How to Read EIA Gas Price Data

Updated November 13, 2026

Every price on this site comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Knowing how EIA builds its numbers helps you use them correctly.

How the survey works

• Gasoline: every Monday, EIA collects retail prices for all three grades from a sample of about 1,000 gasoline stations, mainly by phone and email.
• Diesel: every Monday, EIA collects cash self-serve on-highway diesel prices from a sample of about 590 truck stops and service stations in the continental U.S.
• Timing: prices are as of 8:00 a.m. Monday and are normally published around 5:00 p.m. Eastern time the same day. After a federal holiday, the release moves to Tuesday but still reflects Monday’s prices.
• What is included: the reported price includes all taxes and is the cash pump price paid by a consumer – the self-serve price except in areas that only have full service.
• Averages: EIA calculates volume-weighted averages, so stations and areas that sell more fuel count for more.

What PADD regions are

EIA reports regional prices using Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADDs), five regions created during World War II to organize fuel supplies and still used for petroleum statistics today:

• PADD 1 – East Coast, split into 1A New England, 1B Central Atlantic and 1C Lower Atlantic
• PADD 2 – Midwest
• PADD 3 – Gulf Coast
• PADD 4 – Rocky Mountain
• PADD 5 – West Coast (including Alaska and Hawaii), also published excluding California

Each state page on this site tells you which PADD the state is in.

Which places have their own price

Besides the national and regional averages, EIA publishes weekly gasoline prices for nine states – California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington – and ten metropolitan areas: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. For diesel, the only state with its own weekly series is California.

For any other state, the best official weekly figure is the average of the region it belongs to. We label those clearly as regional averages, because prices inside a region can vary a lot from one state to another.

Grades of gasoline

EIA classifies grades by octane rating (the antiknock index posted on the pump): regular is 85 to under 88, midgrade is 88 to 90, and premium is above 90. In high-altitude areas such as the Rocky Mountain states, octane ratings for each grade may be lower.

Things to keep in mind

• An average is not the price at a particular station; most stations will be somewhat above or below it.
• Weekly data shows Monday-morning prices; prices can change during the week.
• EIA changed its methodology in May 2018 (gasoline) and June 2022 (diesel), so prices just before and after those dates are not directly comparable.
• Week-over-week and year-over-year changes on this site are calculated by us from EIA’s published figures.

Source: EIA definitions, sources and explanatory notes.