Estimate how much your car costs to fuel per trip, month and year.
Optional , estimate what your regular work or school commute costs.
Estimated trip cost
Regular driving
Commute estimate
Fuel cost depends on how efficient your vehicle is, how far you drive and the price you pay for fuel.
In Canada, fuel economy is commonly shown in litres per 100 kilometres. A lower L/100 km number generally means the vehicle uses less fuel.
A vehicle using 8 L/100 km will use about 2 litres of fuel during a 25 km trip.
At $1.50 per litre, that trip would cost about $3.00 in fuel.
Vehicles that use less fuel per kilometre generally cost less to drive.
Even small changes in the price per litre can add up over thousands of kilometres.
Driving habits and total distance usually have a major impact on yearly fuel expenses.
For L/100 km, fuel consumption tells you how many litres the vehicle uses to travel 100 kilometres. The calculator combines that rate with your distance and fuel price to estimate litres used and cost. For MPG, the calculation is converted so the distance and economy inputs stay consistent with the units you selected.
The most useful estimate is often not a single trip but a repeated routine. If you know your one-way commute, the number of commuting days per week and the number of working weeks per year, you can estimate what that routine costs over a month and a year. This makes a small difference in fuel economy easier to understand in dollars.
Consider two vehicles driven the same 18,000 km per year. If one averages 7.0 L/100 km and the other averages 10.0 L/100 km, the second vehicle uses substantially more fuel over the same distance. Multiply the extra litres by your local fuel price and the difference becomes an annual ownership cost that can be compared with insurance, financing and maintenance.
Official ratings are useful for comparing vehicles, but your real number may be different because of traffic, winter weather, short trips, idling, speed, tires, cargo and driving style. If you already own the vehicle, using your own average from the dashboard or fuel receipts can make the estimate more personal.
A fuel-efficient car is not automatically the cheapest vehicle to own. Purchase price, financing, insurance, maintenance and depreciation may outweigh fuel savings. Use the Compare Two Cars calculator when you want to see the fuel difference beside the other major costs.
Fuel costs are estimates. Real-world consumption can change because of traffic, temperature, driving style, vehicle condition and other factors.
This page is part of a broader decision framework: calculators for the math, research guides for the trade-offs and interactive tools for narrowing the shortlist.
DriveMath aims to explain why a result matters, not just show a figure. That is why most pages include assumptions, limitations and related next steps.
Use the methodology, editorial standards and car finder to continue the research instead of relying on one page alone.