How to calculate travel time
Travel time is distance divided by average speed. This travel time calculator takes a distance in kilometers and an average speed in km/h, works out the driving time, and then adds any rest-stop minutes you enter to give a total trip time. Both results are shown in hours and minutes, rounded to the nearest minute.
The formula it uses:
Driving time (minutes) = distance (km) ÷ average speed (km/h) × 60
Total trip time = driving time (rounded to the nearest minute) + rest stop minutes
Distance and speed must be greater than zero. Rest stop time is optional, defaults to 0, and can't be negative.
Worked examples
| Distance | Average speed | Rest stops | Driving time | Total trip time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 km | 80 km/h | none | 3h 45m | 3h 45m |
| 540 km | 90 km/h | 45 min | 6h 00m | 6h 45m |
| 100 km | 70 km/h | none | 1h 26m | 1h 26m |
| 1,000 km | 85 km/h | 90 min | 11h 46m | 13h 16m |
The third row shows the rounding. 100 ÷ 70 = 1.4286 hours, which is 85.71 minutes. That rounds to 86 minutes, displayed as 1h 26m.
The last row is a full day's drive. 1,000 ÷ 85 × 60 = 705.88 minutes of driving, rounded to 11h 46m, and the 90 minutes of breaks bring it to 13h 16m.
Choosing a realistic average speed
The answer depends almost entirely on the speed you enter, and the most common mistake is typing the speed limit. Your average over a whole trip includes every slow section: leaving town, junctions, traffic lights, congestion and roadworks. A route on a 110 or 120 km/h motorway can still average well below that once those are counted.
Some ways to get a better figure:
- Use a past trip. Divide the distance of a similar drive by the time it took, excluding breaks.
- Split mixed routes. Run the calculator once for the motorway part and once for the town part, then add the two driving times.
- Lower it for conditions. Night driving, rain, snow, holiday traffic and towing all reduce the average.
Planning rest stops
The rest-stop field is there because breaks make a real difference to arrival time on long drives. Many road-safety bodies advise stopping regularly on long journeys to manage tiredness. The UK's Highway Code, rule 91, for example, recommends a break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving. If you follow that on the 1,000 km trip above, that's five breaks, or at least 75 minutes, before meals or fuel stops.
Professional drivers of trucks and buses work under legal driving-hour limits that are stricter and vary by country, so check the rules that apply to you rather than relying on this estimate.
Miles, mph and other units
The input labels are kilometers and km/h, but the calculator divides one by the other, so any matching pair works. Enter 200 in the distance box and 50 in the speed box and you get 4 hours whether those are kilometers and km/h or miles and mph. Mixing them (miles with km/h) gives a wrong answer. If your figures are in different units, the speed converter and length converter will line them up.
What it doesn't include
- Arrival clock time. It returns a duration. Add it to your departure time yourself, and use the time zone converter if you cross zones.
- Traffic forecasts. There's no live traffic or route data, only the average speed you supply.
- Fuel stops. Add them to the rest-stop minutes.
For the cost of the same drive, use the fuel cost calculator with the same distance.
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