South Carolina Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, South Carolina’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 28.8¢ a gallon, the 21st-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. A 2017 law raised the excise from 16¢ to 28¢ in six annual steps of 2¢, starting July 1, 2017 and ending July 1, 2022, with the added revenue placed in a road maintenance trust fund. Small inspection and environmental fees are added on top.

South Carolina has no refineries. Its gasoline arrives on the Colonial and Plantation pipelines from Gulf Coast refineries, which cross the northwestern part of the state.

In the EIA’s annual data, South Carolina has been among the cheapest states for most of the past three decades: second cheapest in 1994, 1996–1999, 2010–2013, and 2022, and in the top ten every year since 2009. Its average gap to the U.S. average was 9.9¢ below in the 1990s, 9.5¢ below in the 2000s, and 32.7¢ below in 2020–2024. The phased tax increase ended in 2022; South Carolina ranked second cheapest that year, at 44.1¢ below the U.S. average, and seventh in 2024, at 29.5¢ below. In 1980 it ranked 45th, 4.3¢ above the U.S. average. South Carolina’s record annual average is $3.45 in 2022. Adjusted for inflation, the most expensive year was 1981, at $5.02 in 2025 dollars.

South Carolina is in the EIA’s Lower Atlantic region (PADD 1C), where weekly prices ran 21¢ below the U.S. average in 2025 and vary less over the year than the national average.

In the EIA’s annual state data, South Carolina’s average has been above the U.S. figure in only 6 years: 1972 and 1979–1983. All of them came before 1990, and most fall in the years of the second oil shock and its aftermath. The biggest premium, in 1981, was 4.9¢ above.

The discount has been far larger than any of those premiums. It peaked in 2022, when South Carolina averaged 44.1¢ below the U.S. and ranked 2nd of 51, counting from the cheapest. In 2024 the gap was 29.5¢ below.

Over the decade to 2024, the state’s price fell from $3.14 to $2.99, yet its rank slipped from 5th to 7th because other low-price states fell further. Georgia, next door, has been cheaper than South Carolina every year since 1979; in 2024 it averaged $2.95 and ranked 6th, one place ahead of South Carolina. North Carolina, at $3.18, was above both. The phased increase in South Carolina’s user fee, from 2017 to 2022, fell within this decade as well, and did not stop the state’s price from falling.

South Carolina's 1970 annual average was $0.34, and the state ranked 8th-cheapest (tied) that year. The average rose 44.3% in 1979, the largest one-year rise in the series. In 1980 it stood at $1.27, a rank of 45th-cheapest, or 7th-most-expensive. The 1990 average was $1.10 with a rank of 7th-cheapest, and the 2000 average was $1.38 with a rank of 4th-cheapest.

The largest one-year fall, 30.5%, came in 2009. In 2010 the average was $2.57 and the rank was 2nd-cheapest. The 2020 average was $1.93, and the rank was 7th-cheapest.

South Carolina's 2024 average was $2.99, equal to $3.07 in 2025 dollars, while the U.S. average that year was $3.29. The state ranked 7th-cheapest in 2024, which is 45th-most-expensive. Between 1970 and 2024 it averaged below the U.S. figure in 49 of 55 years. The 1998 average, $1.84 in 2025 dollars, is the lowest constant-dollar annual average in that span.

In 2024 South Carolina averaged 4.1¢ above Georgia, and it averaged 18.8¢ below North Carolina. In the July 2026 EIA table of state gasoline taxes and fees, the average across the 50 states and D.C. is 33.8¢ a gallon, and South Carolina's total is 5.0¢ below it.