The Schengen 90/180 rule explained

The 90/180 rule limits visitors from outside the EU to 90 days in the Schengen area in any 180-day period. The 180 days are not a fixed block: on every day of your stay you look back over the previous 180 days, and the days you spent in the Schengen area in that time must not add up to more than 90. The day you arrive and the day you leave both count, and all 29 Schengen countries share one total.

What does the rule say?

The rule is Article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code. It allows stays of "no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay". It goes on: "The date of entry shall be considered as the first day of stay on the territory of the Member States and the date of exit shall be considered as the last day of stay".

Three things follow from those two sentences.

• The window moves. The European Commission calls it a "moving" 180-day reference period, "looking backwards at each day of the stay". There is a different window for every day you are there.
• Arrival and departure days count in full. Land at 11pm and that is day one. A weekend from Friday to Monday is four days.
• It is one allowance for the whole area. A week in Spain and a week in Germany is two weeks of the same 90.

Who does the rule apply to?

Anyone who is not a citizen of an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland and who is visiting for a short stay. That includes people who can visit without a visa, such as UK, US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passport holders, and people travelling on a short-stay Schengen visa.

It does not matter why you are there. Holidays, business trips, visiting family and time at a second home all count the same.

Which countries count?

Days in any of the 29 Schengen countries count: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Days in Ireland, Cyprus and the United Kingdom do not count. Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but not in the Schengen area.

How does the rolling 180-day window work?

Pick any day you plan to be in the Schengen area. Count back 180 days, including that day. Add up every day you were in the Schengen area inside that stretch. If the total is 90 or less, that day is fine. Then do the same for the next day, and the next.

Old days drop out of the window one at a time, 180 days after they happened. That is why your allowance can go up while you are away, and why it can also stay flat while you are there: each new day you add can be cancelled out by an old day dropping off the back.

The Commission's manual notes one simple consequence: "an absence for an uninterrupted period of 90 days allows for a new stay for up to 90 days".

Worked example 1: one long stay

You arrive in France on 1 March 2027 and stay as long as you can.

• Day 90 is 29 May 2027, so that is the last day you can be there.
• You then have no days left until the first day of your stay drops out of the window. 1 March drops out on 28 August 2027.
• From 28 August you can go back, and because one old day now drops out for every new day you add, you can stay a full 90 days, until 25 November 2027.

This is the "90 days in, 90 days out" pattern. It is the simplest case, and the only one where the rule behaves like a fixed block.

Worked example 2: several shorter trips

You make three trips in the first half of 2027:

• 9 to 22 January, skiing: 14 days
• 27 March to 10 April, Easter: 15 days
• 15 May to 13 June: 30 days

That is 59 days. You want to go again on 1 July. How long can you stay?

On 1 July all 59 days are still inside the window, so you might expect 31 days. The answer is 45. While you are there, the January trip starts to drop out: 9 January leaves the window on 8 July, and all 14 January days have gone by 21 July. Those 14 days come back to you during the stay, so you can remain until 14 August 2027. On that day the window holds the Easter trip (15), the May and June trip (30) and this one (45), which is exactly 90.

Worked example 3: the "two halves of the year" mistake

A common belief is that you get 90 days from January to June and a fresh 90 from July to December. You do not.

Say you spend 1 April to 29 June 2027 in Spain. That is 90 days. You fly home, then return on 1 July, thinking a new half-year has started. On 1 July the window runs from 3 January to 1 July. It contains all 90 days of your spring stay plus 1 July itself. That is 91 days, and you have overstayed on the day you arrive.

The first day you can go back is 28 September 2027.

What mistakes do people make?

• Treating the 180 days as fixed. There are no halves of the year, and nothing resets on 1 January.
• Thinking a quick exit resets the clock. Leaving for a day, or a week, changes nothing. Only time moves days out of the window.
• Counting per country. There is one total for the whole Schengen area.
• Leaving out travel days. The days you arrive and leave count in full.
• Reading "90 days" as "three months". 1 March to 31 May is 92 days.
• Only looking backwards. A trip can be fine on the day you take it and still use up days that a later, already booked trip needs. See how long can I stay? for examples.

What does not count towards the 90 days?

Time spent in a Schengen country under a residence permit or long-stay visa issued by that country is not counted. The Borders Code says: "Periods of stay authorised under a residence permit or a long-stay visa shall not be taken into account". See residence permits and the 90/180 rule.

A few Schengen countries also have older agreements with countries such as the US, Canada and New Zealand that can allow extra time in that one country. These are exceptions with their own conditions, and the Commission's own calculator does not handle them. See the guide for US travellers.

What happens if I overstay?

Since 10 April 2026 the EU's Entry/Exit System has recorded every entry and exit digitally, and it identifies overstayers automatically. The EU lists the possible consequences as removal, fines or detention, and being prevented from re-entering. What is applied depends on the country and the case.

How Schengen Simple helps

The rule is one sentence, but applying it means repeating the same count for every day of every trip, including the trips you have not taken yet. Schengen Simple does that count for you. Add your past and planned trips and the calendar shows, under each date, how many days you could stay if you arrived then. It also tells you when you are next entitled to a full 90 days.