Gas Prices Statistics in US 2026 | By Year & Month Prices

Gas Prices in America 2026

Gas prices in the United States have been on a steady, welcome downward path heading into 2026, bringing some of the most genuine financial relief American drivers have felt since before the pandemic. As of the week of February 24, 2026, the national average retail price for regular gasoline sits at approximately $2.90 per gallon, a drop of more than $0.22 per gallon compared to the same point one year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). For context, that is nearly a dollar and a half cheaper than the record-breaking monthly average of $5.01 per gallon reached in June 2022. The EIA’s February 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) projects the full-year 2026 national average will settle at $2.91 per gallon, which would mark the fourth consecutive annual decline and the first year with an annual average below $3.00 since 2020. The driving forces behind this drop are well-documented: falling global crude oil prices, a global supply surplus led by production growth from OPEC+ and South American nations, and gradual fuel efficiency gains across the American vehicle fleet that are reducing total gasoline consumption even as Americans drive more miles than ever.

From a household budget perspective, the numbers are even more striking. GasBuddy’s 2026 Fuel Price Outlook projects that American motorists will collectively spend $11 billion less on gasoline in 2026 compared to 2025, with the average household on track to spend $2,083 on gas for the year — down from $2,716 in 2022 at the height of the price crisis. The EIA’s February 2026 STEO pegs the Brent crude oil annual average at $58 per barrel for 2026, down sharply from $69 per barrel in 2025, and projects WTI crude at $52 per barrel. While regional disparities remain significant — California drivers are still paying $4.50 per gallon on average while Oklahoma drivers pay as little as $2.34 — the overall national trend is unambiguously lower. This article pulls together the most up-to-date, government-verified statistics and data on US gas prices in 2026 to give you the clearest possible picture of where things stand right now and where they are heading through the rest of the year.

Key Facts & Interesting Statistics: Gas Prices in the US 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Weekly Petroleum Status Report (February 2026); EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 10, 2026; GasBuddy 2026 Fuel Price Outlook; AAA Fuel Prices (February 10, 2026).

These numbers tell a story that is both straightforward and somewhat nuanced. At $2.902 per gallon as of February 9, 2026 — the most recent EIA weekly data point available — the national average for regular gasoline has fallen by more than 22 cents versus the same week a year prior. That kind of year-over-year decline is consistent with what the EIA describes as a third consecutive year of roughly 6% annual price drops, a trend that started after the 2022 peak. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive states is enormous: at $4.50 per gallon in California vs. $2.34 per gallon in Oklahoma, drivers in the Golden State pay nearly double what drivers in the Sooner State pay. That spread is driven by California’s uniquely strict fuel standards, its high state gasoline tax of 68.1 cents per gallon, and its island-like refinery dependency. Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast’s $2.476 per gallon vs. the West Coast’s $3.938 per gallon illustrates just how dramatically geography and state-level policy shape what Americans actually pay at the pump.

Gas Prices by Year in the US – Annual Average Gas Prices 2015–2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Annual Average Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices; EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 10, 2026.

Looking at the annual average gas price history from 2015 through 2026 reveals a market with two very distinct eras, divided by the pandemic and the 2022 price shock. The years 2015 through 2020 were marked by relative stability and modest prices — the collapse of oil demand during the early COVID-19 pandemic pushed the 2020 annual average down to just $2.17 per gallon, the lowest in years. Then came the dramatic swing: 2021 shot up 38.7% as demand surged back faster than supply could respond, and 2022 added another 31.2% to hit a record annual average of $3.95 per gallon, with individual monthly averages briefly exceeding $5.00. The reversal since then has been steady and consistent: four consecutive years of decline, with 2026 on track to land at $2.91 per gallon — the first sub-$3.00 annual average since 2020. The consistency of the roughly 6% annual decline in 2023, 2024, 2025, and now 2026 suggests a structural rebalancing of the oil market rather than short-term volatility. The principal driver is the same each year: global crude oil supply growing faster than demand, with US domestic production near record levels providing an important buffer against OPEC-driven price swings.

Gas Prices by Month in the US 2026 – Monthly Average Gas Prices

Actual Monthly Averages — Past 12 Months (EIA Data)

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) monthly average data, via LendingTree analysis updated February 13, 2026.

GasBuddy 2026 Monthly Gas Price Forecast (Full Year)

Source: GasBuddy 2026 Fuel Price Outlook (released January 2026, data published at blog-content.gasbuddy.com); EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 10, 2026.

