Tennessee Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Tennessee’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 27.4¢ a gallon, the 19th-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. The IMPROVE Act of 2017 raised the gasoline tax from 20¢ to 26¢ in three steps: 4¢ in July 2017, then 1¢ in July 2018 and 1¢ in July 2019. A 1¢ special privilege tax and an environmental assurance fee are added. The rate is not indexed to inflation.

Tennessee has one refinery, Valero’s Memphis plant, with 180,000 barrels a day of capacity in the EIA’s January 2026 count. Branches of both the Colonial and Plantation pipelines reach into the state from the Southeast.

Summer fuel rules eased in 2017–2018, when the Nashville area (Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson counties) and Shelby County, which includes Memphis, were moved off the federal 7.8 psi summer volatility limit to the standard 9.0 psi.

In the EIA’s annual data, Tennessee ranked between 7th and 19th cheapest every year since 2000, and 12th in 2024. Its average gap to the U.S. average was 5.9¢ below in the 2000s and 20.0¢ below in 2020–2024, a smaller discount than in neighboring Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Tennessee’s record annual average is $3.68 in 2022. Adjusted for inflation, the most expensive year was 1981, at $4.93 in 2025 dollars.

The EIA groups Tennessee with the Midwest region (PADD 2), whose weekly prices peak sharply in June at 7.5% above the year’s mean and are lowest in January at 9.8% below.

Tennessee ranked 12th of 51 in the EIA’s annual state data for 2014, counting from the cheapest, and exactly the same in 2024. Its price fell over that decade, from $3.19 to $3.08, but so did prices in the other low-cost states around it, so its position did not move.

The state has been below the national figure every year since 1992. The discount was widest in 2023, at 22.0¢, and in 2024 it was 20.6¢. The largest premium on record, 3.5¢ above, dates from 1990. Tennessee’s best placing in the series was 5th, in 1974. Over the decade the U.S. average fell less than the state’s, from $3.31 to $3.29.

With eight neighbors, Tennessee has cheaper states on several sides. In 2024 Alabama averaged $2.89, Mississippi $2.90, Arkansas $2.92, Georgia $2.95 and Missouri $3.03, all below Tennessee’s $3.08. Virginia ($3.09), Kentucky ($3.17) and North Carolina ($3.18) were higher. The cheaper group lies mostly to the south and west, closer to the Gulf Coast refineries that supply the region through the Colonial and Plantation pipelines.

Tennessee's least favourable placing came in 1978, when it stood 36th-cheapest (16th-most-expensive). The years it averaged above the U.S. figure were 1978–1982 and 1986–1991, 11 of 55 in all, while 43 of 55 years came in below it. Counted from the top, the 2024 ranking was 40th-most-expensive.

In 1970 Tennessee was tied for 21st-cheapest at $0.36, and in 1980 it was tied for 22nd-cheapest at $1.24. A $1.18 average in 1990 meant a tie for 29th-cheapest, while $1.41 in 2000 meant 7th-cheapest. In 2010 it was tied for 11th-cheapest at $2.64, and in 2020 it was 12th-cheapest at $1.98.

Measured in 2025 dollars, 1998 was the lowest year at $2.03. The largest one-year rise, 41.2%, came in 2021, and the largest one-year fall, 29.5%, came in 2009. Because 2021 falls after 2010, the EIA estimated that year from the change in the state's region.

Among the bordering states in 2024, Tennessee averaged 5.1¢ above Missouri ($3.03) and 0.6¢ below Virginia ($3.09). North Carolina had the highest bordering average at $3.18, and Alabama the lowest at $2.89. In 2024, 5 of 8 bordering states averaged less than Tennessee.