Schengen 90/180 Tracker

What it does

The Schengen 90/180 rule is one of the most frequently-violated visa rules in international travel — and one of the most serious to violate. Citizens of visa-exempt countries (US, Canada, Australia, UK, Japan, etc.) can stay in the 27 Schengen-zone countries (most of the EU plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) for a maximum of 90 days within any rolling 180-day window. The critical word is “rolling” — not calendar-quarterly. So if you spent 80 days in Schengen 100 days ago, you have only 10 days available right now (because in the last 180 days, 80 are already used). Three months later (after the 80 days have rolled out of the 180-day window), you'd have 90 days available again.

The tracker takes your history of Schengen stays (date entered + date exited for each trip) plus any planned upcoming trip, and calculates: total days in the last 180-day window, remaining days available today, whether your planned trip would push you over 90, and the earliest date you could re-enter for a fresh 90-day stretch. The math is fiddly to do by hand because the window slides daily — what was “3 months ago” rolls out of the window one day at a time. Travelers who mis-calculate routinely overstay by a week or two without realizing it.

Consequences of overstaying: minor overstays (1-3 days) usually result in a warning at exit border control. Larger overstays (a week or more) trigger fines (€500-1,200 typical), deportation, entry bans (1-5 years from re-entering Schengen), and a SIS (Schengen Information System) flag that affects future visa applications worldwide. Border officers have considerable discretion — they may waive small overstays for visible-emergency reasons, or hammer larger ones with the maximum penalty. The rule applies to each Schengen-zone trip summed together (not 90 days per country — 90 days total across the zone). Croatia joined Schengen in January 2023; Romania and Bulgaria joined March 2024.

How to use it

1. Enter each prior Schengen stay: entry date and exit date.
2. Optionally enter a planned future trip date range.
3. The tool calculates days used in the rolling 180-day window.
4. Read pass/fail for the planned trip and the remaining days available.
5. If failing, see the earliest date you could enter for a fresh stay.

When to use this tool

• Planning a return trip to Europe after recent visits.
• Digital nomads spending time across multiple Schengen countries with frequent transit.
• Working out whether a long-planned trip fits within visa-free allowance.
• Checking compliance after multiple short trips you've lost track of.
• Calculating earliest re-entry date after a recent long stay.

When not to use it

• If you have a Schengen residency permit or long-stay visa — those have separate rules.
• If you're a Schengen-area citizen — no limit on your own zone.
• Determining specific country visa requirements (some Schengen countries have additional rules for US/UK citizens).
• Brexit-era UK travelers — same 90/180 rule applies but UK is no longer in Schengen, so transits via UK may complicate counting.

Common use cases

• Quick use during a typical workday
• Pre-decision sanity-check on inputs and outputs
• Educational use — demonstrating the underlying concept
• Onboarding a colleague who needs the same calculation/conversion