The monthly gas price data tells a story of two clear seasonal rhythms. Looking at the trailing 12 months of actual EIA data, prices were remarkably stable throughout the summer and early fall of 2025, hovering in a tight band between $3.05 and $3.17 per gallon, before dropping sharply into winter. December 2025’s $2.89 average was a milestone — the first monthly average below $3.00 since May 2021 — and the momentum carried into January 2026 with a $2.81 average, the lowest monthly figure Americans had seen in years. The contrast between the joint highs of $3.17 in both April and September 2025 and the January 2026 low of $2.81 illustrates a typical seasonal spread of around 36 cents per gallon between the high and low months, a pattern driven by winter gasoline blend cost savings and reduced cold-weather demand. Looking forward, the GasBuddy 2026 monthly forecast projects the seasonal pattern will follow traditional dynamics: a rise from winter lows up to a peak of around $3.12 in May 2026 as refineries switch to costlier summer-blend gasoline and spring driving demand ramps up, followed by a gradual decline through the back half of the year to a projected December 2026 low of $2.83. The EIA’s own quarterly forecast broadly confirms this seasonal arc, projecting Q1 2026 at $2.88, Q2 at $3.04, Q3 at $2.97, and Q4 at $2.76 per gallon — all below the same periods in 2025.

Gas Prices by Region (PADD) in the US 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, released February 24, 2026 (data as of February 9, 2026).

The regional disparity in US gas prices in 2026 is one of the most striking features of the market. The gap between the Gulf Coast at $2.476 per gallon and the West Coast at $3.938 per gallon is an enormous $1.46 difference for the same grade of fuel, and that spread is not a temporary fluke — it reflects enduring structural realities. The Gulf Coast holds the lowest prices because it sits at the epicenter of US refining capacity, with the highest concentration of petroleum refineries in the country and short pipeline runs to major distribution hubs, plus the region’s states carry relatively modest fuel taxes. The West Coast at the other extreme combines California’s uniquely demanding CARB (California Air Resources Board) fuel standards that require a custom gasoline blend not interchangeable with the rest of the country, some of the highest state fuel taxes in the nation, and a refinery network that has limited redundancy — meaning any regional supply disruption pushes prices sharply higher. The EIA warns in its 2026 outlook that the West Coast’s pricing situation may become more acute in coming years as additional California refinery capacity retirements are expected, which is why it is the only PADD region projected to see 2027 prices roughly equal to 2025 rather than declining further.

Gas Prices by State in the US 2026 – Highest and Lowest States

Source: AAA Fuel Prices (as of February 10, 2026); LendingTree analysis of AAA state-level data, updated February 13, 2026.

The state-level breakdown of US gas prices in 2026 reveals an almost two-tiered country at the pump. The gap between California at $4.50 per gallon and Oklahoma at $2.34 per gallon is a stunning $2.16 per gallon — meaning a driver filling a 15-gallon tank in California pays more than $32 more per fill-up than their counterpart in Oklahoma. Only two states — Alaska and Washington — saw year-over-year gas price increases between February 2025 and February 2026. Alaska rose 3.2% due to logistical constraints and higher-than-usual supply costs following extreme winter weather, while Washington edged up 0.3% reflecting its high state tax environment and West Coast refinery pressures. The biggest year-over-year price declines were concentrated in the Great Plains and Midwest, where Oklahoma fell 14.9%, North Dakota dropped 14.1%, and Iowa declined 13.9% — states that benefit from low-priced Gulf Coast and Midwest pipeline supplies and carry modest state fuel taxes. The 10 states projected by GasBuddy to average below $2.75 per gallon for the full year 2026 are Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — a cluster that maps almost exactly onto the low-tax, Gulf Coast-adjacent tier of the country.

EIA Quarterly Gas Price Forecast in the US 2026–2027

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), February 10, 2026.

The EIA’s quarterly gas price forecast for 2026 and 2027 provides one of the clearest official windows into where US gas prices are headed for the remainder of the year. The quarterly pattern confirms what seasonal history suggests: Q1 and Q4 will be the cheapest quarters because of lower driving demand, cheaper winter gasoline blends, and reduced refinery margins, while Q2 will be the most expensive as the summer fuel switchover and increased road-trip demand push prices temporarily above $3.00. The EIA projects Q2 2026 at $3.04 per gallon — just slightly above the psychological $3.00 mark — before prices fall back through Q3 and into a very affordable Q4 2026 forecast of $2.76 per gallon, the cheapest quarter in the entire forecast period. The forward look into 2027 shows prices staying flat to slightly above 2026 levels, with a full-year average of $2.93 per gallon. The EIA explicitly notes that 2026 will see a decrease in retail gasoline prices in every US region, while 2027 will bring modest increases back — yet in every region except the West Coast, 2027 prices are still expected to remain below 2025 levels.

Crude Oil Prices and Their Impact on US Gas Prices 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), January and February 2026.

