Why petrol prices vary

If you have ever driven past two stations a few minutes apart and seen different prices, you have seen the main problem with any fuel calculator that prints a price for you: the price is local, and it moves. A single national price would be wrong for most drivers, most of the time.

Place matters

Prices tend to differ between cities, between suburbs, and between a busy highway stop and a small town station. Transport costs, local competition, rent, and the volume a station sells all play a part, so the cheapest place to fill up on one leg of a trip may not be the cheapest on the next. That is why the multi-leg calculator lets you enter a different price for each leg.

Time matters

Prices also move over days and weeks as wholesale costs, currency, and market conditions change, and as stations adjust to local competition. A price you saw last week may not be the price you pay today. Entering the price you actually expect to pay — from a station sign, a fuel app you trust, or your own recent fill-up — will always beat a stale figure baked into a website.

Fuel type matters

Different fuels are priced differently, and not every vehicle can use every fuel. Check your handbook or fuel cap for what your vehicle requires, and enter the price for that fuel type. A cheaper fuel that your engine is not designed for is not a saving.

Why this site does not show a price

This calculator deliberately asks you to enter a price rather than publishing one. It cannot know where you will refuel, when, or with what fuel, and a published price would go out of date quickly and mislead the estimate. The trade-off is one extra field for you, in exchange for an estimate that reflects your actual trip. If you are planning ahead, run the calculation twice — once at a higher price and once at a lower one — to see the range you should budget for.