The 90/180 Schengen visa rule: the math you must know
TL;DR
- Ninety days in any 180. The 180 days roll backwards from whichever day you are standing on, so nothing resets in January.
- Your entry date and your exit date each count as a full day. A late-night landing and an early-morning departure is two days, not one night.
- Ninety is a ceiling, not an allowance. If your visa sticker authorises fewer days, the sticker is the number that binds you.
- Since 10 April 2026 the EES has replaced passport stamps across 29 countries and detects overstays automatically. Keep your own record.
Contents
The rule
Ninety days inside the Schengen area in any 180. The 180 days roll backwards from whichever day you are standing on, and your visa sticker can allow fewer.
Why this rule exists
The Schengen Borders Code states it in Article 6(1). A stay may run no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, "which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay."
Read that second half twice. The window is not a calendar. It does not reset on 1 January, and a new visa does not reset it either. On every day you are inside, a fresh 180-day window opens behind you, and your days inside it must total 90 or fewer.
Two details settle most of the arithmetic. The Code counts your entry date as the first day of stay and your exit date as the last. A landing at 11.40 pm and a departure next morning costs two days, not one night. Time on a residence permit or long-stay D visa does not count towards the 90 at all.
The third detail catches visa holders hardest. Ninety is a ceiling, not an allowance. The Commission's own calculator page says it plainly. Hold a short-stay visa, and you check the authorised stay on the sticker. If that is under 90 days, the page tells you not to use the calculator at all. The sticker outranks the rule.
What happens if you don't follow it
Automated. Since 10 April 2026 the Entry/Exit System has replaced passport stamping across the 29 countries. It registers your name, travel document, fingerprints, facial image and every crossing, and detects overstayers automatically. The ledger is no longer ink.
Legal. The EU Return Directive requires a return decision to carry an entry ban where no voluntary-departure period was granted, or where someone did not leave when required. That ban should not in principle exceed five years. Member States apply the Directive through their own law, so five years is a ceiling, not a tariff.
At the next border. Article 6 makes an SIS alert issued for the purposes of refusing entry a stand-alone ground for turning you away. The EES records refusals of entry too.
Quick reference
- Count back 180 days from the day in question, total your days inside, and stay at 90 or under.
- Entry day and exit day each cost a full day.
- Use the Commission's short-stay calculator: check mode for now, planning mode for a future trip.
- Read the authorised stay on your visa sticker first. It can be shorter than 90, and it binds.
- Days on a residence permit or long-stay D visa do not count towards the 90.
- The 29 Schengen countries share one pool of days. Cyprus and Ireland are outside it.
- Passport validity must extend three months past your intended departure date.
- Normal Schengen crossings no longer produce a stamp to count. Keep your own boarding passes.
Quick check
1. You were in the Schengen area from 1 November to 30 December, sixty days. A friend says the count reset on 1 January, so you can fly back on 15 January for forty days. Is the friend right?
Select an answer.
2. Your Schengen visa is valid across a six-month window, and the sticker's duration of stay reads 30 days. You have used 12 days so far. How many more can you stay?
Select an answer.