North Carolina Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, North Carolina’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 41.3¢ a gallon, the 10th-highest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. Most of it is excise, among the higher rates in the country. The rate is reset every January 1 by a formula: the prior year’s rate adjusted by population growth (weighted 75 percent) and the energy component of the Consumer Price Index (25 percent). For 2026 it is 41.0¢ a gallon.

North Carolina has no refineries. Its gasoline arrives on the Colonial and Plantation pipelines from Gulf Coast refineries, which run through the Charlotte and Greensboro areas toward Virginia.

That higher tax shows in the EIA’s annual data. North Carolina ranked 24th cheapest in 2024, while its neighbors South Carolina and Georgia ranked 7th and 6th. Its average ran above the U.S. figure in 2005–2009, by as much as 5.6¢ in 2008. It has been below the U.S. average every year since 2015, by 14.9¢ on average in 2020–2024. North Carolina’s record annual average is $3.67 in 2022. Adjusted for inflation, the most expensive year was 2012, at $4.98 in 2025 dollars; the least expensive was 1998, at $2.00.

Mecklenburg and Gaston counties, around Charlotte, were moved from the federal 7.8 psi summer volatility limit to the standard 9.0 psi in October 2015. North Carolina is in the EIA’s Lower Atlantic region (PADD 1C), where weekly prices average 7.7% below the year’s mean in January and 5.1% above in June, a smaller swing than the U.S. average.

North Carolina has been below the U.S. average every year since 2015, yet in 2024 it was the most expensive state in its neighborhood. Its all-grades average of $3.18 was 10.7¢ under the national figure, but above Georgia ($2.95), South Carolina ($2.99), Tennessee ($3.08) and Virginia ($3.09). In the EIA tax table its state tax, 41.3¢, is above Georgia’s, South Carolina’s and Tennessee’s but below Virginia’s 42.4¢, so the tax order and the price order do not match on every border.

The largest discount in the EIA series came in 2022, at 22.5¢ below the U.S., when the state ranked 13th of 51 counting from the cheapest. The largest premium was in 2008, the year of the summer price spike, at 5.6¢ above. Before the current run, the state was also below the national figure in 1970, 1974–1979, 1986, 1988, and 1993–2004.

Over the ten years to 2024, the state’s price went from $3.33 to $3.18, a bigger fall than the national average, which went from $3.31 to $3.29. Its rank moved from 26th to 24th. The state resets its excise each January by a formula based on population growth and an energy price index, so the tax itself can change from one year to the next.

North Carolina's cheapest ranking in any year from 1970 to 2024 was 7th-cheapest in 1977. Its least favourable was 35th-cheapest, which is 17th-most-expensive, and it held that position in 1971 and again in 2008. In 1970 the annual average of $0.35 put the state 15th-cheapest, and in 1980 the average of $1.24 put it 25th-cheapest. The annual average rose 42.6% in 1980.

The 1990 average of $1.18 carried a rank of 31st-cheapest, while 2000 brought $1.45 and a rank of 15th-cheapest. The 2010 average of $2.73 ranked 24th-cheapest, and the 2020 average of $2.05 ranked 21st-cheapest. Of the 55 years from 1970 to 2024, North Carolina averaged below the U.S. figure in 31 of 55 and above it in 23 of 55.

In 2024 the state's average was $3.18, which equals $3.27 in constant 2025 dollars, and the U.S. average on the same basis was $3.29. Counted from the most expensive end, the 2024 rank was 28th-most-expensive. In the EIA tax table dated July 2026, North Carolina's state taxes and fees of 41.3¢ a gallon were 7.5¢ above the 33.8¢ average across the 50 states and D.C.