Patent ID: 8515657

Claim:
An information providing device that provides information to a terminal device, comprising: a route acquisition unit that acquires a reference travel route between two points on the basis of information about the reference travel route, transmitted from the terminal device; a route finding unit that finds a fuel-saving travel route between the two points; a fuel cost calculating unit that calculates a difference in cost of fuel between the reference travel route and the fuel-saving travel route on the basis of a fuel consumption for the reference travel route, a fuel consumption for the fuel-saving travel route and a fee of fuel; a communication cost calculating unit that calculates a communication cost for communicating first information about the fuel-saving travel route found by the route finding unit to the terminal device; and a control unit that executes control for transmitting predetermined information to the terminal device on the basis of a result of comparison between the difference in cost of fuel, calculated by the fuel cost calculating unit, and the communication cost calculated by the communication cost calculating unit, wherein the communication cost calculating unit acquires contract information that deters lines contract details of a fee of communication between the terminal device and the information providing device and then calculates the communication cost on the basis of the acquired contract information.