San Francisco Gas Prices

San Francisco gas prices this week

The San Francisco metro averaged $5.856 per gallon for regular gasoline in the week ending Oct 26, 2026. The metro average fell $0.150 from the previous week, and it is $0.032 below the California statewide average of $5.888. Against the national average of $4.269, San Francisco is $1.587 more expensive.

San Francisco prices are usually the highest in the Bay Area and among the highest in the country. The EIA average covers San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, a region supplied by refineries in Richmond, Martinez, and Benicia.

What drives prices in San Francisco

• California’s tax and carbon program costs are the highest in the nation.
• Bay Area station operating costs are extremely high.
• Regional refinery maintenance can tighten supply quickly because imports are limited.

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 San Francisco average

The metro series includes the core city and the surrounding communities that share its fuel distribution network: Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Daly City, Fremont, Richmond. 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 San Francisco

Bay Area commutes are long and often include bridge tolls. Fuel cost is usually a smaller share of total commute cost than tolls and parking.

A simple benchmark: a 30-mile round trip at 28 MPG costs about $6.27 per day at the current San Francisco average. Over 260 working days that is roughly $1631 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 San Francisco

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 San Francisco 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.