Visa Calculator 2026: Every Free Tool in One Place

What a Visa Calculator Actually Is

A visa calculator is a free online tool that estimates one number you need for a visa application: the government fee, the realistic processing timeline, your points score, the days remaining under a stay limit, or whether you need a visa at all. Travellers search for the phrase because every application is, underneath the paperwork, a small arithmetic problem — how much money, how many days, how many points, how much time — and getting any of those numbers wrong is one of the commonest reasons applications stall or fail.

VisaGrade publishes nine calculators, each answering exactly one of those questions. They are designed to be used in sequence, mirroring the order of a real application: first establish whether you need a visa, then what it costs, then when to apply, then the route-specific maths, and finally the document bundle that carries the numbers to the consulate. Used together, the nine tools replace the three most expensive applicant habits — guessing fees from outdated blog posts, applying too late for interview-heavy routes, and miscounting Schengen days by hand. Our full tools page lists every interactive utility on the site, and the trackers page follows your file after submission.

Three properties define every calculator on this page. First, each one is free with no account and no download; the tools estimate fees you will still pay to governments, but the estimation itself costs nothing. Second, each one is anchored to 2026 figures — the US $185 MRV fee plus the refundable $250 visa integrity fee, the UK £135 Standard Visitor fee after the April 2026 uplift, the €90 Schengen fee, Canada's CAD 100 visitor fee, Australia's AUD 250 subclass 600 fee — and each tool page notes where to confirm the live figure before paying. Third, none of them predicts approval; they eliminate the quantifiable failure modes (under-budgeting, missed deadlines, overstays, wrong photos, incomplete bundles) so the officer judges your case on its merits instead of its arithmetic. If you are new to the whole process, read the tourist visa complete guide alongside this page.

The 9 Calculators, One by One

1. Visa eligibility checker — do I need a visa at all?

What it calculates: your entry category for any passport–destination pair — visa-free entry, visa on arrival, eVisa, ETA/eTA/ESTA, or a full visa — across 195+ countries. Who needs it: literally every traveller, because travellers waste the most money at this step: buying a full visa where an ETA would do, or boarding a plane assuming visa-free access that ended years ago. A US passport holder visiting London needs the £20 UK ETA, not a visa; an Indian passport holder visiting Paris needs a full Schengen Type C visa. The checker resolves that in under a minute. Start here: visa eligibility checker.

2. Visa fee calculator — what will it cost?

What it calculates: the government fee for 195+ countries across tourist, work and student categories, including the add-ons applicants forget: biometrics (CAD 85 for Canada), visa-centre service fees (€30–50 for Schengen), priority upgrades (roughly £500–£1,000 for the UK), and the US $750 expedited-appointment pilot running July–December 2026. Who needs it: anyone budgeting a trip, and especially families, because fees multiply per person — a family of four to the UK pays four £135 fees, and Canada caps family applications at CAD 500 for five or more. Budget here: visa fee calculator. Cross-check totals against the country tables in the tourist visa guide.

3. Visa timeline calculator — when must I apply?

What it calculates: your latest safe application date, worked backwards from departure using official standards plus realistic 2026 delays — 7.5 to 12 months for a US B1/B2 interview in India, 4–8 weeks for France and Italy Schengen files in summer, 30–90 days for Canada TRVs. Who needs it: anyone with fixed travel dates, and urgently anyone targeting the USA, where the appointment queue, not the decision, is the constraint. The tool returns a week-by-week preparation schedule so document gathering, not the consulate, sets your pace. Schedule here: visa timeline calculator, then compare live waits on the processing times tracker and the US interview wait times page.

4. CRS points estimator — can I get Canada PR?

What it calculates: your Comprehensive Ranking System score out of 1,200 — age, education, language test results, Canadian work experience, spouse factors, plus bonus points for a provincial nomination (600 points, effectively a guaranteed invitation) or a valid job offer. Who needs it: Express Entry candidates, because the gap between eligibility and invitation is the whole game: the 65-point-style minimum only enters the pool, while general draws in 2026 have often required 520+ points. The estimator shows which lever — retaking IELTS, a one-year Canadian credential, a PNP-aligned profile — moves your score cheapest. Estimate here: Canada CRS points estimator, with strategy in the Canada PR guide and the Canada visa guide.

5. Schengen 90/180 calculator — how many days do I have left?

What it calculates: your remaining authorised stay under the 90-days-in-any-180-day-period rule, applied as a rolling window across all 29 Schengen states. Who needs it: multi-trip Europe travellers, cross-border workers, and anyone combining Schengen countries in one itinerary — because days spent in France consume the allowance for Germany, Italy and Spain simultaneously, and manual counting across overlapping trips is where overstays are born. Enter every entry and exit date; the tool counts backwards 180 days from any date and returns days used and days remaining. Count here: Schengen 90/180 calculator, with the full rule explained in the Schengen visa guide and the US-passport view in the Schengen guide for US citizens.

