Does the 90-day allowance reset when I leave the Schengen Area?

No. The Schengen Borders Code describes a rolling 180-day period: you consider the 180 days preceding each day of stay. Leaving does not start a fresh 90 days. Days only drop out of the count once they fall outside that look-back window.

Do the day I arrive and the day I leave both count?

Yes. In this calculator, and in the usual official method, both the entry day and the exit day count as a day present in the Schengen Area. A trip that begins and ends on the same calendar day counts as one day.

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How the Schengen 90/180 rule works

Q: Is this legal advice?

No. This page is an unofficial explainer. For a decision that matters, use the European Commission’s short-stay calculator and, where needed, the authority that issued your visa or residence document.

The rule is a rolling look-back, not a clock that resets when you leave. The wording below is from the official regulation and the European Commission’s short-stay calculator. This page is unofficial and is not legal advice.

Open the free calculator The Android app

Not legal advice. The 90/180 rule is set in European Union law. If your visa is printed for fewer than 90 days, the sticker wins. If you hold a long-stay visa or a residence permit, the 90/180 rule does not apply to that stay. For a decision that matters, use the European Commission’s short-stay calculator and, where needed, the authority that issued your document.

What the law actually says

Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, the Schengen Borders Code, sets the entry conditions for third-country nationals who intend to stay “for a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay.” Consulted on 12 November 2026 from EUR-Lex, CELEX 32016R0399.

The Commission’s own calculator page, consulted the same day, puts the same idea in plain language: if you are visiting any country in the Schengen Area, you are usually allowed to stay for a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period. “You must count back 180 days from each day of your stay and ensure the total number does not exceed 90.”

It is a rolling window. It does not reset when you leave.

A common mistake is to treat 90 days as a block that starts again the moment you exit. That is not what “any 180-day period” means. For every day you are in the Area, you look back 180 days — including that day — and count how many of those 180 days you were present. If the total would go above 90, that day is not allowed under the short-stay rule.

Days drop out of the count only when they fall behind the look-back. Leaving early can help, because you stop adding new days; it does not wipe the days you already spent.

In this explainer and in our free calculator, a 180-day window ending on a given date is the 180 calendar days that end on that date (the end date, plus the 179 days before it). Both the day you arrive and the day you leave count as a day present. A same-day entry and exit counts as one day. You can check any example below in the official calculator; if a figure ever disagreed, the official tool is the one to follow.

A worked example (1 January to 31 March 2026)

Take a stay from Thursday 1 January 2026 through Tuesday 31 March 2026, inclusive. That is 31 + 28 + 31 = 90 days. 2026 is not a leap year. On 31 March, the 180-day window is full: 90 days used, 0 left.

If you leave on 31 March, you cannot treat 1 April as the start of a fresh 90 days. On 1 April, a look-back of 180 days still includes the whole January–March stay, so 90 days are already used without crossing the border again.

The first day of that stay, 1 January, falls out of a window ending on Tuesday 30 June 2026 (that window runs from 2 January to 30 June). If you have stayed away, 89 of the old days are still inside that window, so 30 June itself could be a one-day visit, not a new 90-day visit.

If you remain outside the Area, the last day of the old stay (31 March) falls out of a window ending on Sunday 27 September 2026. On that date the look-back begins on 1 April, and the January–March days no longer count. That is the first day the full 90-day allowance is back, in this example, if you have not returned in between.

These dates were counted with the same method as our web calculator (a 180-day inclusive look-back, entry and exit days both counted). Please confirm them in the Commission’s tool before you rely on them. The example is an illustration, not a ruling on anyone’s trip.

Two shorter trips in the same window

If you are in the Area from 1 to 15 January 2026 (15 days) and again from 1 to 15 June 2026 (15 days), then on 15 June the look-back begins on 18 December 2025 and both trips sit inside it: 30 days used. By 14 July 2026 the January trip has fallen out of the window (the look-back that day begins on 16 January), and only the 15 June days remain. The two trips are never “reset” into separate 90-day pots; they simply share, or stop sharing, a rolling window.

What the rule does not decide

If your short-stay visa is printed with a shorter authorised stay than 90 days, the Commission says you should not use its 90/180 calculator for that limit. Read the sticker.
Stays on an EU residence permit or a long-stay (D) visa are not subject to the 90/180 rule, and those periods should not be entered as short-stay days in the official calculator.
Days spent in any Schengen country count toward the same 90. See which countries are in the Schengen Area.
The rule does not extend a visa, and a calculator does not authorise an extra day.

A calculator that also answers “leave by” and “when does the 90 come back?”

The official tool is the legal reference, and it is the one we tell you to use as a final check. It is also a little terse: it is built around a control date, and it does not keep your trips when you close the tab. Our free web calculator (US$ 0 / KSh 0) runs in your browser, keeps trips on your device, and shows days used, days left, a leave-by date, and the date the full 90-day allowance returns. The Android app does the same offline. Tracking is free. Optional Pro is a one-time purchase of about US$ 4.99 (about KSh 648; KSh at 129.91 = US$ 1, Central Bank of Kenya, 6 November 2026, illustrative; Google Play sets the charged price). Google Play: coming soon.

Questions

Does the 90-day allowance reset when I leave?

No. It is a rolling 180-day look-back, as Article 6(1) says. Leaving stops you adding days; it does not erase the days already spent.

Do entry and exit days both count?

Yes, in this explainer and in our calculator. A trip that starts and ends on the same calendar day is one day. Confirm a close case in the official tool.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is an unofficial explainer with citations to the regulation and to the Commission’s calculator page, both consulted on 12 November 2026.

Sources, consulted 12 November 2026: Regulation (EU) 2016/399, Article 6(1), via EUR-Lex (CELEX 32016R0399); European Commission, “Short-stay calculator,” Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/…/short-stay-calculator_en.