures are new vehicles carrying finance charges and steep early depreciation. An older economy car has no payment and has taken its worst value loss already, so marginal cost is mostly fuel and maintenance - with lumpier repair risk that needs a fund.

Sources: AAA Your Driving Costs 2025 (category tables); AAA Your Driving Costs 2025 fact sheet (fuel priced at $3.151 per gallon, 12 months ending May 2025); EIA weekly retail gasoline prices (U.S. regular, $4.096 for the week ending July 27, 2026); IRS Notice 2026-10; Announcement 2026-11, IRB 2026-29; IRS Tax Topic 510. Per-mile figures derived from AAA components are our arithmetic, labeled where used. This article is general information, not tax advice.