 How much does GPS cost to manage and run? In 2020, $1.71 billion was required to fund the core program in the United States. The total budget for GPS tends to trend upwards as the system is improved and updated. For 2021, the budget requested to run the GPS program and infrastructure was over $1.8 billion. Currently, the Department of Defense manages GPS as a whole. U.S. law ensures that GPS is available free of cost for direct users with no plans to privatize GPS in the future. But did you know?