Schengen Area — 90/180-Day Rule

Summary

Limit

90 days

Window

Any 180 days (rolling)

Applies to

Whole Schengen Area

Also counts

Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City

Does not count

Andorra (external border)

Counting

Entry and exit days both count

Enforcement

Entry/Exit System (biometric)

Basis

Schengen Borders Code, Art. 6

As a visa-free visitor or short-stay (Type C) visa holder, you may spend a maximum of 90 days within any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen Area. The limit is zone-wide: days in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece or any other Schengen country all draw on the same 90-day allowance. There is no annual reset and no per-country allowance — the window recalculates continuously. To check your own dates, use our free Schengen 90/180 calculator.

Who it applies to

The 90/180 rule governs short stays by non-residents. It matters most if you are:

• A citizen of a visa-exempt country — including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan — visiting Schengen without a visa. British citizens have been subject to the rule since Brexit.
• A holder of a short-stay (Type C) Schengen visa for tourism, business, or family visits.
• A remote worker, retiree, or frequent traveler splitting time between Schengen and elsewhere.

It does not apply to EU/EEA/Swiss citizens exercising free movement, or to time spent on a national long-stay (Type D) visa or residence permit — that time is counted separately and is not charged against the 90 days.

The rule — and why it exists

Article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code (Regulation (EU) 2016/399) caps short stays at 90 days in any 180-day period. There are effectively two caps working at once:

• The rolling total. Across any 180-day window you may not exceed 90 days of presence anywhere in the zone — however many separate trips those days came from.
• The single-stay cap. No one continuous visit may exceed 90 days, even if your 180-day window is otherwise empty.

The phrase "any 180-day period" is precise: every possible 180-day window must comply, which is why the check is rolling rather than calendar-based. We unpack the wording in detail in what "90 days in any 180-day period" means.

Why it exists: abolishing internal border checks between Schengen countries meant they needed one shared, uniform rule for how long non-residents may stay. A common allowance across the whole area lets travelers move freely once inside, while still limiting short-stay visitors to genuine short stays rather than de facto residence.

Counting the days

Both your day of arrival and your day of departure count as full days inside the area, even if you only cross the border for a few hours. To check compliance on any given date:

1. 1Pick the date you want to check — usually your planned entry date, and the last day of the planned stay (the riskiest day).
2. 2Look back over the 180 days ending on that date (the date itself plus the previous 179).
3. 3Add up every day you were — or, for planned trips, will be — physically present anywhere in the Schengen Area in that window.
4. 4Stay at or below 90 — your remaining allowance is 90 minus that total.

The 180-day window is not a fixed calendar block with a set reset date — it moves forward one day at a time. Each day, the oldest day drops off the back of the window and a new day is added at the front. A day only "frees up" once it is more than 180 days in the past, so leaving and re-entering does not reset your count (more on this in does the 90-day rule reset? and when does the 180-day period start?).

Because a stay must pass this check on every one of its days, a trip that starts legally can still turn into an overstay partway through. Hand-counting 180-day ranges across multiple trips is exactly the kind of arithmetic humans get wrong — our free calculator checks every day of a planned stay at once and flags the first day that would break the rule.

Examples

Example 1 — a single long visit

You enter with a completely clean 180-day window and stay 85 straight days. You are within both caps. But you now have only 5 days of allowance left, and it stays that way until your early days begin ageing out of the 180-day window.

Example 2 — splitting trips doesn't help

You spend 60 days in Spain in spring, leave, then return two weeks later planning another 60 days in Italy. Because the earlier 60 days are still inside the rolling 180-day window, your second trip is capped at roughly 30 days — not a fresh 90 — until those spring days start dropping off.

Example 3 — days ageing out

You used 90 days in one continuous stay from 2 December to 1 March (a non-leap year). The first of those days, 2 December, drops out of the window on 31 May; from then your allowance rebuilds one day at a time as each later day ages out. The last of them, 1 March, only drops out on 28 August — you do not regain the full 90 all at once.

