How does the daily cap work?

Each day is charged at the hourly rate but never more than the daily maximum. The calculator applies the cap per day, so a long stay is billed at the cap rather than runaway hourly charges.

When is a weekly pass worth it?

The tool only considers a weekly pass once the stay is at least seven full days, then compares it against the daily-cap total and picks whichever is cheaper.

How does it count days and hours?

It converts your stay into total hours (days × 24 + extra hours), then breaks that into full days plus a remaining-hours block, charging each day and the leftover hours separately under each pricing method.

Which three pricing methods does it compare?

Pure hourly billing with no cap, daily-capped billing where each day is the lesser of hourly cost and the daily maximum, and a weekly-pass option that buys whole weeks and charges any leftover days at the daily cap.

What if the car park has no daily maximum?

Leave the daily maximum at 0 and that day is simply billed at the full hourly rate with no cap, so the hourly and daily-cap methods agree.

Does it work in any currency?

Yes. Enter all rates in the same currency and the result comes back in that currency — the maths is identical whether you use pounds, dollars, euros or anything else.

What if a rate does not apply?

Set any rate you do not have to 0 and it will be ignored. All calculations run locally in your browser.

What is the Parking Cost Calculator?

Free parking cost calculator. Compare hourly billing, a daily maximum and a weekly pass to find the cheapest way to pay for your stay. Runs entirely in your browser. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Parking Cost Calculator

Name: Parking Cost Calculator
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Find the cheapest way to pay for parking

Car parks often price three ways at once — by the hour, with a daily maximum, and sometimes a weekly pass. Picking the wrong one can cost far more than it should. This calculator works out the total for each method over your exact stay and tells you which is cheapest, so you pay the lowest rate available.

How it works

The tool turns your stay into total hours, then prices it three ways:

total hours = days × 24 + extra hours
hourly      = total hours × hourly rate                (no cap)
daily cap   = each day billed at min(hours × hourly, daily max)
weekly      = floor(days/7) × weekly + leftover days at the daily cap

It then picks the smallest of the three. The weekly pass is only offered once the stay reaches a full seven days. Any rate left at 0 is treated as not available and skipped.

Example

A 3-day stay, hourly 3, daily max 18, weekly 90:

Hourly: 72 h × 3 = 216
Daily cap: 3 days × min(24×3, 18) = 3 × 18 = 54
Weekly: under 7 days, not offered
Cheapest: Daily cap, 54

Stay	Hourly	Daily cap	Weekly	Cheapest
3 days	216	54	—	Daily cap (54)
10 days	720	180	90 + 54 = 144	Weekly pass (144)

When each pricing method wins

Understanding which method wins in each scenario helps you plan before you arrive:

Pure hourly is only ever cheapest for very short stays — typically under a few hours, where the daily cap has not been reached. For stays over about 5–6 hours at most car parks, the daily cap already saves money over pure hourly.
Daily cap is usually cheapest for multi-day stays up to about a week. It is the default best-value option for overnight trips and weekend stays.
Weekly pass beats daily caps for stays of 8 or more days if the weekly rate is less than 7 times the daily cap. The breakeven is exactly weekly rate ÷ daily cap days — if that number is 6.5, the pass pays off from day 7 onward.

Practical tips

Some car parks charge the daily cap only after a minimum number of hours — arriving early and leaving past midnight might trigger two daily caps instead of one. Check whether the “day” resets at midnight or runs as a 24-hour window from entry.
Airport car parks often have different rates for the first 30 minutes (a “grace period” for pick-ups), for short stays, and for long stays. Enter the appropriate rate for your actual duration.
Pre-booking online almost always undercuts pay-on-exit rates at airport and city-centre car parks. Use this calculator to confirm the pre-book rate is genuinely better before committing.

Everything is calculated in your browser, in whatever currency you use.