Gasoline is $4.35: up $1.23 in a year, down 11 cents in a week
EIA's weekly survey put regular at $4.354 a gallon in the week of October 5, 2026. What is inside that number, why California pays $6.23, and your sums.
- What happened
- The US Energy Information Administration's weekly survey put regular gasoline at $4.354 a gallon on average in the week of October 5, 2026, released October 6. That is $1.230 above the same week a year earlier and $0.111 below the week of September 28.
- Why
- The largest single ingredient in a gallon is crude oil, and WTI crude was $98.07 a barrel in the week ending October 2, 2026. Taxes, refining and distribution make up the rest, and they differ by region far more than crude does.
- The numbers that matter
- $4.354Regular gasoline, US average, week of Oct 5, 2026+$1.230Change from the same week a year earlier$6.227California regular, week of Oct 5, 2026$6.199On-highway diesel, US average, week of Oct 5, 2026
- Why it matters
- At the national average, a 12-gallon fill costs $14.76 more than it did a year earlier. A household buying 50 gallons a month is paying $61.50 a month more. Where you live changes that figure by more than two dollars a gallon.
- What happens nextas we saw it on 13 Oct 2026
- EIA's next weekly gasoline and diesel release is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, the same day the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the September 2026 CPI.
The gap between the cheapest region and California is $2.32 a gallon, wider than the whole year-on-year rise in the national average.
| Gulf Coast | 3.911 |
|---|---|
| Midwest | 4.109 |
| East Coast | 4.147 |
| US average | 4.354 |
| Rocky Mountain | 4.417 |
| West Coast | 5.727 |
| California | 6.227 |
The number is $4.354. That is what a gallon of regular gasoline cost on average across the United States in the week of October 5, 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly pump survey, released October 6. A year earlier the same survey showed a price $1.230 lower. Two years earlier it showed a price $1.218 lower. So the past year did almost all of the damage, and the year before it did almost none.
The second number is the one that fewer people noticed. The national average fell $0.111 in a single week, from $4.465 in the week of September 28 to $4.354. It had peaked at $4.478 in the week of September 21. The survey had risen every week from September 7 ($4.157) to September 21, then slipped $0.013 in the week of September 28 before the larger fall. A fall is not a trend, and one week of EIA data is one week.
This piece uses the EIA survey only. The companion piece one-number-gasoline covered the gasoline line in the CPI, which is a different measurement with a different date.
What the survey actually measures
EIA's Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update reports prices in dollars per gallon, including all taxes, for a Monday collection date. The regular-grade, all-formulations series is the one usually quoted as “the national average”. The same release breaks it out by Petroleum Administration for Defense District: East Coast (with New England, Central Atlantic and Lower Atlantic sub-regions), Midwest, Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain and West Coast, plus California as a separate state line. The release date for the week of October 5 was October 6, 2026; the next release is dated October 14, 2026.
The release also reports grades. In the week of October 5, premium averaged $5.400, a gap of $1.046 over regular. On-highway diesel averaged $6.199, which is $1.845 above regular and $2.488 above diesel's level a year earlier.
| Series | Sep 21, 2026 | Sep 28, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 | Change vs year ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular, all formulations | 4.478 | 4.465 | 4.354 | +1.230 |
| Regular, reformulated areas | 4.778 | 4.799 | 4.773 | n/a |
| Premium | 5.460 | 5.482 | 5.400 | n/a |
| Diesel, on-highway | 6.529 | 6.382 | 6.199 | +2.488 |
EIA prints the change from a year earlier, $1.230, rather than the year-earlier level. Subtracting gives the year-earlier price: $4.354 − $1.230 = $3.124. The rise is then $1.230 ÷ $3.124 = 39.4%. For diesel: $6.199 − $2.488 = $3.711 a year earlier, and $2.488 ÷ $3.711 = 67.0%. The two-year change, $1.218, implies $3.136 two years earlier: flat for a year, then up by more than a third.
Why the week-to-week move was not the same everywhere
The $0.111 national fall hides a split.
Weekly changes for the week of October 5, 2026, from EIA's release: Lower Atlantic −$0.236 to $3.959; Midwest −$0.182 to $4.109; East Coast overall −$0.143 to $4.147; Rocky Mountain −$0.069 to $4.417; Central Atlantic −$0.048 to $4.363; New England −$0.026 to $4.343; Gulf Coast −$0.013 to $3.911. The West Coast rose +$0.003 to $5.727 and California rose +$0.038 to $6.227.
California at $6.227 against the Gulf Coast at $3.911 is a gap of $2.316. Using EIA's regional table for the whole of 2025, the West Coast averaged $4.094 and the Gulf Coast $2.677, a gap of $1.417. The week-of-October-5 gap between those two regions, $5.727 − $3.911 = $1.816, is $0.399 wider than the 2025 annual gap.
