Houston Gas Prices

Houston gas prices this week

The Houston metro averaged $3.681 per gallon for regular gasoline in the week ending Oct 26, 2026. The metro average fell $0.030 from the previous week, and it is $0.049 above the Texas statewide average of $3.632. Against the national average of $4.269, Houston is $0.588 cheaper.

Houston sits inside the largest refining complex in the world, and its pump prices are usually among the lowest of any large U.S. metro. The EIA metro average covers Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, Liberty, Waller, and Chambers counties.

What drives prices in Houston

• Dozens of refineries and petrochemical plants operate within 50 miles.
• Texas state fuel tax is well below the national average.
• Competition among stations is intense along the I-10 and I-45 corridors.

Metro averages smooth out station-level differences, but they are still the right baseline for budgeting. A station a few blocks from a highway ramp can easily charge 20 cents more than one on a secondary road in the same county.

Areas covered by the Houston average

The metro series includes the core city and the surrounding communities that share its fuel distribution network: Katy, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Pasadena, Pearland, Spring. Prices in outlying counties can run 10 to 25 cents lower or higher depending on local taxes and distance from the nearest terminal.

Commuting cost in Houston

Houston commutes are long in miles and often run in heavy traffic. At 25 mpg, a 30-mile one-way commute costs roughly $8 to $10 per day at current prices.

A simple benchmark: a 30-mile round trip at 28 MPG costs about $3.94 per day at the current Houston average. Over 260 working days that is roughly $1025 per year. Use the commute cost calculator with your real mileage, and the gas mileage calculator if you are not sure what MPG your car actually returns in city traffic.

How to pay less at the pump in Houston

1. Start with membership warehouses: Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's typically undercut nearby stations by 10 to 30 cents.
2. Check stations one exit past your usual stop — highway-adjacent stations price for convenience, not for locals.
3. Use a station-level app for the final address; use this page to judge whether the price you see is normal for the metro.
4. Fix the cheap things first: tire pressure, air filter, and removing unused roof racks each return 2 to 6 percent of fuel economy.

How this page is built

The Houston series is the EIA's published metro retail average, updated weekly and restated in dollars per gallon including taxes. We rebuild this page every week after the survey release and print the survey week at the top so there is no ambiguity about the date. See the methodology and data sources pages for details.