If you are not an EU citizen and you visit the Schengen area without a visa, or with a standard short-stay visa, you can spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in its 29 countries put together. "Any" is the key word: on every day you are there, look back over that day and the 179 days before it, and the days you spent inside must add up to 90 or fewer. The day you arrive and the day you leave both count as full days.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Border officers make the final decision on your stay.
What the rule actually says
The European Commission's calculator manual quotes the Schengen Borders Code: no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, "which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay." The date of entry is the first day of stay and the date of exit is the last. Three things follow from that:
- It is one count for the whole area. Ten days in France and ten in Italy are twenty Schengen days. There is no separate 90 for each country.
- The window moves. Nothing resets on 1 January or 1 July. Each new day, the oldest day in the window drops out.
- Part days are full days. Land in Paris at 23:00 and that day counts. Fly out of Rome at 07:00 and that day counts too.
The manual also gives a handy shortcut: an uninterrupted absence of 90 days always lets you come back for a new stay of up to 90 days.
Which countries count
As of November 2026, the Schengen area has 29 countries: 25 EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Bulgaria and Romania were the last to join, fully, on 1 January 2025, so days there now count. Croatia joined on 1 January 2023.
Two EU members are outside the area: Cyprus and Ireland. Days there don't count toward your 90, and neither do days in the United Kingdom. The full list, with the date each country joined, is on the Schengen countries page. It is not the same as the EU's members: four Schengen countries aren't in the EU, and two EU countries aren't in Schengen.
Example 1: one long stay
You arrive in Lisbon on 1 March 2027 and travel on through Spain and France. Counting 1 March as day 1, day 90 is 29 May: 31 days of March, 30 of April and 29 of May. That is your last possible day.
When can you come back? Not on 1 July: the 180 days ending on 1 July still hold all of March, April and May. The first day you can return is 28 August, because from then on the oldest days of your spring trip start dropping out as fast as new ones are added. Arrive on 28 August and you can stay another 90 days, until 25 November. Between 30 May and 27 August you were away for exactly 90 days, which is the Commission's shortcut at work.
Example 2: two trips, then a summer question
Your year so far:
- Lisbon and Porto, 10 to 24 January 2027: 15 days.
- Prague, Vienna and Budapest, 5 March to 18 April 2027: 45 days.
That is 60 days, so you have 30 left. But "left" depends on when you arrive, because the January days drop out of the window from 9 July onward and the March days from 1 September.
| You arrive in Spain on | You can stay | Last day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 June 2027 | 30 days | 30 June |
| 8 July 2027 | 45 days | 21 August |
| 18 July 2027 | 90 days | 15 October |
Arriving on 18 July, every day you add is matched by an old day dropping out until both earlier trips are gone, so you never go over 90. Arrive one day earlier, on 17 July, and you hit 90 on 30 August while the March trip is still in the window. One day's difference in arrival changes the answer by 45 days, which is why it pays to check rather than estimate.
Five more trips, worked through day by day, are in Schengen 90/180 examples.
The mistakes people make
- Counting per country. It is one count across all 29.
- Counting calendar half-years. January to June is not a "period". The window ends on whatever day is being checked.
- Thinking a trip outside resets the clock. A week in London or Montenegro stops new days from adding up. It doesn't wipe the old ones.
- Forgetting travel days. Arrival and departure days count in full, even a few hours.
- Old advice about Romania and Bulgaria. Before 2025, people used them as a break. Since 1 January 2025 they count.
- Assuming a visa means 90 days. If you hold a short-stay visa, the sticker shows how many days it allows, and it can be fewer than 90. The Commission says not to use its calculator in that case.
Days spent under a long-stay visa or an EU residence permit are not counted toward the 90.
Exceptions worth knowing
- Older bilateral agreements. Some Schengen countries may still apply visa-waiver agreements they signed with certain countries before joining Schengen. The Commission's manual names Canada, New Zealand and the United States as examples. These can allow extra time in that one country, but it's not automatic, and that country's authorities decide.
- Brazilian passports. The Commission's manual says the EU's agreement with Brazil still uses an older definition, three months in a six-month period from the first entry, and doesn't recommend the calculator for holders of ordinary Brazilian passports.
How to check your own dates
- List every date you entered and left the Schengen area. Moving between Schengen countries doesn't matter; crossing its outer border does.
- Enter them in the free Schengen calculator, or in the European Commission's short-stay calculator, which has a check mode for past stays and a planning mode for a future arrival.
- Since 10 April 2026, the EU's Entry/Exit System records entries and exits electronically, and you have the right to ask border officers how long you have left. See the EES guide.
- Leave a margin of a few days for delayed flights and strikes. What happens if you go over is in what happens if you overstay.
If you'd rather not keep the list by hand, Globestamp keeps a count of days in every country, with a Schengen 90/180 alert (the alerts are Pro).