Every number on CostMyTrip is a planning estimate made from the inputs and assumptions below. None of them is a quote or live data. This page describes what the code actually does, so you can see where each figure comes from and change what does not fit your trip.
What each label means
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Your input | A value you typed (fuel price, mileage, fare, rooms, booked amount…). The calculator uses it as given. |
| Planning assumption / estimate | A built-in CostMyTrip default (speeds, price bands, toll rate, child factors…). Not measured for your trip. |
| Indicative price (reference date) | A default fuel price with the date it refers to. Not a live price and not tied to a published provider record. |
| Routing snapshot | A saved OpenStreetMap/OSRM route used for comparison and road references, dated on each page. |
| Externally verified record | Data checked against a named official source with a date. CostMyTrip has none yet for tolls, fares or road access. |
| Live / cached forecast | Weather fetched from MET Norway when you press the button, or a copy saved in your browser for a short time. |
| Unavailable / unverified | We do not have the data, or have not checked it. The page says so instead of guessing. |
Distance
- Known pairs: for about 157 place pairs CostMyTrip uses a fixed road distance from its own table (most built with the earlier v27 model, where the source of each figure is not separately documented; the seven Kashmir pairs added in v59 are rounded OSRM routing snapshots checked 8 Oct 2026).
- Everything else: straight-line (great-circle) distance between the two places × 1.25 on plains, × 1.45 in hills or × 1.65 in mountains, to allow for road curvature. Terrain comes from a short list of hill and mountain places.
- Routing snapshot: route guides also show the distance of a saved OSRM route for comparison. The calculator keeps its own distance; it does not switch to the snapshot.
- Multi-stop trips add each leg. A return trip doubles the one-way distance.
Travel time
Times never feed into any cost. For your own vehicle or a cab, CostMyTrip shows up to three figures, all from the same assumptions:
| Figure | How it is worked out | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Moving time | Distance ÷ assumed average speed (car 60, van/SUV 55, cab 55, bike 40 km/h) × terrain factor (hills 0.85, mountains 0.7 of that speed) | Planner journey summary, Trip Card, copied summary |
| Planning range | Low = moving time + 20 min for city exit/entry. High = low + 15% for traffic + 15 min for every 3 full hours of low. | Route guides (“practical drive”), planner journey summary, Trip Card |
| Itinerary schedule | Moving time + your pace's breaks (Relaxed: 20 min per 1.5 h of driving; Balanced: 15 min per 2 h; Packed: 12 min per 3 h). Used to place the drive in the day. | Itinerary day cards (“including breaks”) |
Example, Kochi → Munnar (130 km, hill route, car): moving time about 2 h 33 min; planning range 2.9–3.3 h; the Balanced itinerary schedules about 2 h 48 min including breaks. These are CostMyTrip assumptions, not measured or navigation-app times. Buses use an assumed 42 km/h moving time without a range. Train and flight journey times are not estimated.
Fuel and charging
- Fuel cost = distance ÷ effective mileage × price. Effective mileage is your mileage × 0.85 on hill legs and × 0.75 on mountain legs; on plains it is the mileage you entered.
- Default mileage: car 15 km/l petrol, 18 diesel, 20 km/kg CNG, 6 km/kWh EV; van/SUV 10, 13, 15 and 4.5; bike 45 km/l petrol or 45 km/kWh electric. Edit them to match your vehicle.
- Default petrol price: the average of CostMyTrip's indicative state prices for the states on your route, reference date 17 September 2026. Diesel = 0.91 × that petrol price. CNG ₹75/kg and EV ₹8/kWh are nationwide assumptions. These defaults are not linked to a reproducible published price list; see Data sources.
- When a route page hands a trip to the planner, the route page's price is carried over unchanged and labelled “route-page estimate”; it is labelled “your input” only if you edited it.
- EV trips also show an estimated number of fast-charge stops (distance ÷ 80% of your range). CostMyTrip does not know where CNG or charging stations are or whether they work.
Toll allowance
CostMyTrip has no verified toll-plaza records, so tolls are an editable allowance, never a FASTag quote: distance × ₹/km (default ₹2) × a terrain factor of 1 on plains, 0.5 on hill legs and 0.3 on mountain legs. No return discount or annual pass is assumed. Bikes default to ₹0. Where a page mentions a third-party toll figure, it is shown separately with its source and date; it never changes the calculator. Check the NHAI Toll Information System ↗.
Totals labelled “fuel + toll allowance” on route guides are driving costs only. They do not include stay, food, activities or anything else.
Cab with driver
Billed km = the larger of the trip distance (doubled for a return trip) and the minimum km per day × days (default 250 km/day). Fare = billed km × rate (default ₹14/km). Toll = billed km × toll rate (default ₹2/km, no terrain factor). Driver allowance = ₹400 × days. State entry = ₹300 for each state border crossed between selected places (both ways on a return trip). All five are editable; operators' actual rules differ.
Bus, train and flight
- Bus fare per person = road distance × a rate by class (₹0.35–1.40/km). Train fare = road distance × a rate by class (sleeper ₹0.5, 3AC ₹1.4, 2AC ₹2.2 per km). These are planning rates scaled from road distance, not published fares.
