Gas Prices in 2023

Gasoline averaged $3.52 in 2023, 43.2¢ less than in 2022 and 14.5% lower after inflation. The EIA attributed the decline partly to lower crude oil prices than in 2022 and partly to higher gasoline inventories in the second half of the year.

The year followed a late seasonal pattern. Prices rose from $3.22 in the first week to a monthly average of $3.60 in April and stayed near that level through July. They rose again in late summer, as OPEC+ production cuts, including additional voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia from July, tightened the crude oil market. The largest weekly increase, 16.1¢, came in the week of July 31, and the year’s high, $3.88, came in the week of September 18, a late peak compared with most years.

Prices then fell for the rest of the year. The largest weekly decline, 11.4¢, came in the week of October 9, the monthly average dropped to $3.13 in December, and the low was $3.05 in the week of December 18. Even the September peak was more than $1.10 below the June 2022 record.

The two rankings are far apart for 2023. It is 4th among complete years since 1970 in current dollars, but 15th after adjusting for inflation. The comparison with 2013 shows why. The 2023 average, $3.52, was almost the same as 2013’s $3.51 in current dollars, up just 0.4%, while in real terms it was 23.2% lower: a decade of inflation, much of it in 2021 and 2022, had raised other prices without lifting gasoline further.

Against 2018, five years earlier, 2023 was 29.4% higher in current dollars and 6.7% higher after inflation, a much smaller real increase. The cheapest week of 2023, $3.05 on December 18, 2023, was still above the 2021 annual average of $3.01, while the most expensive, $3.88 on September 18, 2023, stayed under the 2022 average of $3.95.

Texas had the cheapest all-grades average among the states in 2023, $3.06, according to EIA’s state estimates, with Georgia less than a cent above at $3.07. Hawaii, at $5.07, and Alaska, at $5.07, were the dearest, ahead of California at $4.65, compared with a U.S. all-grades figure of $3.49.

Texas recorded the lowest state average in 2023 at $3.06, while Hawaii recorded the highest at $5.07, and the $2.01 between them is the state spread for the year. On the same all-grades basis, 22 of 51 states, counting D.C., had an average above the U.S. figure.

The 2023 national average of $3.52 stood against $3.95 in 2022, a fall of 10.9% at the pump. The inflation-adjusted decline from 2022 to 2023 was 14.5%. In 2024 the average was $3.30, and the change from 2023 was a fall of 6.1% at the pump and 8.8% in constant 2025 dollars.

Across the decade, the 2013 average at the pump was $3.51. Measured in constant 2025 dollars, the 2023 average was down 23.2% from 2013. The highest annual average in constant 2025 dollars across 1970–2025 was $5.08 in 2012, and the 2023 figure in those dollars was $3.72.

The 2023 record contains 52 weeks of EIA data. The weekly high was $3.88 and the weekly low was $3.05, a gap of 82.5¢. Among the 56 complete years, 2023 ranks 4th-highest at the pump. In constant 2025 dollars it ranks 15th-highest. Counted from the cheapest, it is 42nd-lowest.