Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculator
The pump gets the blame, but most of what a car costs leaves silently: falling resale value, insurance, interest, the maintenance that accrues between visits. This page adds all of it into one yearly figure and one per-mile figure, using the same measured depreciation curves, fuel prices and loan math as our other vehicle pages, so every line item can be checked on its own page. The pie chart usually surprises people about which slice is biggest.
The ledger, and why the pump is not the story
Six lines make up what a car really costs: depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance and tires, loan interest, and fees. Only one of them is paid standing at a machine watching the numbers climb, which is why fuel gets the reputation. On the worked example below, gas is the third largest line. Depreciation leads, as it does for nearly every car under ten years old, and it is the only cost that never sends a bill: it collects everything at once on the day you sell. Every line here runs on the same engine as its own dedicated page (the depreciation curves, the fuel arithmetic, the loan math from the lease-vs-buy page), so any slice of the pie can be inspected on its own.
Worked example
A $40,000 average vehicle, financed with $4,000 down at 7% over 60 months, driven 12,000 miles a year and kept 5 years, at the blank-field defaults:
Depreciation $3,344, insurance $2,500, gas $1,844, loan interest $1,354, maintenance and tires $1,325, fees $500. Total: $10,867 a year, which is $906 a month, $29.77 a day, and 90.6 cents a mile. Gas alone would have suggested 15 cents a mile; the other 75 cents is the part of car ownership that leaves quietly.
Checked against AAA, on purpose
AAA's Your Driving Costs study, the standard reference for this number, prices a basket of new 2025 vehicles at 15,000 miles a year and lands at $11,577, about 77 cents a mile. Feed this page AAA-like inputs (their mileage, their insurance profile) and it lands within a few percent of their figure, which is the agreement worth having: two independent ledgers, one built from a new-car basket and one from your own numbers and measured used-market depreciation, telling the same story. Where your result differs from AAA's, the difference is in inputs you can see and change, not in hidden assumptions.
The EV wash, and the used-EV escape from it
Set the vehicle type to electric and watch two lines trade places. The fuel line collapses (about $626 of home electricity against $1,844 of gas at the example's mileage) while the depreciation line swells, because EVs shed 57.2 percent in five years against 41.8 for the average car. At these defaults the two moves nearly cancel: the EV saves about $1,218 a year on fuel and gives back about $1,232 in extra depreciation, a wash to within about $14. The escape hatch is buying used: the steep part of the EV curve belongs to the first owner, and a second owner keeps the fuel savings without it. Lower typical maintenance helps the EV too, and the maintenance field is yours to set.
The keep-it-longer lever
Ownership length moves this number more than anything else an owner controls. The example car kept ten years instead of five drops to about $9,282 a year: depreciation flattens after the early years, and the loan interest ends with the loan. The result above computes this line for your inputs. It is the quiet argument against the perpetual upgrade cycle, and it is also why the cheapest car most people will ever own is the one already paid off in their driveway.
Which number for which decision
This page's per-mile figure is the full cost, the right number for whether to own a car at all, keep a second one, or accept a job with a long drive. For a marginal decision (one more trip in a car you keep regardless) the honest figure is just fuel, maintenance and some mileage-driven depreciation, roughly a third of the full number, and the commute cost calculator handles that split properly. The IRS's 76 cent business rate is the government's version of today's answer, covered on the mileage reimbursement calculator.
Data reviewed: September 2026. Figures here come from published sources and change over time. How we verify
Copy one snippet and give your visitors a working Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to own a car per year?
For a $40,000 car financed at 7 percent, driven 12,000 miles and kept five years, about $10,867 a year at current prices: roughly $3,344 of depreciation, $1,844 of gas, $2,500 of insurance, $1,325 of maintenance and tires, $1,354 of loan interest and $500 of registration and fees. AAA's own driving-cost study lands in the same territory at $11,577 for its 15,000-mile new-car profile, which is a useful sanity check on both of us.
What is the biggest cost of owning a car?
Depreciation, almost always, and it is the one cost that never sends a bill. On the worked example it is about $3,344 a year, ahead of insurance and well ahead of gas. It arrives all at once on the day you sell, which is why fuel feels like the big cost and is not. Our car depreciation calculator shows exactly how that curve runs for your segment.
How much does a car cost per mile?
The worked example lands at about 91 cents a mile all-in, and AAA's profile runs about 77 cents at higher mileage, since fixed costs spread across more miles. Both sit well above the roughly 15 cents a mile that gas alone costs, and just above or around the IRS's 76 cent reimbursement rate, which is itself an all-in estimate. The per-mile figure is the honest one for deciding whether a trip, a commute or a second car is worth it.
Why is my number different from AAA's?
Different assumptions, both stated. AAA's study prices a basket of new 2025 vehicles at 15,000 miles a year with its own insurance profile; this page uses your price, your miles, your insurance and 2026 pump prices, with depreciation from measured used-market data rather than a new-car basket. Feed this page AAA-like inputs and it lands within a few percent of AAA's figure, which is the agreement that matters.
Does an EV cost less to own?
Here is the surprise our own numbers produce: at current defaults the EV's fuel savings (about $1,218 a year against gas) and its extra depreciation (about $1,232 a year, since EVs shed 57 percent in five years against 42 for the average car) nearly cancel, within about $14 a year of each other. Buy the EV used, though, and someone else already paid that depreciation while the fuel savings remain, which flips the ledger decisively. EV maintenance also tends to run lower, which this page lets you set.
What does keeping a car longer do to the cost?
It is the single biggest lever an owner controls. The example car kept ten years instead of five drops from about $10,867 to about $9,282 a year, because depreciation flattens after the early years and the loan interest stops entirely. The years after the loan, driving a car that only costs running expenses, are where car ownership gets cheap, and the result shows this line for your own numbers.
Where do the blank-field defaults come from?
Each one is disclosed on the result and editable: fuel prices are AAA national averages, MPG is the EPA real-world 27, maintenance and tires use AAA's 11.04 cents a mile, insurance uses $2,500 a year (2026 industry surveys run roughly $2,200 to $2,900 for full coverage), and depreciation uses iSeeCars' measured 2026 segment curves. Your own numbers always beat the defaults, especially insurance, which varies more by person than any other line.
Is this the number I should use for a commute or reimbursement decision?
It is the right kind of number, with one care: for a car you would keep anyway, an extra trip only costs the variable lines (fuel, maintenance, some depreciation from miles), while this page's figure includes the fixed costs that arrive regardless. Our commute cost calculator handles that marginal-versus-full distinction properly, and the mileage reimbursement calculator covers the IRS's version of today's answer.