Example 4 — the mid-stay overstay

You spent 45 days in Schengen in the winter, all still inside the window. In summer you enter for a "90-day" trip. Entry is legal — the window ending that day holds 46 days. But around day 45 of the new trip your total hits 90 while the winter days are only beginning to age out, and each further day depends on old days dropping off exactly in step. Whether you scrape through or overstay depends on the precise winter dates — this is the case where you should count carefully rather than assume.

Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City — and Andorra

Four European microstates are not Schengen members, and travellers regularly assume that days spent in them fall outside the 90/180 count. For three of them that assumption is wrong, and acting on it is how people overstay. The difference between the three and the fourth is simple: is there a border control between the microstate and Schengen?

Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City — these days count

• Monaco. The European Commission records that, by virtue of two bilateral agreements with France, Monaco’s territory is “within the external borders of the Schengen area”, with French authorities running the external checks at the authorised crossing points Monaco-Héliport and Monaco-Port de la Condamine. Both appear in the official EU list of border crossing points. No France–Monaco land crossing is listed anywhere, because there is no border to cross. UK FCDO guidance states outright that the 90/180 allowance covers “the Schengen area, which includes Monaco”.
• San Marino. The Commission states there are no border controls between Italy and San Marino, and no Italy–San Marino crossing point appears in any official list. FCDO guidance treats the allowance as covering “the Schengen area and San Marino” and notes you must hold a valid Schengen entry stamp to be there.
• Vatican City. An open enclave inside Rome, reachable only through Italy, with no border controls and no mention anywhere in the Schengen Borders Code. On any border record your days there are Italian days.

The legal teeth sit in Article 12(1) of the Schengen Borders Code, as rewritten for the Entry/Exit System: where there is no EES file for you, or your entry/exit record shows no exit date after your authorised stay expired, authorities “may presume that third-country national does not fulfil, or no longer fulfils, the conditions of duration of authorised stay”. Since no exit into Monaco, San Marino or Vatican City can be recorded — no crossing point exists to record it — there is no mechanism by which those days could be deducted, and an overstay there looks exactly like an overstay in France or Italy. Bounded counts them.

Andorra — these days do not count

Andorra is the genuine exception. The Commission is explicit that it is not part of the Schengen area and that border controls are carried out at its frontiers with France and Spain; Pas de la Case–Porta is a listed external Schengen crossing point. Entering Andorra is a legal exit from the Schengen area, so those days do not consume your 90/180 — and Bounded excludes them.

But keep proof. As a short-stay visitor — unless you fall in an EES-exempt group such as Andorran, Monegasque or Sammarinese nationals or Vatican passport holders — your exit to Andorra and your re-entry must be recorded in the EU Entry/Exit System. If your compliance depends on an Andorran gap that your EES record does not show, Article 12(1) works against you until you rebut it with credible evidence. Make sure you are processed at the border, and keep transport tickets, accommodation bookings and receipts for the period.

What the EES and ETIAS change

Entry/Exit System (EES)

The Entry/Exit System, rolled out across Schengen external borders starting October 2025, replaced passport stamps with a biometric record (facial image and fingerprints) of every entry and exit by non-EU visitors. For the 90/180 rule this changes enforcement fundamentally:

• Your day count is now computed automatically. Border officers see your exact usage at the booth; the "my stamps were unreadable" grey zone is gone.
• Overstays are flagged system-wide, even by a single day, and the record follows you to every Schengen border for three years from your recorded exit — or five years from the end of your authorised stay if no exit is recorded after it.
• Old habits are riskier. Practices that quietly relied on leniency — re-entering a few days early, mixing up entry-day counting — now surface as hard data.

The system has been fully operational since 10 April 2026. How enrolment works, who is exempt and how to reconcile your own record with the official one: the EU Entry/Exit System explained.

