U.S. Motor Gasoline Average Price Across All Sectors by State, 2024

Motor gasoline average prices across U.S. states ranged from $23.97 to $39.30 per million Btu in 2024. EIA’s State Energy Data System shows Hawaii at the highest value, $39.30/MMBtu, followed almost exactly by Alaska at $39.29. California was third at $36.76, Washington fourth at $33.82, and Oregon fifth at $33.75. Texas had the lowest state value at $23.97. The unweighted mean across the 50 states and D.C. was about $27.62 and the median was $26.68, while EIA’s U.S. Total price was $27.36/MMBtu.

This series differs from the familiar dollars-per-gallon gasoline price. SEDS converts motor gasoline prices to dollars per million Btu so they can be used in a common state energy accounting framework. Finished motor gasoline includes conventional, reformulated, and oxygenated gasoline such as gasohol, including fuel ethanol blended into gasoline, but it excludes aviation gasoline. State and federal motor-fuel taxes are included, while state general sales taxes, local fuel taxes, and local sales taxes are excluded.

What the all-sector motor gasoline price measures

EIA Table F16 reports motor gasoline prices and expenditures for commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. A distinctive feature of this series is that each state uses the same price in all three sectors. SEDS estimates the transportation-sector motor gasoline price and assigns that state price to commercial and industrial motor gasoline consumption as well.

That is why Alabama is $24.03 in commercial, industrial, transportation, and Total, while California is $36.76 in all four columns and Texas is $23.97. At the state level, the all-sector average therefore does not blend three different customer prices. It reflects one state motor gasoline price applied to the sectors where SEDS records motor gasoline consumption.

The U.S. sector prices can still differ. In 2024, Table F16 reports $27.99/MMBtu for U.S. commercial motor gasoline, $28.35 for industrial, $27.33 for transportation, and $27.36 for Total. The reason is that each sector consumes different amounts in different states, so the national consumption-weighted mix of state prices changes by sector.

Hawaii and Alaska are essentially tied at the top

Hawaii records $39.30/MMBtu and Alaska $39.29, only one cent apart. California is next at $36.76, followed by Washington at $33.82, Oregon at $33.75, Nevada at $32.90, and Arizona at $31.60. These seven jurisdictions are the only ones at or above $30/MMBtu.

Hawaii is $11.94 above the U.S. Total value and $15.33 above Texas. The highest state price is about 1.64 times the lowest. Western and noncontiguous states occupy much of the upper end, but this dataset alone cannot assign the gap to any single cause such as taxes, transportation, fuel specifications, or supply constraints.

State and federal motor-fuel taxes are built into the SEDS price, so differences in those taxes can contribute to geographic variation. Real-world retail gasoline prices also reflect regional supply chains, fuel formulations, refinery and distribution conditions, and crude and product markets. The state series documents the final comparative price rather than decomposing those factors.

Texas has the lowest state price

Texas is lowest at $23.97/MMBtu, followed by Alabama at $24.03, Mississippi at $24.11, Louisiana at $24.16, Arkansas at $24.32, Georgia at $24.54, and South Carolina at $24.88. Those are the seven jurisdictions below $25.

A low gasoline price does not necessarily mean low gasoline spending per person. Expenditures also depend on gallons consumed, travel distances, vehicle efficiency, vehicle ownership, population, and transportation behavior. A state can have a low unit price but high per-capita spending if residents drive more or use less-efficient vehicles.

EIA’s ranked expenditure tables make this distinction visible: price rank, total expenditure rank, and expenditure-per-capita rank are separate measures. This article focuses on the energy-unit price, not the amount households or businesses ultimately spend on gasoline.

Why the U.S. value differs from the simple state average

A one-state-one-vote arithmetic average of the 51 observations is about $27.62/MMBtu. EIA’s U.S. Total is $27.36. The numbers are close, but they are not calculated the same way. MGTCD is derived from total U.S. motor gasoline expenditures divided by total U.S. motor gasoline consumption.

