How it works
You record where you have been. We count it properly.
There is no import to run and nothing to connect. MyStayDays takes the travel you tell it about, works out which days count for which person, and answers the four questions that actually matter — how many days you have used, how many are left, when you must leave, and when you can come back.
The rule, exactly as it is applied
The Schengen short-stay rule allows 90 days of presence in any 180-day period. The 180 days are counted backwards from whichever day you are asking about, which is why the answer changes daily even when you do not travel. These are the parameters MyStayDays uses, and they are stored as data rather than written into the program — so they can be shown to you, and audited, rather than taken on trust.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Length of the window | 180 days |
| Days allowed inside it | 90 days |
| The day you arrive | Counts as a full day |
| The day you leave | Counts as a full day |
| The day being asked about | Sits inside its own window |
That last line is a real ambiguity in the legislation, which refers to the 180 days preceding each day of stay. The official EU short-stay calculator treats the day you are asking about as part of the window it is counted in, and MyStayDays matches it. It is a parameter rather than an assumption, so anybody who wants a day of safety margin can have one.
What you put in
Three kinds of thing, and only the first is compulsory.
A traveller
A name and a nationality. Nationality is not a formality here — it decides whether the 90/180 limit applies to that person at all, and from which date.
Trips
Where you went and the dates in and out, past or planned. A trip you have not taken yet is assessed the same way as one you have, so you can test a plan before you pay for it.
A passport, if you like
Optional. Add the issue and expiry dates and the document rules get checked too. The document number is optional as well, and is encrypted before it is stored.
Which countries count — including the ones people get wrong
"The Schengen area" is not a fixed list, and it is not the same list as the EU. Two things move underneath it: countries join, and they join on dates that affect anybody who travelled that year. MyStayDays holds the membership of every country as a dated range, so a trip in 2023 is judged against the rules of 2023 rather than the rules of today.
- Croatia began counting on 1 January 2023, when it started applying the acquis in full.
- Bulgaria and Romania are the awkward pair. Days there began to count on 31 March 2024 — nine months before land border checks were lifted on 1 January 2025. Treating 2025 as the start date would hand a traveller back a summer they had already spent.
- Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are not parties to the agreement, but there is no controlled border to cross, so the days count anyway.
- Andorra does not count, despite being surrounded by two countries that do. It keeps its own border controls. This is the mistake people make most.
- The Åland Islands do count, being part of Finland and inside the area. Greenland, the Faroes, Svalbard and the French overseas departments do not, despite belonging to countries that do.
Every one of those dates is recorded against the Council decision it comes from and the date a person last checked it. If you want the source behind a particular one, or the whole list, ask us and we will send it — we would rather be checked than believed.
Who the rule does not apply to
Holders of free movement rights are not subject to the 90/180 limit, and MyStayDays will tell you so rather than quietly counting days that do not need counting. That is also dated: British nationals held free movement until the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 and became subject to the limit on 1 January 2021 — not on the day the United Kingdom left the European Union, eleven months earlier.
The same applies to the passport rules. The three-month validity margin and the ten-year issue limit come from the article of the Schengen Borders Code that governs third-country nationals, and they do not bind EU, EEA or Swiss nationals. MyStayDays does not apply them to people they do not govern.
What it does not do
Worth saying plainly, because a compliance product that lets you find out its limits the hard way is worse than no product.
- It is not legal advice, and it is not connected to any border system. It is an informed calculation over the travel you record and the rules as published. A border officer's decision is theirs.
- It only knows what you tell it. There is no passport-stamp scan and no feed from any authority. A trip you forget to enter is a trip that is not counted.
- It does not handle visas, residence permits or long-stay national permits. If you hold something that takes you outside the short-stay rules, there is no screen for recording it yet, and the days will still be counted.
- ETIAS and the Entry/Exit System are not built in. Those timelines have moved repeatedly, and guessing at them in a compliance product would be worse than leaving them out.
- It covers the Schengen area. Other countries have their own limits, and the engine is built to take more rules — but only the ones that are actually there today are the ones it answers for.
Find out where you stand.
About two minutes: who is travelling, one trip, and your answer. No card, and nothing to install.