# Parking Fee Calculator

> Free parking fee calculator. Enter entry and exit times, the hourly rate, the daily maximum and grace minutes to estimate your parking cost, including overnight stays.

Estimate what you will pay for parking. Enter entry and exit times, the hourly rate, the daily cap and the free grace period, and this calculator splits your stay across calendar days, rounds each day up to the hour, and applies the cap.

*Interactive tool: enter your values at https://toollantern.win/parking-fee-calculator/ and results update instantly in your browser.*

## How the fee is calculated

First the calculator checks the free grace period: if your whole stay fits inside it, the fee is zero. Otherwise it splits your stay into per-calendar-day segments (cut at local midnight), rounds each day's minutes up to the next whole hour, multiplies by the hourly rate, and caps each day at the daily maximum. The total is the sum of the capped daily fees.

## Worked example

Entry **09:00**, exit **15:30**, rate **3**, daily cap **25**, grace **15 minutes**.

- Total stay = 6 h 30 m = 390 minutes. Billable = 390 - 15 = 375 minutes = 6 h 15 m.

- One day segment: 375 minutes rounds up to **7 hours**. 7 x 3 = 21.00, under the cap of 25.

- **Total fee = 21.00**.

## Daily caps and overnight stays

The daily maximum is applied separately to each calendar day, so a long overnight stay can trigger the cap twice, once for each day it touches. That matches how most garages bill: the meter resets at midnight even if you never moved the car.

## Grace periods and rounding

The grace period is a short free window at the start, typically 10 to 30 minutes for quick drop-offs. Partial hours always round up, so 61 minutes on one day bills as 2 hours. Each day is rounded and capped independently before the totals are summed.

## Frequently asked questions
### How does the daily cap work?

The cap is the most you can be charged for a single calendar day, no matter how many hours you parked that day. Each day's hours are rounded up, multiplied by the hourly rate, and then limited to the cap.

### What is the grace period?

The grace period is a short free window at the start of your stay. If your whole stay is shorter than the grace period, the fee is zero.

### How are overnight stays handled?

Overnight stays are split at each local midnight, and each calendar day is billed separately with its own rounding and cap. A stay from 20:00 to 08:00 counts as two day segments.

### How are partial hours rounded?

Each day's minutes are rounded up to the next whole hour, so 61 minutes bills as 2 hours and 121 minutes as 3 hours. Rounding happens per day before the cap is applied.

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Interactive version: https://toollantern.win/parking-fee-calculator/