Iowa Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Iowa’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 30.0¢ a gallon, tied for the 23rd-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. Iowa taxes gasoline by ethanol content. Fuel with less than 15 percent ethanol, which most drivers buy, is taxed at 30¢ a gallon. E15 and higher blends pay a lower rate that the state recalculates from the share of ethanol sold statewide; it rose from 26.5¢ to 28¢ on July 1, 2026. The current level dates from a 10¢ increase on March 1, 2015.

Iowa has no petroleum refineries. Gasoline reaches the state by product pipeline and truck from refineries elsewhere, and is blended at terminals with ethanol, much of it made in Iowa, which has more fuel ethanol production capacity than any other state. Iowa has no federal reformulated-gasoline areas.

Without a weekly EIA series for Iowa, its seasonal pattern can only be read from the Midwest region’s weekly prices, which over 2004–2025 bottomed in January at 9.8% below their annual average and peaked in June at 7.5% above.

Iowa’s annual average has moved from above the national average to below it. Its highest-priced ranking on record, 43rd-cheapest of the 51, came in 1984 and 1985, and its cheapest, 5th, in 2005. Since 2000 it has been below the U.S. average in every year but 2007. From 2000 through 2014 its gap ranged from 7.6¢ below to 1.1¢ above the U.S. average, and from 2015 through 2024 from 10.6¢ to 17.7¢ below, when it ranked between 15th and 18th. The highest annual average is $3.73, in 2022. Adjusted for inflation, the highest was 1981, at $4.91 in 2025 dollars, and the lowest 1998, at $0.99 ($1.96 in 2025 dollars).

Iowa's cheapest ranking on record was 5th-cheapest in 2005, and its least favourable was 43rd-cheapest (8th-most-expensive) in 1984 and 1985. The 2024 rank of 18th-cheapest equals the rank of 1970, when the average was $0.35.

Measured at the pump, Iowa's highest annual average was $3.73 in 2022. In constant 2025 dollars the highest was $4.91 in 1981, and the lowest was $1.96 in 1998. The 2024 average of $3.12 is $3.21 when expressed in 2025 dollars.

The year-to-year path includes a 41.2% rise in 2021 and a 28.2% fall in 2015. Between 2014 and 2024 the pump price fell 3.5%, while the same period in constant 2025 dollars shows a fall of 27.2%. The EIA estimates each year after 2010 from the change in the state's region, so those moves since 2011 are the region's moves.

Against the U.S. average, the 2024 gap was 16.5¢ below, with the U.S. at $3.29. The largest amount above the U.S. average in any year from 1970 to 2024 was 5.8¢ in 1985, and the largest amount below was 17.7¢ in 2023. Iowa was below the U.S. average in 37 of 55 years and above it in 17 of 55.

Among the 6 bordering states, Wisconsin at $3.28 and South Dakota at $3.23 sat above Iowa's $3.12 in 2024, by 15.8¢ and 10.9¢ respectively. Nebraska was at $3.21, Illinois at $3.18 and Minnesota at $3.15. Missouri, at $3.03, was the only bordering state below Iowa.