How to count your Schengen days, step by step

Short answer: Pick a date, go back 179 days, and count every day in that 180-day window on which you were in a Schengen country — counting both arrival and departure days. If the total is 90 or less you are within the rule; 90 minus the total is what you have left on that date.

General information, not legal advice. Last checked 15 Oct 2026; rules can change. Official source: European Commission — Short-stay calculator.

The method

1. Pick the date you want to check. Usually today, the day you plan to arrive, or each day of a planned trip. This is the last day of your 180-day window.
2. Find the start of the window. Go back 179 days from that date. The window is those 180 calendar days, including both the start and the date you are checking.
3. List every day you were in a Schengen country inside the window. Count the day you arrived and the day you left as full days. Days in the UK, Ireland, Cyprus or other non-Schengen countries do not count. A day you were in two Schengen countries counts once.
4. Add them up. The total must be 90 or less. 90 minus the total is how many days you have left on that date.
5. For a future trip, check every day of it. Old days drop out of the window as time passes, so repeat the count for each day of the planned stay. The trip is legal only if no day goes over 90.

A quick example

Today is 13 October 2026. You were in Spain 2 May – 10 Jun (40 days) and Italy 15 Jul – 4 Aug (21 days), and arrived in Portugal on 1 Oct.

• Window: 17 Apr – 13 Oct 2026 (13 Oct minus 179 days is 17 Apr).
• Spain: all 40 days are inside the window. Italy: all 21. Portugal so far: 1–13 Oct, 13 days.
• Total: 40 + 21 + 13 = 74 days used, 16 left today.

But 16 days left today does not mean you must leave in 16 days. From 29 October the May days start dropping out of the window, one a day, so staying on adds a day and removes a day. Counted day by day, the last day you could stay on this trip is 8 December 2026. This is the part that is easy to get wrong by hand.

Common mistakes

• Counting nights instead of days. A Friday-to-Sunday weekend is 3 days.
• Counting per country. It is one total for all 29 countries.
• Counting days in the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, the Western Balkans or Turkey. Those do not count.
• Counting overlapping trips twice. If you left France and entered Spain on the same day, that is one day.
• Assuming the count resets on a fixed date. It never does; it rolls.

Official tools

The EU's EES stay checker uses your passport number and the EES records. It does not include time in Schengen that began before 10 April 2026, so for older trips you still need your own record. The European Commission also publishes a short-stay calculator. This site uses the same counting method and works offline with your own list of trips.

Let the calculator do the counting