Your tax-free
stipend, by ZIP.

Stipend 101

What does this stipend mean for your take-home?

Your travel nurse pay is split into two parts: a taxable W2 hourly wage (gets federal/state/SS/Medicare withheld) and a non-taxable stipend for housing + meals (no taxes withheld). The number above is the IRS-allowed maximum stipend an agency can pay you for that assignment ZIP — set by the GSA every fiscal year.

Estimate based on FY2026 GSA per diem rates. Not tax advice — your specific take-home depends on your filing status, deductions, and tax home situation. Consult a CPA familiar with travel nurses.

The Full Guide

What is the GSA per diem system?

"Per diem" is Latin for "per day." The GSA per diem rate is the maximum daily amount the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sets for federal travel in a given location — and it is the same ceiling travel nursing agencies use to decide how much housing and meal stipend they can pay you tax-free. It comes in two parts:

A few things worth knowing about how the tables work:

• Rates are set by locality — typically a key city and its surrounding county — not statewide. About 300 higher-cost areas get their own "non-standard area" rate.
• Anywhere without its own listed rate falls back to the standard CONUS rate (the base rate for the continental United States).
• Rates run on the federal fiscal year, October 1 through September 30, and new rates are usually published in mid-August. This tool uses the current FY2026 tables.

Source: U.S. General Services Administration per-diem tables — gsa.gov/travel/plan-a-trip/per-diem-rates. You can look up the exact lodging and M&IE rate for any county there, or just enter a ZIP in the tool above.

Housing Stipend 101

How travel nurse housing stipends work

Most travel nurses take the housing stipend (cash to find your own place) rather than agency-provided housing. The stipend is a weekly, tax-free reimbursement for the cost of living away from your permanent home. Two rules govern how big it can be:

1. The GSA cap. Your agency cannot pay more than the GSA lodging + M&IE ceiling for the assignment county tax-free. Anything above the cap is treated as taxable wage.
2. The bill rate. The number above is the legal maximum. Your actual stipend can be lower, because the agency has to fit your wage and stipend inside what the hospital pays. Many strong contracts still land at or near the GSA cap.

Because a stipend is a reimbursement allowance and not a receipts-based repayment, you keep whatever you do not spend — as long as you genuinely have a tax home and are duplicating housing costs (IRS Publication 463). Find a cheaper room than the GSA lodging cap and the difference is yours. To pressure-test a stipend against local rents, use the Housing by ZIP tool, then see which contracts hit the cap on the jobs board.

Under The Hood

How this calculator uses GSA rates

When you type a 5-digit assignment ZIP, the calculator looks up the GSA per-diem rate for that location and shows you the maximum tax-free stipend an agency could pay there. Step by step:

1. Your ZIP is matched to its city, county, and state.
2. The tool pulls the GSA lodging rate for that county (for your selected start month, since some areas are seasonal) and the county's M&IE rate.
3. If the location has no non-standard rate, it uses the standard CONUS fallback.
4. It converts the daily figures to a weekly amount (lodging × 7 + M&IE × 7) and multiplies by your contract length for the full-contract total.

The result is the IRS-allowed ceiling for that ZIP, not a promise of what any single contract pays. For the complete picture — stipend plus taxable wage minus federal, FICA, and state tax — run the numbers through the full pay calculator.

The Two Buckets

Stipend vs. taxable wage: what's the difference?

A travel nurse paycheck has two buckets, and the stipend is only one of them. Knowing which is which is the key to comparing offers honestly.

Because the stipend is tax-free, a dollar of stipend is worth more in your pocket than a dollar of wage. But it is a trade-off: a rock-bottom hourly wage shrinks your reported income, which can matter for mortgages, car loans, and future Social Security benefits. A healthy package balances a reasonable taxable wage with a strong stipend.

The Catch

When are travel nurse stipends actually tax-free?

Stipends are tax-free only if you are traveling away from a legitimate tax home. If you do not qualify, the IRS can reclassify the entire stipend as taxable income — and your real take-home drops sharply. Under IRS Publication 463, the core tests are:

Note: the common "50 miles from home" line is an agency rule of thumb, not an IRS law. The IRS test is whether you are far enough away that you need to stop for sleep or rest to do your job — not a fixed mileage. Not sure whether you qualify? Run the free Tax Home Checker before you count on a stipend being tax-free.

Source: IRS Publication 463, "Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses" — irs.gov/publications/p463. This is informational, not tax advice; consult a CPA who works with travel nurses.

Worked Example

Worked example: GSA stipend for a 13-week contract

Suppose a ZIP looks up to a GSA rate of $150/night lodging and $80/day M&IE. Here is how the calculator turns that into a weekly and full-contract maximum:

That $20,930 is the tax-free ceiling for the assignment — on top of your taxable hourly wage. A different ZIP with a higher lodging cap would produce a bigger number; a rural county on the standard CONUS rate would produce a smaller one. Enter your real ZIP above to see your actual figures, and remember this is the maximum, not a guaranteed offer.

Example uses invented round GSA figures for illustration. Real rates vary by county and month — look up yours on gsa.gov or in the tool above.