U Haul Mileage Cost Calculator
The advertised $19.95 truck is never $19.95, and most of the gap is mileage. U-Haul charges by the mile on top of the daily rate, and you buy the fuel too. The calculator below isolates that mileage slice: pick a truck to fill in a typical per-mile rate and MPG, enter your miles and any included miles, and get the mileage charge, the fuel cost, and the combined travel cost.
This tool isolates mileage and fuel only. It does not add the daily rental rate, equipment, protection, the environmental fee, or taxes. For the full rental build-up, use the U-Haul cost calculator. Calculator Zilo is not affiliated with U-Haul; rates shown are typical figures, and your location’s quote is the number that matters.
Quick Answer
A 15-foot truck driving 250 miles at $0.99 per mile, getting 10 MPG with gas at $3.50 per gallon, costs $335.00 in mileage plus fuel: $247.50 of mileage plus $87.50 of fuel. If a one-way quote already included 100 of those miles, only 150 miles would be charged, so the mileage line falls to $148.50 and the total falls to $236.00, while fuel stays at $87.50 because you still burn fuel on every mile. Those figures are pre-filled in the calculator above.
Key takeaways
- Mileage is charged on billable miles only: total miles minus included miles, floored at zero. Fuel is charged on every mile driven, including included miles.
- In-town rentals charge per mile for every mile. One-way rentals bundle a mileage allowance into a flat trip price, and only the overage is charged per mile.
- The daily rate, equipment, protection, environmental fee, and taxes are outside this tool. Add them with the full U-Haul cost calculator for a complete quote.
- Preset MPG figures are ideal-condition ratings. A loaded truck on hills or at highway speed returns less, so a cautious estimate uses a lower MPG than the preset.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the U-Haul mileage cost calculator
- The mileage and fuel formulas
- Worked example: 250 miles in a 15-foot truck
- Typical per-mile rates and MPG by truck size
- In-town vs one-way: which pricing are you actually buying
- What competing calculators miss
- Cutting the mileage bill without cutting corners
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
How to use the U-Haul mileage cost calculator
Pick a truck, check the two numbers it fills in, type your trip, and calculate. The results stay hidden until you click Calculate.
- Pick your truck size. The 15-foot truck is pre-selected at $0.99 per mile and 10 MPG. Changing the truck rewrites the rate and MPG fields with that truck's typical figures.
- Overwrite the rate and MPG if your quote differs. Your location's per-mile rate beats any typical figure, and a loaded truck deserves a lower MPG than the preset.
- Enter total miles and, for one-way trips, included miles. For an in-town rental, leave included miles at 0 so every mile is charged.
- Enter the gas price and click Calculate. The result shows the combined total first, then the charged miles, the mileage line, and the fuel line, so you can see which half of the bill is doing the damage.
Three mistakes get a red message and no result: blank or negative total miles, a blank MPG or an MPG of zero or less, and a blank or negative gas price. Blank or negative entries in the rate and included-miles fields are treated differently: the tool silently treats them as $0, so check those two fields if a result looks too low. Reset restores the worked example (250 miles, 0 included miles, 15-foot truck, $3.50 gas) rather than blanking the form.
The mileage and fuel formulas
Two multiplications and one addition produce the whole answer. Charged miles are total miles minus included miles, never below zero. The mileage charge is charged miles times the per-mile rate. Fuel is total miles divided by MPG, times the gas price. The total is the sum of the two charges.
Mileage charge = charged miles × cost per mile
Fuel cost = (total miles ÷ MPG) × gas price
Total = mileage charge + fuel cost
The asymmetry between the two lines is deliberate and easy to miss. The mileage charge applies only to billable miles, but fuel is burned on every mile driven, including miles the one-way quote already covers. That is why adding 100 included miles to the worked example cuts the mileage line by $99.00 but leaves the $87.50 fuel line untouched. A calculator that applied the allowance to fuel too would understate the trip by the fuel cost of the included miles.
