Curated list · updated 2 November 2026
Best Free Route Planners
Two stops is a calculator; more than two is an optimisation problem, and those need different tools.
Routing engines turn a street network into a travel time. Free public engines report free-flow times from speed limits and road classes, not live congestion, so a 25-minute result is the physics of the network — add a 20 to 40 per cent buffer in dense cities and you have a plan you can defend.
The list below moves from a single pair of stops, to many stops, to the money and time questions that follow a route.
- 1
Drive Time Map
See everywhere reachable in a given number of minutes from one origin.
- 2
Driving Distance Calculator
Road miles and expected duration between two points, not the crow-flies number.
- 3
Multi-Stop Route Planner
Order several stops and export the result as GPX for a phone or satnav.
- 4
Route Optimizer
Reorder stops to cut backtracking when the list is long enough to matter.
- 5
Walking Time Calculator
Pedestrian networks are not road networks — footways and cut-throughs change the answer.
- 6
Fuel Cost Calculator
Turn the route distance into a fuel budget and a per-person split.
- 7
How this list was chosen
Ranked by how much of a real trip plan each tool completes. All times are free-flow estimates from public routing data and are described as such on every result.
MapBench is a single site, so this is a recommendation list rather than an independent market survey. Every listed tool is free, needs no account, and publishes the method behind its result.
Browse the full clusters
Read before you rely on the number
- Radius vs. Drive Time vs. Straight-Line Distance: Which Map Should You Use?
A practical guide to choosing between a radius circle, road travel-time map and straight-line distance so your result matches the real question you are trying to answer.
- Distance Calculation: Haversine, Geodesics & When It Matters
Why flat map arithmetic fails over large distances, what the haversine formula does, and when a full ellipsoidal geodesic is the better choice.
- How to Draw a Radius on Google Maps
Google Maps has no radius button. Here are the exact workarounds to draw a radius circle — plus free tools that do it in one click.
Common questions
Do these planners use live traffic?
No. Times are free-flow estimates derived from speed limits and road classes. Live congestion is not included, which is why a buffer is part of every honest plan.
Can I export the route to my phone?
Yes. The multi-stop planner exports GPX, which loads in OsmAnd, Organic Maps, Garmin and most satnav applications.