6. Flight itinerary generator — what do I show the consulate?

What it calculates: nothing monetary — it generates a holdable flight reservation and day-by-day itinerary document in the format consulates expect. Who needs it: every applicant whose checklist demands "proof of travel" but whose embassy warns against buying non-refundable tickets before approval. That contradiction is deliberate: officers want evidence of planning, not evidence of spending. The generator produces the reservation without the fare risk. Generate here: flight itinerary generator.

7. Visa photo size guide — will my pictures be accepted?

What it calculates: the exact photo specification per destination — dimensions, background, head height, recency — because the US (2×2 inches), Schengen (35×45 mm), India, Canada and Australia each define "correct" differently, and photo rejection is among the commonest avoidable delays. Who needs it: anyone printing or uploading pictures, especially families submitting batches where one wrong-sized set holds up every application. Check here: visa photo size guide before you visit the photo booth.

8. Visa document checklist — what goes in the folder?

What it calculates: your personalised document list from your destination and category — passport validity, forms (including the DS-160 for the USA), funds evidence, employment letters, cover letter, insurance, ties evidence and prior visas. Who needs it: first-time applicants above all, because incomplete documentation is the single largest refusal cluster after weak ties: missing insurance certificates for Schengen (€30,000 minimum), unsigned forms, mismatched names across documents. Build it here: visa document checklist, with destination versions including the US visitor checklist, the UK visitor checklist, the Schengen checklist and the Canada visitor checklist.

9. ETA checker — do I need a digital authorisation instead?

What it calculates: whether your trip needs an ETA-style pre-screening — US ESTA ($40.27), UK ETA (£20, enforced since February 2026), Canada eTA (CAD 7), Australia ETA (AUD 20), New Zealand NZeTA — plus validity and decision speed. Who needs it: passport holders from visa-waiver countries, who increasingly need authorisation even for "visa-free" trips: since 25 February 2026 carriers must refuse boarding to travellers without a UK ETA, and Schengen's €20 ETIAS, while still not live, will eventually add the same requirement for Europe. Check here: ETA checker, with the concepts untangled in ETA vs visa 2026, the ESTA guide, the UK ETA for US citizens guide and the ETIAS for US citizens page.

Which Calculator Do I Need?

Match your situation to the row, then click through. Most applicants need three tools; complex routes need five or six.

Comparison Table: All Tools at a Glance

A Worked Example: Using All Nine in Order

Take a concrete case: an Indian passport holder planning a two-week France–Italy trip in December 2026, plus a possible US conference in 2027. The sequence runs like this. Step 1: the eligibility checker confirms a Schengen Type C visa for Europe and a B1/B2 for the USA — two separate tracks. Step 2: the fee calculator returns €90 plus a €30–50 centre fee for Schengen, and $185 plus the refundable $250 integrity fee for the USA, so the combined budget is known before a single form is opened. Step 3: the timeline calculator works backwards from December: apply for Schengen 6–8 weeks ahead (France and Italy run slow in peak season), and start the US track immediately given 7.5–12-month interview waits. Step 4: the 90/180 calculator logs the planned 14 days and confirms 76 remain, leaving headroom for a spring trip. Step 5: the itinerary generator produces the holdable booking; step 6: the photo guide gives the 35×45 mm Schengen spec; step 7: the document checklist assembles the folder including the €30,000 insurance certificate. The CRS estimator and ETA checker sit out this trip — and that is the point: the hub tells you which tools to skip as well as which to use. Track both applications afterwards on the trackers page, and browse the applications hub for the underlying forms.

The same logic scales down: a US passport holder weekend-hopping to London needs exactly one tool, the ETA checker (£20 ETA, minutes to approve), while a skilled worker weighing Canada PR needs the CRS estimator plus the fee and timeline tools. Start with eligibility, end with documents, and skip everything in between that your route does not require.

What Calculators Cannot Do

Four honest limits. They cannot predict approval. Officers weigh ties, funds consistency, purpose credibility and history — qualitative judgments no arithmetic reproduces. They cannot replace official sources. Fees move every April in the UK and every July in Australia; use tool outputs as baselines and confirm on the payment page. They cannot file for you. The DS-160, the UK online form, IRCC accounts and ImmiAccount still require your own careful session — see the DS-160 guide for the hardest form of the set. They cannot fix a weak case. If ties are thin or funds unexplained, the correct response is stronger evidence and a later application, not a different calculator. For the refusal playbook, the tourist visa guide documents every common ground and its fix.

Frequently Asked Questions