Worked example: 250 miles in a 15-foot truck
The worked example is pre-filled: 15-foot truck, $0.99 per mile, 250 miles, 0 included miles, 10 MPG, $3.50 gas. Clicking Calculate gives exactly the lines below, and you can re-run them by hand to check.
Now change only the included miles to 100 and calculate again. Charged miles drop to 150.0, the mileage line drops to $148.50, fuel stays at 25.0 gallons times $3.50 = $87.50, and the total becomes $236.00. The tool also adds a line noting that included miles covered 100.0 miles of the trip. That pair of runs is the fastest way to see whether a one-way allowance is actually saving you money or just moving the cost into the flat trip price.
Typical per-mile rates and MPG by truck size
Rates vary by market and season, so treat the table as a starting point and replace every figure with your quote. The preset in the tool sits inside each range, and the 26-foot preset MPG of 7 sits just below its published 8 to 10 MPG range, a cautious choice for a loaded truck.
| Truck | Typical per-mile range | Tool preset | Fuel cost on 250 miles at $3.50/gal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 ft truck | $0.79 to $0.99 | $0.99, 12 MPG | $72.92 (20.8 gal) |
| 15 ft truck | $0.89 to $1.09 | $0.99, 10 MPG | $87.50 (25.0 gal) |
| 20 ft truck | $0.89 to $1.29 | $1.09, 10 MPG | $87.50 (25.0 gal) |
| 26 ft truck | $0.99 to $1.39 | $1.19, 7 MPG | $125.00 (35.7 gal) |
Read the last column as the hidden cost of size. Moving from a 15-foot to a 26-foot truck on the same 250 miles adds $37.50 of fuel even before the higher per-mile rate, and the full mileage-plus-fuel gap is wider: $335.00 for the 15-foot truck against $422.50 for the 26-foot truck at its preset rate and MPG. The bigger truck only wins if it prevents a second trip, which would double the mileage and fuel outright. Check your real MPG with the MPG calculator after a first fill-up, and re-run this tool with the measured figure.
In-town vs one-way: which pricing are you actually buying
U-Haul sells two different products, and mixing them up is the most common estimating mistake. The table states the split plainly, drawing on U-Haul's own comparison of the two services.
| Feature | In-town rental | One-way rental |
|---|---|---|
| Return | Same location | Different city |
| Price shape | Daily rate plus per mile | Flat trip price with an included mileage allowance |
| Mileage in this tool | Included miles 0, every mile charged | Enter the allowance, only the overage is charged |
| Overage rate | The per-mile rate itself | About $1 per extra mile, per U-Haul's own guide |
| Fuel | You refuel to the pickup level | You refuel to the pickup level, on all miles driven |
One honest limit: this tool prices the mileage slice of a one-way trip, not the flat trip price itself. A one-way quote depends on route, date, and equipment availability, so get that number from U-Haul directly and use this tool only for the overage plus fuel. For a local move, pair this result with the daily rate and fees in the full cost calculator to get the bill you will actually see.
What competing calculators miss
Most rival mileage pages publish the same two formulas and a rate table, then make you read the table and type the numbers in by hand. A few go further with a full rental build-up, but then the mileage math disappears inside a bigger total and you cannot isolate it. The gaps that matter:
- Manual rate entry. Table-only pages give you the $0.79 to $1.39 range and leave the typing to you. Truck presets that fill in both the rate and the MPG remove the most common transcription slip, picking the right rate for the wrong truck.
- No included-miles field. Without it, a one-way renter either charges every mile (overstating the bill) or subtracts the allowance by hand before entering miles (which then understates fuel, since fuel must be charged on all miles). This tool keeps the two treatments separate, which is the whole point of the field.
- Stale gas prices. Several rival pages hard-code $3.50 or $3.80 as if it were a constant. Pump prices move weekly, and a $1 per gallon swing on a 250-mile trip in a 15-foot truck is $25.00. The preset here is only a starting value; type the price at your local pump.
