Gas Prices in Colorado Today

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Colorado’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 30.2¢ a gallon, the 25th-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. Colorado’s excise tax is 22¢. Most of the remainder is a set of per-gallon fees, including a road usage fee that the state began collecting in April 2023 and that is scheduled to rise over time.

The state has one refinery, Suncor’s plant in Commerce City, north of Denver. The rest of Colorado’s gasoline arrives by pipeline from refineries in neighboring states and the southern plains. Colorado is part of the EIA’s Rocky Mountain region (PADD 4), a small, inland market, so a problem at the one in-state refinery affects prices more than a single outage would in a state with many refineries. That happened in early 2023, as the history page shows.

Two fuel rules apply. As in other Rocky Mountain states, regular gasoline is sold at 85 octane rather than 87, which the EIA attributes to the region’s altitude. And since November 2023, the Denver metro and North Front Range area has been required to sell federal reformulated gasoline, after the EPA reclassified it as a “severe” ozone nonattainment area. The EIA began publishing a separate reformulated price for Colorado in the week of November 13, 2023.

Colorado has the largest seasonal swing of the nine states the EIA surveys weekly. Averaged over 2004–2025, its January price is 12.4% below the year’s average and its July price 7.9% above, a range of about 20 points; the U.S.-wide range is about 15. Prices also stay high longer: June through September are all at least 7% above the annual average, and the peak comes in July, a month later than in most coastal states. Over the whole weekly series, Colorado’s average has been below the U.S. average in about 72 percent of weeks.

Colorado's 2024 annual average was $3.13, which ranks 19th-cheapest among the 50 states and D.C. and 33rd-most-expensive when counted from the other end. The same year's price equals $3.22 in constant 2025 dollars. The U.S. average on the same basis was $3.29.

Colorado's position has shifted a good deal since 1970. It held 5th-cheapest in 1970 at $0.34, reached 3rd-cheapest in 1979 and 1981, and stood at 23rd-cheapest in 1990 at $1.16. In 2001 it was 47th-cheapest, which is 5th-most-expensive. By 2010 it was 14th-cheapest (tied) at $2.65, and in 2020 it was 39th-cheapest at $2.28.

Among bordering states in 2024, Arizona had the highest average at $3.80, and Colorado was 66.6¢ below Arizona. New Mexico had the lowest at $3.02, and Colorado was 11.7¢ above New Mexico. Colorado was also 9.6¢ above Oklahoma at $3.04. Nebraska was at $3.21, and Utah at $3.33.

The gap to the U.S. average reached its largest size above in 2021, at 21.3¢. The largest size below came in 2024, at 15.3¢. Colorado averaged below the U.S. in 21 of 55 years and above it in 32 of 55.

Over the decade from 2014 to 2024, the average fell 5.5% at the pump and fell 28.7% in constant 2025 dollars. The weekly record for regular gasoline in Colorado is $4.87, set in the week of June 20, 2022.