Gas Prices in Massachusetts Today

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Massachusetts’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 27.6¢ a gallon, the 20th-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. The excise tax is 24¢. A 2013 law tied it to inflation, but voters repealed the automatic increases in a November 2014 ballot question, so the rate changes only when the legislature changes it. The rest of the state figure is mostly a delivery fee that funds cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks.

New England has no operating refineries. The EIA reports that the region’s fuel is delivered primarily by tanker and barge to coastal terminals, with smaller amounts by rail and truck from New York and Canada. The Colonial Pipeline, which carries Gulf Coast gasoline up the East Coast, ends in the New York Harbor area and does not reach Massachusetts. Boston-area prices therefore follow the New York Harbor wholesale market and the cost of shipping from it, plus imports.

Massachusetts requires federal reformulated gasoline statewide; the EPA lists the whole state as a covered area. The EIA publishes only a reformulated price for Massachusetts, with no separate conventional series. Reformulated gasoline costs more to make than conventional gasoline. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the New York City metro area also require it, so it is the standard product in the supply chain that serves the state.

The seasonal rise starts later than in southern states. Averaged over 2004–2025, Massachusetts prices in April are still slightly below the annual average (0.8%), while Texas and Florida are already nearly 3% above. The Massachusetts peak comes in June, 6.3% above average, and prices stay above average through September.

Over the full weekly series Massachusetts has been close to the national average: 2.8¢ below it on average, and above it in about 35 percent of weeks.

The largest one-year rise in the Massachusetts annual average was 40.4% in 1974. The largest one-year fall was 29.3% in 2015, and 2015 is also one of the nine years in which the state averaged below the U.S. The other years on that list are 1972, 1978–1982, 1984 and 2021.

Massachusetts was 6th-cheapest in 1982, its cheapest ranking in any year from 1970 to 2024. In 1991 it was 48th-cheapest, which is 4th-most-expensive, its least favourable ranking. The 1991 gap above the U.S. was 13.5¢, while the 1982 gap below the U.S. was 4.0¢.

The 2024 average was $3.33 a gallon, equal to $3.42 in constant 2025 dollars. The U.S. figure on the same basis was $3.29, so Massachusetts stood 4.3¢ above it. The 2024 rank was 34th-cheapest, tied with another state, or 17th-most-expensive counted from the top.

Among the bordering states in 2024, Connecticut had the highest average at $3.37 and New York the lowest at $3.17. Massachusetts was 3.9¢ below Connecticut and 16.1¢ above New York. Vermont averaged $3.36, Rhode Island $3.34 and New Hampshire $3.25.

The highest annual average at the pump was $4.03 in 2022. The EIA weekly series put the highest weekly regular price at $5.04 in the week of June 13, 2022. The lowest annual average in constant 2025 dollars was $2.23 in 1998, and the price in 1970 was $0.36, ranked 25th-cheapest.