EIA's own explainer on regional differences states that “relatively few refineries produce California's unique blend of gasoline”, that the state's reformulated-gasoline program is stricter than the federal one, and that when a West Coast refinery has a problem, replacement supply from the Gulf Coast or abroad “can take a long time to reach the state”. That is the mechanism behind a region that did not fall while every other region did. It says nothing about where West Coast prices go from here, only that they move on their own timetable.
What is inside a gallon
EIA lists four components of the retail price: the cost of crude oil, federal and state taxes, refining costs and profits, and distribution and marketing. Two of those can be pinned to a sourced number in the week of October 5. The other two are a residual.
EIA's weekly spot-price table shows West Texas Intermediate at Cushing at $98.07 a barrel and Brent at $120.03 in the week ending October 2, 2026. In the week ending September 4, WTI was $91.18 and Brent $99.09; WTI reached $103.54 in the week ending September 18. Wholesale New York Harbor conventional regular went from $3.266 a gallon (September 4) to $3.542 (September 18) and back to $3.433 (October 2).
EIA's “Factors affecting gasoline prices” page gives the federal tax on motor gasoline as 18.40 cents a gallon (an 18.30-cent excise tax plus a 0.1-cent Leaking Underground Storage Tank fee) and the average of state taxes and fees as 33.55 cents a gallon as of January 2026. Local and sales taxes come on top in some places and are not in that average.
A barrel is 42 US gallons. $98.07 ÷ 42 = $2.335 per gallon of crude. Federal plus average state tax: $0.1840 + $0.3355 = $0.520. Subtracting both from the pump price: $4.354 − $2.335 − $0.520 = $1.499, which is what EIA calls refining costs and profits plus distribution and marketing, combined. As shares of the pump price: crude 53.6%, taxes 11.9%, the rest 34.4%. This is a sizing exercise, not an accounting: refiners do not buy only WTI, a barrel of crude does not become 42 gallons of gasoline, and the spot week ends October 2 while the pump date is October 5.
Crude is roughly half of the pump price, tax roughly one-eighth, and refining plus distribution roughly one-third. That last third is where formulation rules, refinery outages and local competition show up. EIA's regional page notes that “about one-third of the gasoline sold in the United States is reformulated”, that prices are higher the further fuel is moved from the refinery or terminal, and that stations charge more “in locations with fewer gasoline stations”. None of that is visible in a national average.
What it means for your money
The national average describes nobody exactly. The usable part is the year-on-year change, multiplied by your own consumption.
A 12-gallon fill: 12 × $1.230 = $14.76 more than a year earlier. A household that buys 50 gallons a month pays 50 × $1.230 = $61.50 a month more, or $738 over twelve months at that rate. The gallon figures are illustrations, not survey data; substitute your own.
12 × $0.111 = $1.33. On 50 gallons a month, the drop from the week of September 28 to the week of October 5 is worth $5.55 a month if it holds, which no single week can tell you.
Two things follow. First, the regional table matters more than the headline: 50 gallons a month costs $195.55 in the Gulf Coast and $311.35 in California at the week-of-October-5 prices, a difference of $115.80 a month for the same driving. Second, diesel at $6.199, up 67.0% in a year by the calculation above, is a cost inside everything that moves by road, and it reaches households through CPI categories that have nothing to do with the pump, with a lag.
What to watch, and when
- Wednesday, October 14, 2026: EIA's next weekly gasoline and diesel release, for the week of October 12. The release page states this date.
- Wednesday, October 14, 2026: the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the September 2026 Consumer Price Index, which includes a gasoline index measured over the whole month rather than a single Monday.
- Every week: EIA's spot-price table, which shows the crude and wholesale prices that feed the pump a week or two later. The oil-at-107 piece covers the crude side.
- The regional lines: if the West Coast and the Gulf Coast move in opposite directions, as they did in the week of October 5, the national average is the wrong number to argue about.
Sources
- Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update (week of October 5, 2026; released October 6, 2026)US Energy Information Administration · Oct 12, 2026 · Primary source
- Weekly U.S. Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices (dollars per gallon, including taxes)US Energy Information Administration · Oct 12, 2026 · Primary source
- Spot Prices for Crude Oil and Petroleum Products, weeklyUS Energy Information Administration · Oct 12, 2026 · Primary source
- Gasoline explained: Factors affecting gasoline pricesUS Energy Information Administration · Oct 12, 2026 · Primary source
- Gasoline explained: Regional gasoline price differencesUS Energy Information Administration · Oct 12, 2026 · Primary source
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