- Flight fare per adult = a band by road distance (₹3,500 under 500 km up to ₹12,000 over 2,500 km), × 1.2–1.3 in year-end, summer-holiday and festive periods.
- Getting to and from stations and airports is not included in these fares. Stations and airports shown are catalogue options, not reviewed recommendations.
Children and infants
Planning heuristics, not operator policies: children 5–12 count as half an adult for bus and train fares and food, 75% for flights, and as a full person for activities; the calculator assigns ₹0 for under-5 bus/train fares and food, and 10% of the adult flight estimate. This does not mean that operators provide free travel or meals. Charges can depend on age, reserved seats or berths, meals and the operator’s terms. Check the actual quote. Use the full transport/stay override, room count and food allowance to include costs that these defaults omit.
Stay
- Nights = days − 1. Days are spread across your stops (each destination gets at least one day where possible; extra days go first to the final destination), and nights are counted per stop.
- Rooms = the larger of ⌈adults ÷ 2⌉ and ⌈(adults + children) ÷ 3⌉, minimum 1. The default formula does not add a room for an infant; the hotel’s occupancy and extra-bed rules may require you to change it. You can override the room count.
- Price per room-night by comfort level and city size: big cities ₹1,800 / 3,500 / 7,000, mid-size ₹1,200 / 2,500 / 5,000, small towns ₹800 / 1,800 / 3,500 (budget / mid-range / premium). You can set a comfort level per stop.
- Season factors apply to a few destinations on the dates of your trip (for example Goa over Christmas–New Year ×2.0, monsoon ×0.55; Leh in summer ×1.25). They are shown in the assumptions when they apply. A price you enter replaces the band and the season factor.
Food, activities, rental and extras
- Food per adult per day: ₹350 / 700 / 1,400 (street & local / mix / restaurants), × 1.15 in big cities and × 0.85 in small towns; children at half, with ₹0 assigned to infants as a planning assumption rather than a provider policy. A per-day amount you enter replaces it.
- Activities: your per-person daily amount × days × (adults + children).
- Local rental (only with bus, train or flight): ₹500/day for a scooter or ₹2,000/day for a car, × rental days.
- Shopping & misc: a percentage buffer (default 8%) on the subtotal. Packages and guides you add from Trip check are not added to the budget.
- Already booked: if you enter what you paid for transport or stay, that amount replaces the estimate for that part.
Per person
Per-person figures divide the total by adults + children. Infants are not in the divisor.
Planning range
The range applies fixed percentages to each part of the base estimate, then the same shopping buffer:
| Part | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Transport — own vehicle or cab | −10% | +10% |
| Transport — bus, train or flight | −15% | +15% |
| Stay | −20% | +20% |
| Food | −12% | +12% |
| Activities | −20% | +20% |
| Local rental | −10% | +10% |
| Anything you marked as already booked | 0% | 0% |
It is not a probability or confidence interval, and CostMyTrip has not measured how often real trips fall inside it. We are now collecting estimate-versus-actual feedback from real trips to check this; you can send yours to contact@costmytrip.in. Until enough trips are in, treat every range as a planning estimate. Actual spending may fall outside this range.
Route, road references and stops
Road references come from a saved OSRM / OpenStreetMap routing snapshot, dated on each page (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Towns are listed with their distance from the mapped road; “via” is used only for towns within about 6 km of it. In the planner, suggested stops are regional suggestions from straight-line geometry, not places checked against your road; adding one recalculates the route through it. “Selected places are in…” lists the states of the places you chose — it is not a list of states the road passes through.
Weather
Forecasts load only when you press the weather button, from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). A fresh response is labelled “Live source”; a saved one is labelled “Cached forecast” and is kept for at most six hours. If neither is available the page says “Weather unavailable”. Check IMD for official warnings.
Places, food and itinerary ideas
Bus operators, stations, airports, attractions, restaurants and seasons come from the CostMyTrip destination and transport catalogue (v27). They are planning ideas: services, fares, opening hours and whether a restaurant is still open are not verified, so confirm them before booking.
What we never do
We do not invent facilities, phone numbers, guides, packages, prices or reviews. If we do not have verified data for something, the page says so.
Common questions
Are the toll charges live?
No. CostMyTrip has no verified toll-plaza records for its routes, so every page shows an editable planning allowance instead of a FASTag quote. Check the NHAI Toll Information System for current rates.
Is traffic or road closure data live?
No live traffic or road-closure feed is connected. Distances and times are planning estimates; check live navigation and local advisories before you leave.
Can I plan with CNG or an EV?
Yes. The calculator accepts CNG mileage in km/kg and EV consumption in km/kWh. It does not confirm filling or charging availability on a route, so check stations and a backup option before you travel.
Why do some routes have two pages?
Each corridor has a page for each direction. Where one direction is the main guide, the return page points search engines to it with a canonical link, but both pages remain available for planning.
Is the planning range a probability?
No. It applies fixed percentages to each part of the base estimate (listed on this page). It is not a statistical confidence interval, and actual spending can fall outside it.
More about the limits of these estimates is in our disclaimer. Found something wrong? Report an error.