The Schengen 90/180 rule explained, with examples

The short version

If you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen and enter the Schengen area without a long-stay visa or residence permit, you can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period. The 180 days are not a calendar half-year: on any day, look back 180 days and count every day you spent in any of the 29 Schengen countries, arrival and departure days included. The total must never pass 90. Since 10 April 2026, the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) records your crossings and flags overstays automatically, so a miscount is now far more likely to be noticed.

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Who is this guide for?

Visa-free visitors from countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and holders of short-stay Schengen visas: the rule is the same for both. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and Schengen residence permit holders are not affected.

Which countries count toward the 90 days?

All 29 Schengen countries share one count: 25 of the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Bulgaria and Romania became full members on 1 January 2025, so days there now count too. Moving between these countries usually involves no border check, which is exactly why people lose track.

Days in these places do not count toward your Schengen 90 days, because they are outside the area:

• EU members outside Schengen: Ireland and Cyprus.
• The UK, and the Western Balkan countries such as Albania, Serbia and Montenegro (among Europe's cheapest).
• Türkiye, Ukraine and Moldova.

How do you count the 180 days?

The Schengen Borders Code allows 90 days "in any 180-day period". In practice:

1. Pick the day you want to check, such as the last day of a planned trip.
2. Look back 179 days from it, so you have a window of 180 days including that day.
3. Count every day inside the window that you spent in the Schengen area. Your day of entry and your day of exit each count as a full day, even if you landed at 23:00.
4. The total must be 90 or less on every day of the stay, because the window moves forward one day at a time.

Two consequences surprise people. The count never resets on 1 January or on any other date, and leaving for a weekend does not reset it either. What frees up days is time: each day, the oldest day in the window drops out.

What does the rule look like on real trips?

Three examples with 2027 dates, each checked day by day.

One long stay. You enter on 1 March and stay 90 days, to 29 May. You must then stay out until 27 August. From 28 August you can return for up to another 90 days, because the March days drop out as fast as new days are added.

The calendar-year mistake. You spend 20 October to 31 December 2026 in Europe: 73 days. You leave, and come back on 1 January 2027 thinking the year has reset. It has not: you can stay only until 17 January, because the autumn days are still inside the window.

Three trips, and why the entry date matters. You spend 10 January to 28 February (50 days) and 1 to 20 May (20 days). That is 70 days used, so it looks like only 20 are left. If you return on 15 June, that is true: you must leave by 4 July. But if you wait until 1 July, the January days start dropping out of the window while you are there, and you can stay until 8 September, a full 70 days.

• Trip 110 Jan to 28 Feb: 50 days
• Trip 21 to 20 May: 20 days
• Trip 3, enter 15 JunMust leave by 4 Jul: 20 days
• Trip 3, enter 1 JulCan stay to 8 Sep: 70 days
• Window on 8 Sep13 Mar to 8 Sep: 90 days used
• JanMarMayJulSep

How does EES change the count?

The rule itself has not changed. What changed on 10 April 2026 is enforcement: the Entry/Exit System replaced passport stamps for short-stay visitors. It records your entry and exit dates and places, your passport details, a facial image and fingerprints, and it detects overstays automatically. Our guide to EES at Europe's border covers the registration itself. ETIAS, the €20 travel authorisation still to come, will not change the 90/180 count either; our ETIAS 2027 guide explains when it starts to matter.

Between January and March 2026, eu-LISA, the EU agency that runs the system, recorded 19,985 refusals of entry, and 4,353 of them were travellers who had already used their maximum stay. If no exit is recorded after your allowed stay ends, EES keeps your data for five years instead of the usual three.

Days from before EES still count. If your 180-day window reaches back before 10 April 2026, border guards may rely on stamps, so keep boarding passes or tickets as your own record.

Overstaying can lead to a fine, removal and an entry ban, depending on the country. National authorities can extend a stay only in exceptional cases, such as force majeure or serious personal reasons; eu-LISA recorded 11,885 extensions in the same quarter.

What does not count toward the 90 days?

• Time on a residence permit or long-stay national visa. Denmark's immigration service, for example, states that days spent in Schengen on a residence permit or a long-stay "D" visa are left out of the count.
• Bilateral agreements. Some countries signed visa waiver deals with individual Schengen states before Schengen existed. Switzerland, for example, lets New Zealanders stay up to 90 days regardless of time already spent elsewhere in Schengen, but only if they stay in Switzerland for that period, keep proof of it, and then leave the Schengen area directly from a Swiss border.
• Days outside the area. A week in London or Montenegro adds nothing, though it does not reset the count either.

On a long trip, a train ticket out of the area mid-stay lets old days drop out of the window before you return.

Which tool should you use to count your days?

Who should pick what: for a single trip under 90 days, you need nothing. For several trips in a year, keep your own log with boarding passes and check plans with the EU calculator before you book. If your window reaches back before April 2026, do not rely on the EES check alone. For a long trip, run the calculator on your planned departure date before you book flights, hotels or tours.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Schengen 90-day count reset on 1 January?

No. The 180 days are a moving window that looks back from each day of your stay, so days spent in November and December still count in January.

Do the days I arrive and leave count as full days?

Yes. The day of entry and the day of exit each count as a full day in the Schengen area, whatever time you cross the border.

Do days in the UK, Ireland or Croatia count toward the 90 days?

Days in the UK and Ireland do not count, because neither is in the Schengen area. Croatia joined Schengen in 2023, so days there do count. So do days in Bulgaria and Romania, full members since 1 January 2025.

Can I stay 90 days in each Schengen country?

No. The 90 days cover all 29 Schengen countries together. The only exceptions are bilateral agreements between some countries, such as New Zealand, and individual Schengen states, and border guards decide whether to apply them.

Does EES count my days automatically?

Yes. Since 10 April 2026, the Entry/Exit System records every entry and exit of short-stay visitors and flags overstays automatically. Stays from before EES still count, so keep your own record of them.

Where the figures come from

Checked on 24 October 2026. Official sources first; secondary sources are labelled.

1. European Commission: Entry/Exit System (EES), dates and what it records
2. eu-LISA: EES quarterly report, Q1 2026 (published 13 July 2026)
3. Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, Article 34: EES data retention (copy on legislation.gov.uk)
4. European Commission: short-stay calculator user manual
5. New to Denmark: how long you may stay in Denmark and other Schengen countries
6. Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs: entry for New Zealand passport holders
7. Icelandic Police: EES and data privacy, consequences of overstaying
8. Council of the EU: lifting of land border controls with Bulgaria and Romania