Gas Prices in San Francisco Today

The Bay Area is California’s second refining center, and its capacity has been falling. EIA’s January 2026 survey lists Chevron’s Richmond refinery at about 245,000 barrels a day, the Martinez Refining Company plant at 156,400 and Valero’s Benicia refinery at 145,000; Valero announced that it would end refining at Benicia, with a target of the end of April 2026. Earlier, Marathon’s Martinez refinery switched from petroleum fuels to renewable diesel, which EIA estimated cut West Coast gasoline supply by 9%. Like the rest of the state, the metro must use California’s CARBOB blend and has no pipeline link to other U.S. refining centers.

The state gasoline excise tax is 63.4¢ a gallon from July 1, 2026, up from 61.2¢, and gasoline carries a state sales tax of 2.25% plus local district taxes.

Since June 2000, San Francisco has averaged 66¢ above the U.S. price and 5¢ above the California average, and it has been above the statewide figure in 83% of weeks. The gap to the national average averaged $1.39 in 2025 and $1.54 in 2026 through September. In the fall of 2022, planned and unplanned refinery outages and low inventories pushed West Coast prices up; the San Francisco price rose 58¢ in the week of October 3, 2022, to $6.36, close to the series high of $6.38 set in the week of June 13, 2022.

The lowest weekly price in the series was $1.24, in the week of February 11, 2002, and 2002 also has the lowest yearly average, $1.58. The series began on June 5, 2000, at $1.76. The average was $1.77 in 2001 and $1.90 in 2003.

The yearly average was $3.56 in 2008. In 2009 it fell 24.5%, to $2.69, the largest fall from the year before. The average was $4.04 in 2012 and $2.75 in 2016.

In 2021 the yearly average rose 31.3%, to $4.13, the largest rise from the year before. The highest yearly average, $5.41, came in 2022. The averages after that were $4.77 in 2023, $4.65 in 2024 and $4.49 in 2025.

Within 2025, the highest week was $4.97, the week of May 19, 2025, and the lowest was $4.02, the week of December 29, 2025. The difference between the highest and lowest weekly prices of 2025 was 95.5¢.