Gas Prices in 2024

The 2024 average was $3.30, 21.5¢ below 2023 and 8.8% lower after inflation. The EIA attributed the decline to both lower crude oil prices and narrower refinery margins than in 2023, and reported that prices fell in every region, most of all in the Rocky Mountains.

The shape of the year was conventional. Prices rose from $3.09 in the first week to a spring peak, with the largest weekly increase, 10.1¢, in the week of March 4. The high came in the week of April 22 at $3.67, about 21¢ below the 2023 high. After that, prices declined for most of the year. The largest weekly drop, 8.7¢, came in the week of June 10, and the monthly average fell from $3.61 in April to $3.02 in December, the lowest monthly figure since 2021.

The year’s low was its final week, December 30, at $3.01. The New York Harbor wholesale price averaged $2.33 a gallon, down from $2.60 in 2023, a slightly larger decline than the pump price.

In current dollars, 2024’s average of $3.30 was 1.6% below 2014’s $3.36; after inflation it was 25.8% below it. Compared with 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, it was 26.9% higher, but only 3.4% higher in real terms, so most of that five-year increase matched general inflation. Measured in 2025 dollars, 2024 was cheaper than every year from 2005 through 2014.

The level of prices had still moved up. The lowest week of 2024, $3.01 on December 30, 2024, was above the highest week of 2019, $2.90. In the table of complete years since 1970, 2024 is 7th in current dollars and 25th in real terms; the years with a higher unadjusted average are 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2022, and 2023.

EIA’s all-grades state estimates for 2024, the latest year they cover, put Texas ($2.88) and Alabama ($2.89) at the bottom, less than a cent apart. Georgia, the cheapest state as recently as 2022, placed 6th. At the top, Hawaii ($4.73) and Alaska ($4.72) were nearly level, with California next at $4.42.

The U.S. average was $3.52 in 2023 and fell 6.1% at the pump to 2024. From 2024 to 2025 it fell 6.3%, to $3.10. In constant 2025 dollars, the 2023 to 2024 change was a decrease of 8.8%, and the 2024 to 2025 change was a decrease of 8.7%.

The highest U.S. annual average in constant 2025 dollars from 1970 to 2025 was $5.08, in 2012. The 2024 average of $3.39 in those terms ranks 25th-highest of 56 complete years, and the 2024 average of $3.30 at the pump ranks 7th-highest of the same 56 years.

EIA recorded 53 weeks of data in 2024. The difference between the highest weekly price, $3.67, and the lowest, $3.01, was 66.2¢.

The state figures are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages for all grades. Texas was the cheapest state in 2024 at $2.88, and Hawaii was the most expensive at $4.73, a difference of $1.84. Of 51 states, including D.C., 21 had a 2024 average above the U.S. average on that basis.