States with more gasoline consumption therefore receive more weight in the U.S. value. California, Texas, Florida, and other large gasoline markets matter far more to the national figure than a simple average allows. High-price Hawaii and Alaska influence the unweighted state mean strongly but have smaller weights in the national consumption total.

The median of $26.68 answers a different question. It is the middle jurisdiction when states are ranked by price. The median is useful for describing a typical state observation, while $27.36 is the better measure of the effective price across U.S. motor gasoline consumption.

Half of the states are packed into a narrow price band

The first quartile is about $25.66/MMBtu and the third quartile about $27.80. Half of the 51 jurisdictions therefore fit inside a band only about $2.14 wide. The full range exceeds $15 because the upper group is much more expensive than the lower cluster.

Seven jurisdictions are at or above $30 and seven are below $25. The other 37 are between $25 and $30. That means the headline extremes are real, but they are not representative of the majority of states, which are much more tightly grouped.

How SEDS estimates state motor gasoline prices after 2010

EIA suspended survey form EIA-782B after data year 2010. For 2011 forward, SEDS estimates physical-unit motor gasoline prices for California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington by applying annual average growth rates derived from EIA-878, the Motor Gasoline Price Survey.

For the remaining states, SEDS applies the annual average growth rate of the corresponding Petroleum Administration for Defense district or subdistrict price to the previous year’s state price. The 2024 state values therefore form a consistent official state series, but they are not all independent direct observations from identical surveys.

SEDS then includes state and federal motor gasoline taxes and converts the physical-unit price to an energy-unit price using the appropriate heat-content conversion. Long historical comparisons should recognize the source-method change beginning with 2011.

Which taxes are included

EIA’s petroleum price technical notes specify that the motor gasoline series includes state and federal motor-fuel taxes. It excludes state general sales taxes, local motor-fuel taxes, and local sales taxes because their application is not uniform enough for the state series.

For that reason, the SEDS $/MMBtu measure should not be expected to reproduce every local pump receipt exactly. A driver can face additional local taxes that are outside the SEDS definition. The value of the SEDS series is its consistent state-level methodology.

Fuel ethanol is included, aviation gasoline is not

Table F16 notes that motor gasoline estimates include fuel ethanol blended into motor gasoline. The finished-motor-gasoline definition covers conventional gasoline, reformulated gasoline, and oxygenated gasoline such as gasohol.

Aviation gasoline is excluded and has a separate EIA product series. The distinction matters because aviation gasoline serves a different market, has a different price methodology, and should not be combined with motor gasoline just because both products use the word gasoline.

The ranked curve shows a distinct western and noncontiguous upper group

When the 51 jurisdictions are ordered from highest to lowest, Hawaii and Alaska sit near $39, California at $36.76, Washington and Oregon near $33.8, Nevada at $32.90, and Arizona at $31.60. The curve then drops below $30 before the District of Columbia at $28.94.

The geographic pattern is descriptive rather than causal. Taxes, regional gasoline specifications, supply logistics, refinery and distribution infrastructure, and broader crude-oil and product markets can all influence retail gasoline prices. Additional data are needed to attribute state differences to those individual factors.

Official EIA references

EIA Table F16 reports 2024 motor gasoline prices and expenditures for commercial, industrial, transportation, and Total categories. Its footnote states that state prices are the same in the three sectors and its notes state that fuel ethanol blended into motor gasoline is included.

The SEDS 2024 petroleum price technical documentation explains the post-2010 state price estimation method and tax treatment. The price and expenditure variable definitions define MGTCD as the motor gasoline average price for all sectors and give the formula MGTCD = MGTCV / MGTCB × 1000.

All 51 jurisdictions in 2024

The table below lists the 50 states and the District of Columbia from highest to lowest 2024 motor gasoline average price. All observations are positive and the unit is dollars per million Btu.

Frequently Asked Questions

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