The Schengen 90/180 rule: how to count your days
You can spend at most 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area. To check a date, count that day and the 179 before it, and add up every day you were in the area, including entry and exit days. If the total is 90 or less, you are within the limit.
Checked against official sources on 10 November 2026. Not legal advice.
What does the 90/180 rule say?
The Schengen Borders Code limits short stays to “no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay”.
- The 90 days cover all 29 Schengen countries together.
- The 180-day window has no fixed start. It moves forward daily as older days drop out.
Do entry and exit days count?
Yes. The Borders Code counts entry as the first day and exit as the last. Each counts in full, even if you land late at night or leave early in the morning. A day trip counts as one day.
How do you count your Schengen days?
- Write down the entry date and the exit date of every stay in the Schengen area in the last year.
- Pick the date to check: today, or a future day you plan to be there.
- Find the start of the window: 179 days before that date.
- For each stay, count the days inside the window, including the entry date and the exit date. Count each day once.
- Add them up. Your days left are 90 minus that total.
What does a worked example look like?
You check on 30 June 2026, and your trips are:
| Trip | Entry date | Exit date | Days in window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | 10 Dec 2025 | 15 Jan 2026 | 14 |
| Spring | 1 Mar 2026 | 31 Mar 2026 | 31 |
| Summer | 20 Jun 2026 | still there | 11 |
- The window runs from 2 January to 30 June 2026.
- Only the January part of the winter trip is inside it: 2 to 15 January, 14 days.
- The total is 56 days used, so 34 days left on 30 June.
Why is days left not the same as the leave-by date?
In the example you have 34 days left, but you can stay well past 3 August. While you stay, the January days drop out of the window one by one, so the count holds at 56 until 14 July and only rises after that. If you stay on without a break, the last day within the limit is 17 August 2026.
Your leave-by date depends on the window for each future day. The Schengen calculator works out the leave-by date for you. See how it compares with a spreadsheet and the EU’s tool in ways to count Schengen days.
How long do you have to stay out after 90 days?
Say you spend 1 January to 31 March 2026 in the area: 90 days in a row, the full limit. You can’t come back on 1 April, because every day of that stay is still inside the window. From 30 June you can. That day’s window starts on 2 January, and from then on one old day drops out for each new day you add. The Commission’s calculator manual puts it this way: an unbroken absence of 90 days allows a new stay of up to 90 days.
What are the common counting mistakes?
- Counting 90 days per country instead of across the whole area.
- Counting nights instead of days, or leaving out the entry or exit day.
- Using fixed half-years instead of a window that rolls forward every day.
- Counting days in the UK, Ireland or Cyprus.
- Forgetting a stay that began more than 180 days ago but ended inside the window.
Getting it wrong can mean an overstay. See what happens if you overstay.
Who does the rule apply to?
- Non-EU nationals on a short stay, with or without a visa, including visitors from the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
- Not citizens of EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.
- Not time spent under a residence permit or long-stay visa. See long stays and digital nomads.
- Some countries have older bilateral agreements that can add time in that country only. The EU’s own calculator does not count them, and neither does Tally.
Who checks the count?
Since 10 April 2026, the Entry/Exit System records your entries and exits at the external border and replaces passport stamps. Border guards decide how long you may stay. Any calculator, including the EU’s, is a planning aid and does not give you a right to stay.
Questions
Does leaving the Schengen area reset the count?
No. Leaving stops new days from adding up, but the days you already spent stay in the count until they are more than 180 days old.
What if I am in two Schengen countries on the same day?
That day counts once.
Does the rule apply if I need a visa?
Yes, and your visa can be stricter. A short-stay visa states how many days it allows and when it is valid. Check the visa sticker as well as the 90/180 count.
Does the EES count days from before 10 April 2026?
No. The EU says the remaining stay shown by the EES online tool does not reflect any time in the Schengen area that began before 10 April 2026. Keep your own record of those stays.