Fuel-Per-Day Calculator

“How much fuel do we need?” gets asked at the trailhead, in the gear shop, and the night before a trip — and it usually gets answered with a shrug and an extra canister. This calculator replaces the shrug. Pick your fuel, your group, your days, and how much cooking a day actually holds, and it gives you fuel per day, the total for the trip, and what to carry to hold it: how many 100 g (the ~4 oz size) or 230 g (the 8 oz size) canisters, or which white-gas bottle. It is the calculator form of our full answer to how much stove fuel do I need per day? — same numbers, no arithmetic at the kitchen table.

Work out your fuel

The numbers behind it

Every fuel plan is the same multiplication: liters boiled, times fuel per liter, times people, times days — then adjusted for altitude and weather. The fuel-per-liter figures are makers’ published ratings, the same ones used across this site’s fuel pages. A typical upright canister stove runs about 14 grams per liter: MSR rates the PocketRocket 2 at about 16 liters boiled per 227 g canister, which works out to 14.2. An integrated system of the Jetboil Flash class runs about 10 grams per liter — Jetboil’s own rating of about 10 liters per 100 g canister — because its heat-exchanger cup keeps heat an open burner throws away. White gas is measured in fluid ounces instead of grams: MSR rates the WhisperLite at 1.5 liters boiled per 1 fl oz of white gas, so each liter costs about 0.67 fl oz.

Altitude: above 10,000 ft the calculator adds 22.5% — the middle of the roughly 20–25% more fuel per cook that the Peak Gear Guide fuel calculator publishes for cooking above 10,000 ft, where lower air pressure reduces canister output and food takes longer to cook through. Below 10,000 ft it adds nothing, because no source we trust puts a firm number on the smaller effect lower down.

Wind and cold: for canister fuel the calculator doubles the plan — the planning rule from our own fuel-per-day tables, where a solo day goes from about 28 g calm to about 55 g once wind and cold get a vote, because wind strips heat off the pot and a chilling canister loses pressure and stretches every boil. White gas does not lose pressure that way, so its cold setting adds 30% instead: the extra energy Peak Gear Guide puts on boiling a liter of water at 32°F rather than 70°F. Melting snow is a bigger bill than either setting covers — turning snow into boiling water costs about 1.8 times the fuel of boiling the same water from liquid, and a snow trip lands at roughly double to triple a summer trip’s fuel overall. If you are melting snow, run this calculator, then double the answer and round up.

One honesty note on white gas: the boil rating does not count priming. A liquid-fuel stove burns a splash of fuel just getting lit, every lighting, so published rules of thumb for white gas land higher than pure boil math — typically about 1.5 to 2.5 fl oz per person per day once priming and simmering are counted. This calculator shows the boil math; the bottle it recommends rounds up, and the priming splash is part of why.

Worked examples

A solo long weekend, canister. One person, four days, standard cooking on an upright stove, calm and below 10,000 ft: 2 liters a day at 14 grams per liter is 28 grams a day, 112 grams for the trip. That is one 230 g (8 oz) canister carried comfortably, or two 100 g canisters if the small one has to nest in the pot — and our Canister Fuel-Remaining Calculator will tell you whether the part-used can in the drawer already covers it.

Two people on white gas. Two people, four days, standard cooking: each liter costs about 0.67 fl oz, so the pair boil their way through about 2.7 fl oz a day, about 10.7 fl oz for the trip. An 11 fl oz bottle holds that on paper and nothing for priming — the 20 fl oz bottle is the one to carry.

The same weekend, above 10,000 ft. The solo trip at altitude burns 28 × 1.225, about 34 grams a day — 137 grams over four days. The canister choice does not change, but a trip planned to the gram at sea level runs out on the last night up high. That gap is the whole reason the altitude setting exists.

How to use it

1. Count liters, not meals alone. A freeze-dried dinner takes about half a liter; breakfast with coffee is another half to a whole one; an evening drink is a third to a half. Most boil-and-pour days are about 2 liters a person, which is why Standard is the default. Real cooking with simmering burns a quarter to a third more than boil-only math — the Heavy setting’s extra liter is how this calculator carries that.
2. Run it twice if the weather is uncertain: once calm, once on wind and cold. Pack for the second number. A plan that only works at the calm figure is a fair-weather plan.
3. Round up to the container, never down. Canisters come in 100 g, 230 g, and 450 g of fuel; white-gas bottles in 11, 20, and 30 fl oz. The step up costs a few ounces. Running out costs hot food — and in winter, water.
4. Replace our rates with yours after a trip. Weigh the canister before and after, or mark the bottle. Your stove, your pot, and your menu have their own grams per liter, and one measured trip beats any calculator — including this one.

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No white-gas stove sits in that strip because we have not compared liquid-fuel stoves yet, and a pick we have not done the work on is not a pick. The white-gas figures above rest on MSR’s published WhisperLite rating, stated as a rating — not on a review we have not written.

Questions people ask

Does altitude affect stove fuel consumption? Yes. Above about 10,000 ft, lower air pressure cuts canister output and food cooks slower at the lower boiling point, and the net effect is roughly 20–25% more fuel per cook than at sea level — the figure the Peak Gear Guide fuel calculator publishes, and the reason this calculator’s high-altitude setting adds 22.5%. Below that height the effect is real but smaller, and no source we trust puts a firm number on it.

How much white gas do I need per day? On boil math, about 1.3 fl oz per person per day for standard cooking — 2 liters boiled at MSR’s WhisperLite rating of 1.5 liters per fl oz. Count priming and any simmering and the honest planning range is the published rule of thumb: about 1.5 to 2.5 fl oz per person per day. A 20 fl oz bottle is therefore roughly a week of solo standard cooking, or about four days for two.

How long does an 8 oz canister of fuel last? The 8 oz size holds about 230 g of fuel. At the standard solo rate of about 28 grams a day that is roughly eight calm days; in wind and cold, at about 55 grams a day, roughly four. Two people sharing a stove halve the days, near enough — a 230 g canister is a pair’s long weekend, not their week.

How much fuel does a backpacking stove use per meal? A freeze-dried meal takes about half a liter of boiled water, so per person it costs about 7 grams on an upright stove, about 5 grams on an integrated system, or about a third of a fluid ounce of white gas. A hot drink is roughly half that again. Meals are cheap; it is the day’s total liters that decide the canister.

How does cold weather affect fuel consumption? For canister stoves, plan on double: wind strips heat from the pot while the canister chills, loses pressure, and stretches every boil — the cold column in our fuel-per-day tables runs about twice the calm column. White gas keeps its pressure, so its cold penalty is the water itself: about 30% more fuel to boil a liter at freezing than at room temperature. The full physics is in why does my canister stove die in cold weather?

What about melting snow for water? Budget roughly double to triple a summer trip. Melting a liter of snow and bringing it to a boil costs about 1.8 times the fuel of boiling liquid water, and on a snow trip every liter you drink also passed through the pot. Run the calculator for your cooking, then double it — and that is the case for white gas or the 450 g canister, not the small one.

Already own the canister and want to know what is left in it? The Canister Fuel-Remaining Calculator works the same math backwards from a kitchen scale. The full written answer, with the per-day tables, is how much stove fuel do I need per day?, and the whole set of stove and fuel questions lives at What People Are Asking About Stoves and Fuel.

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