Commute Cost Calculator
Your commute costs way more than you think. Fuel is just the start, then come wear and tear, tolls, parking, and the value of your time.
Most people know roughly what they spend on fuel each week. What they don't know is the other $3,000 to $6,000 a year hiding in tyre wear, servicing, parking, and the hours of their life spent staring at brake lights.
What a 30km commute actually costs
Say you drive 30km each way in a medium SUV doing 10L/100km, with fuel at $1.90 a litre. That's about $2,280 a year in fuel alone. Now add wear and tear at 15 cents per kilometre ($4,680), parking at $15 a day ($3,900 over 52 weeks), and a pair of daily tolls at $8 ($2,080). Your total is north of $12,900 a year.
Factor in time and it's worse. A 40-minute commute each way at your hourly rate of $35 adds another $12,133 in opportunity cost. That number is theoretical, sure, but it reframes the question. If someone offered you $12,000 to sit in a car for 347 hours this year, you'd probably pass.
How to get the most out of this
Be honest about the real numbers. Most people forget the $8 e-tag charge that trickles through or the $10 station parking they've stopped noticing. If you're weighing a work-from-home offer against an office role, the annual commute figure is real money to stack alongside the salary difference.
Try running the numbers with and without tolls to see how much a different route would save. And if you're considering moving suburbs, change the distance and watch the annual total shift. A 10km reduction in each-way distance saves roughly $1,500 to $2,000 a year in running costs alone.
Monthly and annual framing matters
People usually think about commuting as a daily annoyance, but the better comparison is monthly and yearly. A $24 daily commute sounds survivable. A roughly $520 monthly commute or a $6,240 annual commute feels different. That is when the cost starts competing with rent, mortgage repayments, school fees, or a proper holiday.
Driving vs public transport vs WFH
If you drive into the city, parking and tolls usually do the damage. If you catch public transport, the raw dollar cost can be lower, but the time cost still matters. And if you work from home even two days a week, the saving is not trivial. Cutting a five-day commute to three days can slash annual fuel, toll, and parking costs by 40% before you even count the recovered hours.
A rough Melbourne example: a weekday Zone 1+2 public transport setup can be far cheaper than CBD parking, but the trade-off may be longer travel time and less flexibility. In Sydney, toll-heavy routes can swing the other way fast. That is why the calculator is useful. It forces the trade-off into actual numbers instead of vibes.
ATO cents per kilometre and deductions
The ATO cents-per-kilometre method is useful as a benchmark for vehicle running costs, but normal home-to-work commuting is usually not deductible. People mix this up all the time. The cents-per-km rate is still handy as a reality check for what driving costs, but do not assume your weekday office commute can just be claimed back at tax time.
Value of time is not fake maths
Some people hate putting a dollar value on commute time, but it is still useful. If your commute is 80 minutes a day round trip, that is more than 6 hours a week gone. Over a year, that can easily be 300-plus hours. Whether you value that at your hourly wage, a lower personal benchmark, or simply as family time, the point is the same: travel time has a real cost even when it does not show up on a fuel receipt.
Frequently asked questions
Does wear and tear really cost 15 cents per kilometre?
The ATO's cents-per-km rate for 2025-26 is 88 cents, which covers fuel, insurance, rego, depreciation, and maintenance combined. The 15 cents used here is a conservative estimate for just the mechanical wear: tyres, brakes, oil, servicing, and depreciation from the kilometres themselves. Your actual number depends on the car, but it's a solid ballpark for most vehicles under 10 years old.
Should I count public transport costs in this calculator?
This tool is built around driving costs. If you catch the train or bus, your main expenses are the fare and the time. A Myki in Melbourne runs about $10 a day for zones 1-2, or roughly $2,600 a year. Worth comparing side by side with driving, especially once you strip out parking and tolls.
Do EVs change the picture much?
Electricity is cheaper per kilometre than petrol, typically 3 to 5 cents per km compared to 12 to 18 cents for a petrol car. But you still pay for tyres, insurance, rego, and parking. The fuel saving is real, around $1,500 to $2,000 a year for a typical commuter, but the rest of the costs stay the same.