How to Look Up GSA Per Diem Rates by City (FY2027)

Published October 14, 2026

How do you look up the GSA per diem rate for your trip? Go to the GSA per diem lookup tool, pick FY2027, enter the state and city or ZIP code, and read the lodging cap and the meals and incidental expenses figure for your travel month. The whole lookup takes under a minute. The mistakes happen in what people read into the result.

Per diem has two parts, and the lookup shows both. Lodging is the maximum the government will reimburse for a hotel room, excluding taxes. M&IE covers meals and incidental expenses. For FY2027, which runs October 2026 through September 2027, the standard rate for places with no specific listing is $113 a night for lodging and $68 a day for M&IE, a combined $181 day. About 295 higher cost areas have their own rates, and those are the ones you need to look up.

How to look up the GSA per diem rate by city

The GSA tool asks for a fiscal year, a state, and a city or ZIP code. Set the fiscal year to 2027 for any travel from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. Enter the city where you will sleep, not the city where the meeting happens, because lodging is tied to where you stay. The results page shows a month-by-month lodging table and an M&IE breakdown with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and incidental amounts.

Three reading details trip people up. First, lodging rates change by month. Denver and Aurora list $227 a night for October 2026 and $170 for November. Booking the same hotel in the wrong month changes the cap by $57 a night. Second, the M&IE total is the full-day figure. On the first and last days of travel you get 75 percent of it. Third, rates are set by primary destination and county. A city that does not appear in the list falls back to the standard rate, unless it sits in a county with a listed rate, in which case the county rate applies.

ZIP code search helps when a destination straddles county lines. Type the ZIP of your hotel and the tool resolves the locality for you. If the result still shows the standard rate, check the county. The GSA site points you to the Census Geocoder for that step, which is a small extra errand that has saved more than one traveler from booking over the cap.

The seasonal swing, with real numbers

Seasonal swings are the biggest source of surprise. Aspen lists $419 a night for lodging in December through March, then drops to $217 for April. Chicago runs $238 in the spring and summer months and $148 in the winter. Las Vegas moves the other way, $173 in January through March and $120 in the spring and summer. The pattern follows local demand, and it means last year's rate for the same city can be wrong for this year's trip.

That is also why you should look up rates when you book, not when you file. A voucher built on a stale table gets questioned, and the fix is a fresh lookup and a corrected claim. The rates are public, the tool is free, and there is no reason to guess.

Two edge cases worth knowing. Travel to Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories uses separate tables, not the CONUS rates on the main lookup. And if your hotel costs more than the cap, the actual expense process can authorize a higher amount, but it needs approval in advance, not after the fact. Our earlier guide on hotel overages walks through that process.

Run the numbers for your trip: use our GSA per diem calculator to total lodging plus M&IE for your dates, including the 75 percent first and last days.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the official GSA per diem lookup?

On GSA.gov, under Travel, Per Diem Rates. It is free and needs no login. Enter the fiscal year, state, and city or ZIP code.

What is the FY2027 standard per diem rate?

$113 per night for lodging and $68 per day for M&IE, a combined $181 day, for locations with no specific rate.

Do I use the city where I work or where I sleep?

Where you sleep. Lodging is tied to the location of the hotel. M&IE follows the same locality.

What if my destination is not listed?

Use the standard rate, unless the city sits in a county with a listed rate. Check the county with the Census Geocoder linked from the GSA results page.