- Missing scope warnings. Pages that label a mileage-plus-fuel figure as the total moving cost mislead anyone who has not yet added the daily rate, protection, and taxes. This page states the exclusion in the result box itself, not just in small print at the bottom.
- The gap this page fills: truck presets plus an included-miles overage field, fuel charged on all miles, and the exclusion stated where the result appears.
Cutting the mileage bill without cutting corners
Mileage is the one line you can shrink by planning rather than by haggling. Route first: map every stop in order before pickup, because backtracking on a 250-mile day at $0.99 per mile plus fuel costs about $1.34 per wasted mile in a 15-foot truck at $3.50 gas. Load once and load fully: a second trip doubles mileage and fuel, which dwarfs any saving from taking a smaller truck. Refuel before return: returning below the pickup level invites a service charge plus a penalty per-gallon rate on top of the pump price, and that penalty never appears in a mileage estimate. Finally, compare locations: per-mile rates vary by market, so if two pickup locations are equally convenient, run both quoted rates through this tool before reserving. For a monthly fuel view across all your driving, the gas cost per month calculator extends the same fuel math beyond moving day.
Frequently asked questions
On in-town rentals you pay a per-mile rate for every mile driven, on top of the daily base rate. On one-way rentals the quote includes a mileage allowance for your route, and only miles beyond the allowance are charged extra, usually around $1 each.
Roughly $0.79 to $1.39 per mile depending on truck size and market, with larger trucks at the higher end. The tool presets a typical rate per truck size, but your location's quote is the number that matters.
Yes. The mileage charge and fuel are separate: U-Haul bills per mile for the truck, and you return it with the same fuel level you received, so fuel cost is added on top of the mileage charge.
No. This tool isolates mileage and fuel only. For the full in-town cost including the daily rate, equipment, insurance, and the environmental fee, use the full U-Haul cost calculator.
About 12 MPG for the 10-foot truck, about 10 MPG for the 15-foot and 20-foot trucks, and 6 to 8 MPG for a loaded 26-foot truck. Real MPG drops with heavy loads, hills, and highway speed, so use a cautious figure for a loaded move.
Yes, for the mileage slice: enter your quote's included miles and the tool charges only the overage, plus fuel on all miles. For the flat trip price itself, get the quote from U-Haul directly, since one-way pricing depends on route, date, and equipment availability.
Charged miles fall to zero, so the mileage charge is $0, but fuel is still charged on every mile you actually drove. Unused included miles are not refunded as a credit in this tool, and U-Haul does not pay you back for miles you did not use.
That is how the original tool behaves, and it is preserved here: the Custom option carries a zero rate and zero MPG, and the preset only writes a field when its value is above zero, so both fields keep their previous values. Type your own rate and MPG over them after choosing Custom.
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References
- U-Haul. In-Town vs. One-Way Moving Service Costs: What is the Difference? (in-town daily plus per-mile pricing, one-way flat rate with included allowance, about $1 per extra mile, environmental fees). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U-Haul. Moving Truck Rentals for Every Move (truck sizes, tank capacities, and MPG ratings up to 12 MPG for the 10-foot truck, 10 MPG for 15-foot and 20-foot trucks, and 8 to 10 MPG for the 26-foot truck, rated for ideal conditions). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration retail price data, summarized in Retail Fuel Prices (weekly national regular gasoline average and regional breakdowns; use a current local price for an actual move). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Move.org. 2026 U-Haul Truck Rental Review (truck sizes, capacities, and published specifications used as a cross-check on the preset figures). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- MovingRated. U-Haul Review 2026: Rates, Hidden Fees, Verdict (in-town rate structure, per-mile fees of about $0.79 to $1.29, same-fuel-level return policy, environmental fee and taxes). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Go Born To Move. The True Cost of a U-Haul Move: Rental, Mileage, Fuel and Fees (local versus one-way pricing models and a worked local-move total used as a sanity check). Accessed October 24, 2026.