Schengen 90/180 day calculator: how to count it yourself, with a worked example

The sum, in three steps

1. Pick the date you want to test: today, or the last day of a trip you are planning.

2. Look at the 180 days up to and including that date, so the date itself and the 179 days before it.

3. Count the days in that window that you spent anywhere in the Schengen area. The entry day and the exit day both count in full: the Schengen Borders Code (Article 6(2)) treats the date of entry as the first day of stay and the date of exit as the last. The total must be 90 or fewer.

The European Commission publishes an official short-stay calculator that does the same sum; it is linked from its Schengen border-crossing page below.

A worked example

Sam, a UK passport holder, has two earlier trips. The first is 12 January to 10 February 2026 in France: 30 days. The second is 6 April to 20 May 2026 in Spain: 45 days. The two trips are 75 days in total.

Test date 10 July 2026. The window is 12 January to 10 July, which contains both trips, so 75 days are used and 15 remain. A plan to arrive in Italy on 10 July and stay for 30 days looks impossible at first glance.

It is not, because the window moves. From 11 July the January days start to fall out, one a day. Stay from 10 July to 23 August (45 days) and the window on 23 August runs from 25 February to 23 August. It holds the 45 days in Spain and the 45 days in Italy: exactly 90. Stay one more day, to 24 August, and the count reaches 91. That is an overstay on that date.

Staymark's tracker gives the same answers for these dates: 75 used on 10 July before the Italy trip is entered, 90 on 23 August, 91 on 24 August.

Why the limiting day is the last day

When you plan a trip, the day that decides it is usually the last one, because by then the trip itself fills most of the window. Test the end date, not the start date. A start date with plenty of allowance left tells you nothing about the end of a long trip.

The mistakes that skew the count

• Counting nights instead of days. Schengen counts days present, so arriving Friday and leaving Sunday is three days, not two.

• Treating 1 January as a reset. There is no reset; every day simply drops out 180 days after it was spent.

• Counting per country. All Schengen countries share one 90.

• Counting Ireland or Cyprus. Neither is in the Schengen area, so days there do not use the allowance.

• Forgetting a short hop. A day trip to a Schengen country from outside the area is a full day.

Checking it automatically

The free Staymark tracker runs this check across every window as you enter trips, forecasts the first date you would breach, and tells you the latest day you can stay on a planned trip. Your trips stay in your browser unless you choose to sign in. The EU's Entry/Exit System now records entries and exits at the border, so a record of your own days is worth keeping to compare against it.

Questions

How do I calculate the Schengen 90/180 rule?

For any date, count the days you spent in the Schengen area in the 180 days up to and including that date. The total must not exceed 90.

Does the day I arrive count?

Yes. The day of entry and the day of exit both count as full days (Schengen Borders Code, Article 6(2)).

Is there an official Schengen calculator?

Yes. The European Commission publishes a short-stay calculator, linked from its Schengen border-crossing page.

Sources

Staymark counts days against published rules. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice; rules change, so check the official sources above before you travel.