Wondering how much you’ll be paying for a rental car? Keep reading to know the lowest and average daily price of car rental in the US and abroad!
Ready to book? If you’re already convinced that renting a car is the right option for you, the next question that pops into your mind is how much am I going to pay for that?
How much does it cost to rent a car?
The price you’ll be paying for you car rental, of course, varies according to many factors, such as the date you’ll be picking up the car, the car itself, the rental company and many more.
Before we go into that in detail, here are some actual prices so you get your pockets ready!
Average cost to rent a car
To give you an idea of how much it costs to rent a car, we’ve selected some of the most popular car rental locations in the US and abroad so you can check the price difference.
Here, we’ve added the lowest and average price paid per day for every location. Please keep in mind that the prices listed as “lowest” will most likely be found for economy cars and the average is calculated between all car rental categories.
The prices you’ll be seeing below are taken directly from the Rentcars — you can do your own search with specific dates and locations here!
| US Location | Lowest daily rate | Average daily rate |
| Miami, FL | US$ 27.35 | US$ 53.47 |
| Los Angeles International Airports (LAX) | US$ 18.23 | US$ 37.11 |
| John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK), New York | US$ 35.84 | US$ 56.15 |
| Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) | US$ 15.27 | US$ 27.19 |
| Orlando, FL | US$ 38.99 | US$ 42.61 |
| Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport (ATL) | US$ 27.07 | US$ 35.20 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW) | US$ 24.54 | US$ 40.99 |
| Las Vegas, NV | US$ 27.63 | US$ 45.90 |
| Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport (FLL) | US$ 25.56 | US$ 32.49 |
| Seattle-Tacoma Airport (SEA) | US$ 31.75 | US$ 38.79 |
| World Location | Lowest daily rate | Average daily rate |
| Cancún, México | US$ 5.68 | US$ 15.79 |
| London, United Kingdom | US$ 25.98 | US$ 39.69 |
| Rome, Italy | US$ 33.44 | US$ 38.84 |
| Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) | US$ 19.80 | US$ 20.03 |
| Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) | US$ 27.27 | US$ 33.42 |
| Barcelona, Spain | US$ 16.38 | US$ 38 |
| Munich Airport (MUC) | US$ 24.82 | US$ 41.51 |
| Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) | US$ 7.26 | US$ 14.59 |
| Lisbon, Portugal | US$ 10.47 | US$ 25.91 |
| São Paulo, Brazil | US$ 8.06 | US$ 23.39 |
What influences the cost to rent a car?
Pick-up and drop-off dates
As we’ve mentioned before on this very blog, everything starts with your dates! Car rental rates are dynamic and changing all time so, generally speaking, the earlier you book, the better. If you can, avoiding holidays and high season will usually help you find cheaper rates as well.
Pick-up and drop-off location (or locations)
Despite being super convenient, renting at the airport is usually much more expensive — something to keep in mind the next time you book your rental! Also, if you’re planning on renting one-way (different pick-up and drop-off locations), that will also be more expensive as there is usually a fee for the rental company to the return the car to its original location.
How long until pick-up
To get the best price, we recommend renting a car as soon as you know the dates of pick-up and drop-off. As we’ve mentioned before, car rental rates are dynamic and change according to demand in the same way airline tickets do. To learn more about this, check out our blog post about how car rental dynamic pricing works.
How much you’ll drive
In car rental, there are two options: limited and unlimited mileage. Which one is the best? This is up to what you plan on doing. Going on a road trip with your friends? You probably wouldn’t want to worry about exceeding the miles, right? If you’re only running some errands around the city, limited mileage might be the best for you.
The limited and unlimited mileage availability varies from rental company to rental company and the car category. Standard models will have both options available, but some premium, luxury and exotic models may only be available to rent with limited mileage.
Car category
Rental companies sometimes have different names for car groups (Enterprise and Avis may refer to SUVs in a different way even though it’s the same car), but one thing’s is for sure: the bigger and fancier the car, the more you’ll be paying for it. And this is expected, right?
Just make sure that you chose the car that fits your needs better. If you have extra money and want to have a different driving experience, you can also take advantage of this time to rent a car you wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to drive!
Extra protection
If you want, you can add extra insurance to your reservation. Some prices you see around the internet have no insurance at all, others already include CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) or others. Most of the time, you’ll also see the option to include more protections, such as TPL (Third Party Liability) or EP (Extended Protection), for an extra amount per day.
Add-ons
You can also add optional items to your booking. The most common one is a child car seat or booster seat, but you can also add a GPS, the transponder for toll roads and more. These are charged by the day by rental companies.
Ready to book? Search below to compare the prices of more than 100 rental companies all around the world and start saving!