What Did Gas Cost the Year You Were Born?
The U.S. average price of gasoline in each year from 1970 to 2025, at the pump and in 2025 dollars, compared with this week’s $4.35.
A gallon of regular cost
That is 33.0% less than this week’s national average of $4.35, which is $4.20 in 2025 dollars.
In 1990, gas cost $1.14/gal — that’s $2.81 in today’s money.
US Gas Gauge · U.S. EIA data
In 2025 dollars, the annual average was highest in the early 1980s and again around 2011–12, and lowest in the late 1990s.
Adjusted for inflation, the most expensive gas in modern U.S. history came in 2012 at $5.08 a gallon in 2025 dollars; the cheapest was 1998 at $2.07. Right now the U.S. average is around $4.35. See today’s prices by state →
Want the full write-up for a single year? Browse gas prices by year, 1970–2025 →
How to read the two prices for each year
Choose a year in the tool and it gives two prices. The first is what a gallon cost at the pump that year, averaged over the whole year. The second restates the same price in 2025 dollars, using the Consumer Price Index, so it can be set against a recent price without the distortion of general inflation.
The first year in the series shows why both are needed. In 1970 the national average was $0.36 a gallon, which is $2.96 in 2025 dollars. The 2025 average was $3.10. Measured at the pump, the price rose 768.7% between the two years; measured in constant dollars it rose only 4.7%.
The inflation-adjusted line is not a steady climb. For someone born in 1981, gas that year cost $4.85 in today’s money, the 4th-highest of any year, while in 1986 the real price fell 26.1% in a single year.
Two notes on the data. Years before 2000 use the EIA’s average for all grades of gasoline, and later years use regular only. The chosen year is kept in the page address after a # sign, so a copied link opens with that year already selected.
Figures in this section are computed from U.S. Energy Information Administration data in the US Gas Gauge database.
View the full data (56 years)
| Year | At the pump | 2025 $ |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | $0.36 | $2.96 |
| 1971 | $0.36 | $2.89 |
| 1972 | $0.36 | $2.78 |
| 1973 | $0.39 | $2.81 |
| 1974 | $0.54 | $3.53 |
| 1975 | $0.58 | $3.47 |
| 1976 | $0.61 | $3.43 |
| 1977 | $0.64 | $3.41 |
| 1978 | $0.66 | $3.24 |
| 1979 | $0.89 | $3.95 |
| 1980 | $1.23 | $4.81 |
| 1981 | $1.37 | $4.85 |
| 1982 | $1.30 | $4.34 |
| 1983 | $1.14 | $3.69 |
| 1984 | $1.11 | $3.45 |
| 1985 | $1.13 | $3.37 |
| 1986 | $0.85 | $2.49 |
| 1987 | $0.90 | $2.56 |
| 1988 | $0.92 | $2.50 |
| 1989 | $1.00 | $2.61 |
| 1990 | $1.14 | $2.81 |
| 1991 | $1.12 | $2.64 |
| 1992 | $1.12 | $2.57 |
| 1993 | $1.10 | $2.46 |
| 1994 | $1.12 | $2.43 |
| 1995 | $1.14 | $2.42 |
| 1996 | $1.22 | $2.51 |
| 1997 | $1.22 | $2.45 |
| 1998 | $1.05 | $2.07 |
| 1999 | $1.15 | $2.23 |
| 2000 | $1.48 | $2.78 |
| 2001 | $1.42 | $2.58 |
| 2002 | $1.35 | $2.41 |
| 2003 | $1.56 | $2.73 |
| 2004 | $1.85 | $3.16 |
| 2005 | $2.27 | $3.75 |
| 2006 | $2.57 | $4.11 |
| 2007 | $2.80 | $4.34 |
| 2008 | $3.25 | $4.86 |
| 2009 | $2.35 | $3.53 |
| 2010 | $2.78 | $4.11 |
| 2011 | $3.52 | $5.04 |
| 2012 | $3.62 | $5.08 |
| 2013 | $3.51 | $4.85 |
| 2014 | $3.36 | $4.57 |
| 2015 | $2.43 | $3.30 |
| 2016 | $2.14 | $2.88 |
| 2017 | $2.42 | $3.17 |
| 2018 | $2.72 | $3.49 |
| 2019 | $2.60 | $3.28 |
| 2020 | $2.17 | $2.70 |
| 2021 | $3.01 | $3.58 |
| 2022 | $3.95 | $4.35 |
| 2023 | $3.52 | $3.72 |
| 2024 | $3.30 | $3.39 |
| 2025 | $3.10 | $3.10 |
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data System (national annual series). Inflation adjustment uses the BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), constant 2025 dollars.