Truck Fuel Cost Calculator
Work out diesel cost for any trip from average MPG, price per gallon, and miles. Get gallons needed, total fuel cost, and fuel cost per mile as you type. Do not know the mileage? Use the optional point A to B distance lookup to pull real driving miles, then add deadhead miles for a true cost per loaded mile before you accept a rate.
Truck fuel cost calculator
Enter your average MPG, a diesel price per gallon, and the miles. Fuel cost updates as you type. Optionally use the point A to B distance lookup to pull real driving miles, and add deadhead miles so the cost per loaded mile stays honest.
This free version uses one flat fuel price for the whole trip. It does not model fuel stops, tank capacity, per state diesel averages, truck legal or hazmat routing, or load dimensions. Those live in the FreightCanvas fuel planner.
Need more than a flat fuel price?
Are you planning a multi stop run, hauling hazmat or an oversize load, or trying to figure out how many fuel stops a trip needs and what each state will charge you? That is exactly what FreightCanvas does.
- Per state diesel averages applied at each refill
- Fuel stop count from tank capacity and route geometry
- Truck aware, multi stop routing with dimension limits
- Hazmat profiles and oversize routing restrictions
- 2D and 3D load planning that feeds the fuel math
- Quotes, BOLs, and invoices built from the same trip
No credit card needed. This calculator stays free and open to everyone.
Four numbers decide your fuel cost
Average MPG
Diesel price per gallon
Miles
Deadhead
A quick worked example
Dallas to Atlanta is roughly 790 loaded miles, plus 60 deadhead miles to the pickup, so 850 total. At 6.4 MPG that is 132.8 gallons. At $3.85 per gallon the trip burns about $511 in diesel, which is $0.60 per total mile and $0.65 per loaded mile. Drop to 5.8 MPG on the same run and fuel climbs to about $564, roughly $53 of margin gone on one load with nothing else changed.
Point A to B distance calculator
You can type total miles yourself, or let the built in distance lookup fill it in. Type a city and state, an address, or a ZIP for each end, press calculate, and the loaded miles field is populated with real driving distance and an estimated drive time.
Driving miles, not straight line
Practical highway distance is what you burn diesel over. A straight line estimate typically understates a long haul by five to fifteen percent, which is real money at 130 gallons a trip.
Deliberately barebones
Two points only. No intermediate stops, no truck height or weight restrictions, no hazmat avoidance, no toll modeling. It is a fast mileage number for a quick fuel estimate.
Always overridable
If your dispatch software, rate confirmation, or the driver's own odometer says something different, type that in instead. The fuel math always uses whatever is in the miles field.
The fuel calculation runs locally in your browser. Only the two place names you enter are sent out, and only to return mileage.
What the full fuel estimator adds
This free page is intentionally simple: one fuel price, one leg, no freight detail. The fuel estimator inside FreightCanvas prices the trip you are actually running, state by state and stop by stop, off the same route and load you already built.
Per state diesel prices
Fuel stop planning
Multi stop truck aware routing
Hazmat and oversize routing
Load planning that feeds the cost
Quotes and documents
Fuel cost FAQ
How do you calculate fuel cost for a trip?
Divide total miles by your average MPG to get gallons, then multiply gallons by the diesel price per gallon. A 500 mile run at 6.5 MPG is about 76.9 gallons, and at $3.85 per gallon that is roughly $296 in fuel. Divide the fuel cost by total miles to get your fuel cost per mile.
Is fuel cost the same as a fuel surcharge?
No. Fuel cost is what you actually spend on diesel for the trip. A fuel surcharge is a separate line item a carrier or broker bills the shipper to offset diesel above a baseline price, usually calculated from a published index like the DOE weekly average using a formula such as (current price minus base price) divided by your MPG. The surcharge is revenue tied to an index. The fuel cost from this calculator is your real expense. Compare the two to see whether the surcharge is actually covering your diesel.
Should I include deadhead miles?
Yes. Empty miles to the pickup or back from the delivery burn diesel and nobody pays for them directly, so leaving them out makes a load look more profitable than it is. Enter them in the optional deadhead field and the calculator shows total fuel cost plus a cost per loaded mile, which is the number to compare against the rate you were offered.
What MPG should I use?
Use your own fleet average from fuel receipts rather than a spec sheet. Most loaded class 8 tractors run about 5.5 to 7.5 MPG, and terrain, gross weight, idle time, speed, and headwind all move that number. If you do not know it yet, run the calculation at your best and worst month and treat the gap as your planning risk.
How accurate is the point A to B distance lookup?
It returns real driving distance between two points rather than straight line miles, which is close enough for quoting. It is deliberately barebones: two points, no intermediate stops, no truck dimension restrictions, no hazmat avoidance. If your load needs a truck legal route around low bridges or restricted roads, that routing lives inside FreightCanvas.
Why does this free tool use a single fuel price?
A single flat price keeps it fast and usable without an account. A real long haul crosses several states and diesel differs by more than a dollar a gallon between them, so a flat rate can be off by a meaningful margin. The FreightCanvas fuel planner pulls per state diesel averages and prices each refill where it actually happens.
Does this calculate how many fuel stops I need?
Not here. Stop counting needs tank capacity, a usable range buffer, and the ordered list of states the route passes through. The FreightCanvas route fuel estimator does that: it walks the HERE route geometry, works out where each refuel lands, applies that state average price, and totals the trip.
Is my data saved?
The fuel math runs entirely in your browser and nothing is stored. The optional distance lookup sends only the two place names you type to the mapping provider to return mileage.
Results are planning estimates. Actual diesel consumption varies with gross weight, terrain, speed, idle time, weather, and equipment. Confirm fuel surcharge terms with your broker or shipper before you rely on them.