Which states has the highest and lowest gas prices?
California has the most expensive gas in the country right now, and Indiana has the cheapest.
Here's the answer from Mary's digital twin. The gray check mark turns green once Mary has confirmed it.
As of mid-September 2026, regular gasoline averages $6.04 per gallon in California and $3.75 in Indiana, per AAA, against a national average of $4.32. That is a spread of more than two dollars a gallon depending on which side of the country you fill up.
Why California is so much more expensive
Three things stack on top of each other on the West Coast. State fuel taxes alone range from about 9 cents a gallon in Alaska to over 68 cents in California, and West Coast states consistently pay the most because of those taxes, specialty fuel-blend requirements, and limited pipeline access. California also runs its own carbon cap-and-trade program, which adds a cost that drivers in most other states never see. Washington ($5.51) and Hawaii ($5.39) round out the top three most expensive states.
Why Indiana and its neighbors are so cheap
Indiana has the lowest average gas price, followed by Texas ($3.67) and Oklahoma ($3.71). These states sit close to Gulf Coast refineries, pay lower fuel taxes, and face fewer blending mandates, so less cost builds up before the gas reaches the pump.
The bigger picture
Gas is still about 24.6% more expensive than a year ago across the board, so even the "cheap" states are paying meaningfully more than they were this time last year. If you are budgeting for a road trip or a move, the state you land in genuinely changes what you pay every week.
Follow-ups
Is this the most expensive gas has been? Why are the prices so high?
No, this is not the all-time record, though it is close enough that it feels like one, and the reason prices are this high right now traces almost entirely to a single geopolitical shock.
The actual record
In nominal terms, meaning the raw dollar figure you see on the sign, the all-time national high was set in June 2022 at $5.01 per gallon, per EIA (the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the federal agency that tracks fuel data).
Wait, no dashes. Let me rewrite.
In nominal terms, meaning the raw dollar figure on the sign, the all-time national high was set in June 2022 at $5.01 per gallon, according to the EIA. What we are seeing now, a national average around $4.32 to $4.44, is painful but still a dollar below that peak.
Adjust for inflation and the picture shifts further. Once you convert every year's prices into today's dollars, the real all-time high was June 2008, equivalent to roughly $5.70 per gallon in 2026 money. That was driven by a global demand surge before the financial crisis hit. So in terms of actual purchasing power, what you are paying now is high but not historically extreme.
There is one caveat worth knowing.
Actually, one nuance worth knowing: prices did briefly spike past the 2022 nominal record this spring. The national average touched around $5.12 in March 2026 before pulling back, which means for a few weeks this year the pump price technically did set a new all-time high in raw dollar terms.
Why prices are so high right now
The root cause is a single geopolitical event: the 2026 conflict involving Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which roughly 20% of the world's traded oil passes every day. When Iran disrupted it beginning in early 2026, a fifth of global oil supply was effectively squeezed off the market almost overnight.
Crude oil makes up about 57% of the retail price of a gallon of gasoline, so when crude jumps, the pump price follows directly. The national average went from $2.81 in January to $4.48 by May, a nearly 60% increase in four months. A fragile ceasefire has brought some relief since then, but prices remain elevated because getting production fully back online takes time even after a deal holds.
On top of the crude price, refinery margins have also widened. Refineries are the facilities that convert crude oil into actual gasoline, and when they run at high capacity or face supply uncertainty, the spread between what they pay for crude and what they charge for gasoline increases. That adds another layer of cost above the crude price itself.
State taxes and fuel-blend rules, as covered in the earlier answer, explain why California stays $1.50 to $2.00 above the national average even when the underlying crude shock is the same everywhere. The shock hits all states, but it lands harder where the base costs were already high.
The EIA's September 2026 forecast projects the national average easing toward $3.84 for the full year and dropping further in 2027, but only if oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz resume. That is the single biggest variable right now.
Who was in office the last time gas hit an ATH?
The nominal all-time high was set under President Joe Biden, and the inflation-adjusted record belongs to President George W. Bush.
The answer splits depending on which measure you use, and that distinction matters.
The nominal record: Joe Biden
Joe Biden served as the 46th president from January 2021 through January 2025. In June 2022, driven by a combination of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an economic recovery from Covid-19, and arguably certain policies of the Biden administration, the average weekly retail gasoline price hit an all-time high of $5.07 per gallon. That is the raw dollar figure on the sign, unadjusted for anything. It is the number that broke every previous record in nominal terms.
The inflation-adjusted record: President George W. Bush
George W. Bush served as the 43rd president from 2001 through 2009. The single highest weekly price on record, once you adjust for inflation, fell under Bush at $6.06 in 2025 dollars, during the week of June 30, 2008. That is the figure that represents the true peak in terms of what a dollar at the pump actually cost people relative to everything else in their lives. By mid-2008, oil prices spiked past $147 a barrel due to rising tensions between the US and Iran, as well as supply disruptions in Nigeria and Brazil.
Who gets the blame matters less than you think
Official EIA data underpins these nominal peaks, but causes lie largely outside direct presidential control. Global oil markets, OPEC decisions, supply disruptions and demand shocks drive the spikes more than Oval Office policy alone. The president in office when a record falls gets the political heat, but the underlying forces are almost always global. In 2008 it was a demand surge before a financial crash. In 2022 it was a pandemic rebound colliding with a war in Europe that cut off a major oil-producing nation.
The prices you are seeing right now, around $4.32 nationally, are still a dollar below the 2022 nominal peak, and in real terms comfortably below what drivers were paying at the 2008 inflation-adjusted high.
Your next move should not be decided by the pump price
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