How to track mileage on iPhone

This page is general information, not tax advice.

The iPhone has no built-in mileage log. Maps shows the distance of a route while you follow it, but it does not keep a record of where you drove. Health tracks walking and running distance, not driving. To track miles on iPhone for taxes or work you either keep the log by hand in an app the phone already has, or you install a mileage tracker that uses the phone's location and motion services. Both work. This page covers what each needs.

What the log has to contain

Whichever way you keep it, the IRS asks for the same elements. The date of each business trip, the destination, the business purpose, the miles, and the total miles for the year from odometer readings. Publication 463 gives more weight to a record kept at or near the time of the trip. The details are on mileage log requirements.

Option 1. Keep the log by hand

Notes or Numbers. Make a table with the Table 5-2 columns from the mileage tracker spreadsheet. Numbers can sum the miles column and syncs through iCloud, so the log is on your Mac too. Add each trip when you park, or once a week from your calendar.
Maps for the distance. Enter the two addresses in Maps and read the distance of the route you drove. For a multi-stop trip, add the stops. Take a screenshot if the trip is one you may need to prove.
A Shortcut for odometer readings. A Shortcut that asks for a number and appends it with the date to a note gives you the January 1 and December 31 readings and any reading in between, in two taps from the Home Screen.

This works when trips are few and you will keep it weekly. Its failures are the usual ones. Trips you forget, distances you guess, and odometer readings nobody takes.

Option 2. An automatic iPhone mileage tracker

An app that records drives on its own needs four things from iOS, and it is worth knowing what they are, because they explain the permission prompts.

Location, Always. iOS only lets an app notice a drive while it is closed if it has the Always permission. With While Using, the app can record a drive only after you open it and start one.
Motion & Fitness. The motion coprocessor classifies movement as walking, cycling, or automotive. An app that reads it can tell a drive from a bus ride on foot to the stop, and can end the drive when the car stops instead of guessing from speed.
Background location sessions. While a drive is in progress, the app records the route with live location updates inside a background session, then goes quiet until the phone reports movement again. Between drives it is not reading GPS, which is what keeps the battery out of the picture.
Live Activities and Shortcuts. A Live Activity on the Lock Screen shows the drive in progress with a Stop button, and Shortcuts actions let you start a drive or a shift from an automation, such as when you open a delivery app.

An app built this way is the right architecture for the iPhone. It detects the drive without a Bluetooth beacon, measures the distance from the route, and records the time each entry was made, which is the evidence the IRS asks for.

How Miles handles this

Miles is that app. It asks for the Always location and Motion & Fitness permissions on first launch, with an explanation of each, and it asks for the camera only when you scan a receipt. Drives are detected and recorded with the date, the addresses, the distance, and the route, and each record carries the time it was created. Start and stop drives yourself from the app, the Live Activity, Control Center, or Shortcuts when you want to. Odometer reminders on January 1 and December 31 capture the total miles. The log stays on your iPhone and in your own iCloud, and at tax time it exports as a log PDF, a tax summary, CSV, Excel, or the QuickBooks Online format. The detection details are on automatic tracking.

Miles is coming soon. It runs on iPhone with iOS 26 or later.