Local fuel budget estimate
Plan stove fuel from your own measurements.
Combine a measured burn rate, daily runtime, and net fuel already on hand. This browser-only planner compares partial canisters with your budget and optional whole-canister purchases. It does not choose a stove, canister, or safety reserve for you.
Burn rate
Use your own test or a direct rate. Blank fields are not zero.
Manual limits: greater than 0, up to 100 g/min or 6,000 g/hr. Use a representative measured rate; none is assumed.
Weigh only cool, disconnected equipment when the manufacturer permits. Gross weights of the same cooled container can be used for this before/after test; the unchanged container mass cancels. Do not enter gross weight as remaining fuel below.
Daily runtime
Add all planned stove-on minutes for each day.
The first line is day 1. Use 0 for a rest or no-cook day. No blank lines. Up to 90 days and 1,440 minutes per day.
Factor (1–10) and buffer (0–300%) are your assumptions, not a weather model. Defaults are 1 and 0. At 0%, no buffer is included; neither default is a recommendation.
Fuel already on hand
Enter net fuel grams, not gross canister weight.
Up to 20 rows. Names are optional; capacity and remaining net fuel are required. Remaining fuel must not exceed capacity (maximum 5,000 g each). Use reliable measured net amounts, not a guess from shaking the canister. Fuel left by weight may not all be usable in actual conditions.
Optional purchase sizes
Enter compatible whole-canister net capacities to calculate a buying combination.
Comma-separated whole numbers, 1–5,000 g each, up to 6 unique sizes. Assumes any number of each entered size is available to buy. The objective is minimum net fuel grams purchased to meet the shortfall, then fewest cans at the same fuel total—not minimum carried weight or cost. Leave blank to skip the buying calculation.
How the budget works
Rate = (before weight − after weight) ÷ test minutes, or your direct rate. A g/hr rate is divided by 60. Baseline fuel = total runtime minutes × rate in g/min. Planned burn = baseline × your planning factor. Held buffer = planned burn × buffer percent ÷ 100. Target = planned burn + held buffer. Shortfall = the target minus entered stock, or zero if stock is greater.
The daily balance deducts modeled burn from stock; the buffer stays held at the end rather than being added to daily burn. The ledger uses existing canisters in listed order, then new groups in ascending size order. It is accounting only, not permission to transfer fuel or a guarantee of usable fuel.
Whole-canister buying uses the unrounded shortfall and integer net capacities. It searches combinations for the lowest total purchased fuel that meets that shortfall, then the fewest cans. It does not include canister tare weight, prices, or stock limits. Displayed amounts are rounded to at most two decimal places; very small nonzero amounts use scientific notation. Only machine-level floating-point noise is normalized.
Context and limits
Fuel use varies with equipment, wind, temperature, cooking method, and technique. This tool makes no standard grams-per-person assumption, cold-performance assumption, or environmental safety factor. Follow the exact stove and canister manuals, including their windscreen restrictions. Do not depend on this tool for remote winter travel or snow-melting water supply; seek trip-specific expertise and carry an appropriate backup.
Further reading: REI: How much stove fuel should I take? · SOTO: How much fuel to bring backpacking · FarOut: Measuring use and remaining fuel
Implementation limits, not safety ratings: 90 days · 20 stock rows · 6 purchase capacities · 20,000 g target. No saved inputs or automatic data uploads.