Gas Prices in Chicago Today

Chicago is part of the Midwest fuel market (PADD 2) and draws most of its gasoline from nearby refineries. The largest is BP’s plant in Whiting, Indiana, the biggest refinery in the Midwest, with 435,000 barrels a day of crude capacity in EIA’s January 2026 survey; ExxonMobil’s Joliet refinery (267,000) and the Lemont refinery (about 188,000) are in Illinois. The EPA places Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties and parts of Grundy and Kendall in the Chicago–Gary–Lake County reformulated-gasoline area, so the metro sells federal reformulated gasoline while most of the surrounding Midwest sells conventional gasoline.

Three per-gallon taxes stack in the city. The Illinois motor fuel tax is 48.3¢ a gallon, the rate since July 1, 2025; a 2026 law held it there through December 31, 2026, in place of the scheduled inflation adjustment. Cook County adds 6¢ a gallon, and the City of Chicago adds 8¢, its rate since January 1, 2021.

Illinois has no EIA weekly state series, so the closest comparison is the Midwest average. Since June 2000, Chicago has averaged 17¢ above the U.S. price and 24¢ above the Midwest, and it has been above the Midwest figure in 99% of weeks; since 2021 its gap to the U.S. average has been 30¢. After an unplanned outage shut its largest crude unit on August 8, 2015, the Chicago price rose 68¢ in one week, from $2.68 to $3.37 in the week of August 17, while the U.S. average rose 9¢. The series high is $5.80, in the week of June 13, 2022.

Yearly averages in the Chicago series reached $3.41 in 2008, then $2.46 in 2009, a fall of 27.7% from the year before. The average came back to $2.94 in 2010 and $3.74 in 2011, and $3.85 in 2012 is the top of that stretch. The figure was $3.75 in 2013 and $3.57 in 2014, before it reached $2.62 in 2015.

The 2021 average of $3.20 was a rise of 38.7% from 2020, when the figure was $2.31. The 2022 average of $4.39 is the highest yearly average, and the highest weekly price through 2025, $5.80, came in the week of June 13, 2022. The 2023 average was $3.83, and the 2024 average was $3.68.

At the other end, the lowest weekly price through 2025 was $1.09, in the week of February 11, 2002. The 2002 yearly average of $1.43 is the lowest yearly average. Averages in earlier years were $1.53 in 2001, $1.62 in 2003 and $1.90 in 2004, compared with the opening price of $1.95 in the week of June 5, 2000.

For 2025, the yearly average was $3.38. The 2025 range ran from $3.66 in the week of September 1, 2025 to $2.99 in the week of December 22, 2025. The EIA figures cover the Chicago metro area, and the current year is left out of the yearly averages.