Crude oil prices are the single largest component of what Americans pay at the pump, typically accounting for around 50–55% of the retail gasoline price — which is why the projected drop from $69 Brent in 2025 to $58 in 2026 translates so directly into lower pump prices. The driving force behind this crude price decline is a structural global supply surplus: the EIA expects global oil inventories to build at an average of 2.8 million barrels per day in 2026, putting sustained downward pressure on prices throughout the year. US domestic production, which hit a record 13.6 million barrels per day in 2025, is expected to hold near that level in 2026 before easing slightly in 2027 as lower prices reduce drilling incentives. It is worth noting that the Brent price temporarily spiked to $67 per barrel in January 2026 — the highest since September 2025 — due to Winter Storm Fern disruptions, Iran-related geopolitical tensions, and cold-weather production freeze-offs in the US Northeast. However, the EIA views these as temporary disruptions and maintains its full-year forecast of $58 per barrel, expecting strong global supply growth to reassert itself and keep inventory builds elevated through the rest of 2026.

Diesel Fuel Prices in the US 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Weekly Petroleum Status Report, February 9, 2026; GasBuddy 2026 Fuel Price Outlook.

Diesel fuel prices tell a notably different story from gasoline in 2026 — they are declining, but much more slowly and from a higher relative base. At $3.688 per gallon as of February 9, 2026, diesel runs approximately $0.79 per gallon above regular gasoline, a premium that was essentially unheard of before 2021 when the two fuels tracked much closer together. GasBuddy’s 2026 diesel forecast of $3.55 per gallon for the full year is down from $3.62 in 2025, reflecting improvements in global refining capacity and stronger distillate inventories — but diesel remains stubbornly elevated because freight demand is robust and diesel does not benefit from the same seasonal blend-switching economics that benefit gasoline. The fact that diesel declined only $0.023 per gallon year-over-year as of February 2026, compared to gasoline’s $0.226 per gallon drop, underscores how structurally different these two fuel markets are. For the nation’s trucking fleet, farmers, construction companies, and the roughly 4% of US passenger vehicles that run on diesel, the elevated and sticky diesel price remains a meaningful ongoing cost pressure that the broadly positive gasoline headlines do not capture.

US Gasoline Consumption and Supply Statistics 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Weekly Petroleum Status Report, February 9–14, 2026; EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 10, 2026; GasBuddy 2026 Fuel Price Outlook.

One of the most structurally significant — and somewhat overlooked — trends in the US gasoline market in 2026 is the ongoing divergence between miles driven and gallons consumed. Despite Americans actually driving more miles than they did in 2019, total motor gasoline consumption is forecast to decline about 1% in 2026 and is expected to remain roughly 5% below 2019 levels through both 2026 and 2027. The explanation is the continuing improvement in fleet-level fuel efficiency: modern vehicles travel further on each gallon than the cars they replaced, and the steady penetration of hybrids and plug-in hybrids is accelerating this trend year by year. This is why even with lower prices, the average American household is projected to spend just $2,083 on gasoline in 2026 — the lowest since 2021, despite driving as many or more miles. That compares to $2,716 in 2022, a per-household saving of $633 per year from the peak, driven by a combination of lower fuel prices and more efficient vehicles. On the supply side, US refineries ran at 89.4% of operable capacity during the week ending February 6, 2026, producing 9.1 million barrels per day of finished gasoline — a robust output level that kept domestic inventories comfortably supplied and contributed to the mild downward price pressure seen throughout February 2026.

Federal and State Motor Fuel Taxes — Impact on US Gas Prices 2026

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Federal and State Motor Fuel Taxes reference data; American Petroleum Institute (API) state motor fuel tax data, 2025–2026.

Federal and state gasoline taxes represent a fixed cost layer that does not move with oil prices, and they play an enormous role in explaining the persistent price disparities between states. The federal excise tax of 18.4 cents per gallon has not been changed since 1993 and applies equally across all 50 states. What creates the dramatic differences is the state-level tax, which ranges from as low as around 18–19 cents per gallon in states like Alaska and Missouri all the way up to 68.1 cents per gallon in California. Add in California’s cap-and-trade program costs, its low-carbon fuel standard requirements, and its unique CARB fuel specifications, and the total regulatory and tax burden on a gallon of California gasoline exceeds 86 cents per gallon — a cost floor that remains expensive regardless of what happens to the underlying crude oil price. For consumers in low-tax states like Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi, the combination of minimal state taxes and proximity to Gulf Coast refineries keeps prices genuinely affordable even in years when crude is elevated. This tax structure means that while crude oil price declines benefit consumers nationally, the proportional relief felt in California is always smaller in absolute dollar terms than the relief experienced by drivers in low-tax Midwest and Gulf states.

Disclaimer: The data reports published on The Global Files are sourced from publicly available materials considered reliable. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no guarantees are provided regarding completeness or reliability. The Global Files is not liable for any errors, omissions, or damages resulting from the use of these reports.