Gas Price Guides
Longer reference guides to how U.S. gasoline prices are measured, what they are made of, and how they have moved since the 1970s. Charts and tables come from the EIA data behind this site; other claims cite their sources.
How the EIA gas price survey works explains where the weekly numbers on every page come from: which stations are surveyed, when, and what the averages include. Why gas prices differ by state breaks the gap between the cheapest and most expensive states into taxes, fuel rules and distance from refineries.
How wholesale prices flow to the pump follows a gallon from the spot market to the station, with the usual lag in weeks. Seasonal gas price patterns measures how much prices rise from winter to early summer in the national data, and the history of price spikes covers each major spike from the 1973 embargo to the present.
- Guide · State prices
Why gas prices differ so much by state
Taxes, distance from refineries, fuel-blend rules, and local market structure explain most of the gap between the cheapest and most expensive states. This guide measures each one with EIA data.
- Guide · Methodology
How the EIA gas price survey works
Where the weekly national average comes from: who the EIA surveys, when prices are collected, how state and regional figures are built, and what they cover.
- Guide · Wholesale
How wholesale gasoline prices flow to the pump
Crude oil becomes a wholesale gasoline price at trading hubs, then passes through terminals, distributors, and stations. This guide follows that chain and measures the lag with daily and weekly EIA data.
- Guide · Seasonality
Seasonal gas price patterns explained
Month-by-month price patterns for the U.S. and the nine states the EIA surveys weekly, measured over 22 full years of data, and how the regional seasons differ.
- Guide · History
A history of major U.S. gas price spikes, 1970s to present
The 1973 embargo, 1979, the Gulf War, Katrina, 2008, 2022, and 2026: what caused each spike, how high prices went, and how long they took to come back down.
Which guide answers which question
The five guides are reference pieces, meant to be read once and then come back to. They are easiest to use by starting from the question you have.
If a number on this site looks different from a price you saw at a station, start with the guide to the EIA survey. It explains that the weekly figure is an average across sampled stations, taken on Monday, and why any single station can sit well above or below it. If the question is why a trip across a state line changes the price, the state-differences guide sorts the gap into taxes, fuel specifications and transport costs, with the figures for each.
The wholesale guide is the one to read when crude oil has fallen and pump prices have not yet followed. It traces the path from the spot market through the rack to the retailer, and measures how much faster prices pass through on the way up than on the way down. For timing questions, such as whether to expect a rise before summer, the seasonal guide measures the usual pattern in the weekly national data. The history of spikes sets any current jump against the episodes since the 1973 embargo.
The guides draw their charts and tables from the same EIA series as the state and year pages, so a figure quoted in one can be followed back to the data page it came from.
Figures in this section are computed from U.S. Energy Information Administration data in the US Gas Gauge database.