# GSA Per Diem Rates: Lodging & Meals by City (`m_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup`) Actor

Look up official U.S. government per diem rates (lodging by month, plus M\&IE meal rate) for any city, state, or zip code and year. For corporate travel and expense compliance, and government contractors billing at GSA rates. No signup required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/m\_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup.md
- **Developed by:** [Timothy Kelvin](https://apify.com/m_ctim) (community)
- **Categories:** Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## GSA Per Diem Rate Lookup: Official Lodging and Meal Rates

Give it a city and state, or a zip code, and a fiscal year. Get back the
official U.S. government per diem rate for that location: lodging rate by
month, plus the flat M\&IE (meals and incidental expenses) rate.

### Who this is for

- **Corporate travel and expense compliance teams** checking the official GSA rate before approving a travel expense report.
- **Government contractors** who must bill travel expenses at GSA per diem rates under their contract terms.
- **Relocation and HR teams** budgeting travel or temporary housing costs against the federal standard.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `locations` | array | `[{ "city": "Austin", "state": "TX" }]` or `[{ "zip": "78701" }]`. Cities not on GSA's specific list automatically return the standard CONUS rate. |
| `year` | integer (default `2026`) | Federal fiscal year to look up. |
| `apiKey` | string (optional) | Your own free key from api.gsa.gov. Falls back to the public `DEMO_KEY`, which works but may be rate-limited under heavy batch use. |

```json
{
  "locations": [
    { "city": "Austin", "state": "TX" },
    { "zip": "10001" }
  ],
  "year": 2026
}
```

#### Getting your own free API key

The built-in `DEMO_KEY` works out of the box for testing and light use. For
larger batches, get a free key in a couple of minutes at
[open.gsa.gov/api/perdiem](https://open.gsa.gov/api/perdiem/) and pass it as
`apiKey`.

### Output

One record per location per rate period found:

```json
{
  "location": { "city": "Austin", "state": "TX" },
  "city": "Austin",
  "county": "Travis",
  "state": "TX",
  "zip": null,
  "year": 2026,
  "isStandardRate": false,
  "mealsRate": 80,
  "monthlyLodgingRates": [
    { "month": "January", "lodgingRate": 187 },
    { "month": "February", "lodgingRate": 187 },
    { "month": "March", "lodgingRate": 187 }
  ]
}
```

`isStandardRate` is `true` when the location isn't on GSA's list of
specifically-priced cities and got the standard CONUS rate instead, so you
can tell the two cases apart in bulk lookups.

### How it works

Direct calls to the official GSA Travel Per Diem API (`api.gsa.gov`), the
same data behind GSA's own per diem lookup tool. No scraping, no proxy.

### Related products

- [Federal Contract Win Finder](https://github.com/timmKal01/federal-contract-award-tracker): for GovCon teams tracking federal contract awards rather than travel billing rates

# Actor input Schema

## `locations` (type: `array`):

List of locations to look up: \[{ "city": "Austin", "state": "TX" }] or \[{ "zip": "78701" }]. Cities not on GSA's specific list return the standard CONUS rate automatically.

## `year` (type: `integer`):

Federal fiscal year to look up rates for.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional free API key from api.gsa.gov. Falls back to the public DEMO\_KEY, which works but may be rate-limited under heavy use. Get your own free key at https://open.gsa.gov/api/perdiem/ for larger batches.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "locations": [
    {
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX"
    }
  ],
  "year": 2026
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "locations": [
        {
            "city": "Austin",
            "state": "TX"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("m_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "locations": [{
            "city": "Austin",
            "state": "TX",
        }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("m_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "locations": [
    {
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call m_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,m_ctim/gsa-per-diem-rate-lookup"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/U5zKavnOfOjC7KwrF/builds/93LzT1u0CxN0KV9tB/openapi.json