Owning a vehicle isn't cheap, and fuel is a significant part of that cost. In some cases, money spent on gas can make up over half of your monthly car-related expenses. Even people who don’t drive very often can easily spend over $1,000 a year on gas.

Luckily, most drivers can employ a few tactics to reduce their fuel costs without making the switch to a more efficient vehicle, and there are free tools available on smartphones that can help you implement these changes. These apps will help you save money without changing your driving habits, whether you drive for your job or for personal reasons.

1. GOFAR

The GOFAR mileage tracking app does a fantastic job of showing you all your essential driving details at a glance.

On the home screen, you can see pertinent info from the current week, including your typical acceleration and braking scores, average gas mileage, estimated emissions, cost of your trips, and distance traveled. If you're tracking your trips for tax reasons, there's a ton of useful info here!

While the app defaults to showing you averaged details from the current week, you can change this timeframe if you want to see something specific. You have the option to look at the current month or year, last week, last month, or last year, or create a custom date range to search through.

There are mobile apps that help you stay up to date with your car's maintenance, but if you want one app for everything car-related, GOFAR is an excellent choice. The app lets you enter dates for your registration, insurance, and any service trips, and keep up with how long it's been since your tires have been changed or rotated.

Download: GOFAR for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

2. MileIQ

MileIQ displays all of your drives on the home screen. You can classify trips as simply Personal or Business, or you can narrow it down further with more specific purposes, like Between Offices, Errand/Supplies, or Airport/Travel for Business trips and Commute, Medical, Charity, or Moving for Personal trips. You can also create custom purposes if you don't see something that suits your needs.

When you say a drive is for business purposes, the app automatically calculates the estimated amount you spent on gas for that trip. This number is dependent upon what vehicle you drive, as well as what your typical gas mileage is for that vehicle. Then, the app looks at what gas is priced at in your area.

If you need to file a report with your company every month for mileage expenses, you can email a copy of your MileIQ app data to yourself for ease. With the free version of MileIQ, you can log up to 40 drives per month. Be wary of turning on automatic drive detection if you only want to track business trips and don't want to go over the free amount.

Download: MileIQ for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

3. Stride

Stride has a more pleasing user interface than some of these other mileage-tracking apps. It's easy to see what the app offers right off the bat, and know exactly where everything is located. The home screen displays estimated savings, deductions, and miles driven for the current week, though you can always look at data from a longer period of time.

There's a Taxes tab that shows all the crucial info you need when tax season comes around, like your income, deductions, estimated taxes, and estimated business profit. Stride also has a Benefits tab, which is a great tool for anyone who's self-employed.

You can browse through different insurances, including plans for Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Accident, Disability, and Business. There are also more niche benefits, like a discount on tax preparation, affordable doctor appointments, and car maintenance and repair discounts.

Download: Stride for Android | iOS (Free)

4. TripLog

Similar to other apps, TripLog has a bunch of useful info displayed immediately on the home screen. TripLog defaults to a monthly view, though you can easily generate reports for any timeframe you need. The app also provides a few video tutorials that are super helpful for anyone new to tracking mileage.

With the free version of the app, you can manually track trips and expenses and display a max of 40 entries on monthly or annual reports you generate. The app starts you out with a free 14-day trial for the Premium subscription, but it doesn't require a credit card.

By adding your fuel expenses as well as your trips, the app automatically calculates your vehicle's miles per gallon. Then, the Premium version offers automatic mileage tracking, an auto-capture feature for expenses from your bank account and credit cards, and the ability to upload mileage data to your accounting or expense software, like QuickBooks.

Download: TripLog for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

5. Driversnote

Driversnote is a great app for drivers that's completely free, and with no ads either! You can even turn on auto-tracking so you don't have to manually enter your drives, which is a feature blocked by a paywall in many gas mileage tracking apps.

When you need to generate a mileage report for your job or your records, you can export info as a PDF or a spreadsheet. If you need to, you can generate a report specifically for a type of trip, rather than all your drives.

Download: Driversnote for Android | iOS (Free)

6. Hurdlr

With Hurdlr, you can set up a tax profile—annual or quarterly—and keep track of your mileage as well as your income and other expenses to make filing your taxes a lot easier. If you're self-employed or you have a lot of expenses to write off at your job, Hurdlr is a fantastic tool.

You can turn on the mileage tracker when you start driving, or you can manually enter your trips at the end of the day or whenever works best for you. If you're cool with manually tracking a lot of your info, the free version of Hurdlr will work perfectly. But expect to pay for a Premium subscription if you want auto-tracking for mileage, expenses, and income or Bluetooth-based tracking.

Download: Hurdlr for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

Your Smartphone Is a Helpful Car Companion

Using an app to track your mileage—whether you're driving to the grocery store or across town for a business meeting—can help save you money.

In the short run, you can separate personal and professional trips and make compiling your tax info at the end of the year super easy. And in the long run, you can stay up to date with your car's typical gas mileage and take it into the shop if you notice anything out of the norm.

Your smartphone isn't just a source of entertainment in the car; it's essential for getting the most out of your vehicle.