ETIAS travel authorisation

ETIAS is a pre-travel authorisation (similar to the US ESTA) for visa-exempt visitors to the Schengen countries and Cyprus. As of October 2026 it is not yet in operation and no applications are being collected; the EU has said it will announce the start date several months before launch. It is an entry permission, not extra time: ETIAS does not change the 90/180 math in any way. Check the official ETIAS page (linked in Sources) for the current launch status before you travel.

Planning a return trip

The question travelers actually need answered is rarely "how many days have I used?" but "when can I go back?" The mechanics:

• After a maxed-out continuous stay: your first lawful day back is 180 days after your original entry date (equivalently, after 90 full days outside — the 91st day after your exit day). Only 1 day has freed up on that date — but if you enter and stay, one old day leaves the window for every new day you add, so you can remain continuously for up to 90 days again. That is the "90 in, 90 out, 90 in" cycle.
• After scattered trips: your oldest days age out first, so your allowance may already be rebuilding. There is no shortcut formula — count 180 days back from each candidate entry date, or let the calculator find the earliest compliant date for the trip length you want.
• For a long trip, check the exit day too. A stay must comply on every day, so verify the window ending on your planned departure date, not just your arrival.

Exceptions & edge cases

• National long-stay visas and residence permits. Time spent in a country on a Type D visa or a residence permit is counted separately and is not charged against the 90/180 allowance. Moving between the two regimes on the same trip (e.g. a Schengen tour after a French long-stay) requires care — the short-stay clock runs only for the short-stay portion.
• Bilateral visa-waiver agreements. A few Schengen states have pre-Schengen bilateral agreements with countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan that can allow extra time in that one country beyond the 90-day cap — Denmark, Norway, and Poland are commonly cited examples. These are country-specific, must usually be invoked explicitly, sit awkwardly with EES record-keeping, and are contested in practice. Never rely on one without written confirmation from that country's authorities.
• Non-Schengen EU and neighbouring countries. Ireland and non-EU states such as the UK, Albania, Serbia, and Türkiye run their own separate rules — time there does not count toward Schengen days, and vice versa. Cyprus applies the 90/180 rule but as a separate national allowance while it remains outside the border-free zone. The microstates are the trap here: Andorra really is outside the count, but Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are not — see the section above.
• Force majeure. If you are unable to leave on time for reasons beyond your control (illness, cancelled transport), authorities may extend your stay or treat a short overstay leniently — but you should seek an official extension from the national authorities before your time runs out rather than rely on it.

Common misconceptions

• "Leaving resets my 90 days." False — the window is rolling, so exiting and re-entering does not clear the count.
• "Each country gives me its own 90 days." False — the whole Schengen Area shares a single 90-day allowance.
• "180 days resets every six months on a fixed date." False — there is no calendar reset; the 180-day window recalculates continuously.
• "A short border hop doesn't count as a day." False — any day you are present, including arrival and departure days, counts as a full day.
• "ETIAS gives me more time." False — ETIAS is an entry authorisation for visa-exempt travelers, not an extension. The 90/180 math is unchanged.
• "A small overstay won't be noticed." Increasingly false — the Entry/Exit System computes your day count automatically and flags overstays of even one day at every Schengen border.
• "Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican aren't in Schengen, so those days are free." False in practice — there is no border control to exit through, so the records show you inside Schengen the whole time. Andorra is the only one of the four where the days genuinely do not count.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2016/399 (Schengen Borders Code), Article 6 — entry conditions
• COM(2012) 680 — EU relations with Andorra, Monaco and San Marino
• OJ C/2025/4538 — list of border crossing points under the Schengen Borders Code (France)
• UK FCDO — Monaco entry requirements
• Government of Monaco — Visiting Monaco
• European Commission — Short-stay visa calculator
• European Commission — Entry/Exit System (EES)
• Regulation (EU) 2017/2225 — Schengen Borders Code Article 12 as amended for the EES
• European Commission — To whom does the EES not apply? (Reg. 2017/2226, Art. 2(3))
• European Commission — ETIAS travel authorisation
• European Commission — Visa policy overview