Pump prices are not one number. On October 2, 2026, a gallon of regular in California averaged $6.4008 and a gallon in Indiana averaged $3.7902, a difference of $2.61 between the most expensive state and the cheapest in the same daily reading. The spread sits on top of a national average that has climbed sharply over the past twelve months, so the distance between the two states is large even in a year when gasoline is expensive everywhere.
The AAA reading behind the $2.61 gap
Both state prices come from a single source, AAA’s state gas price averages table, dated October 2, 2026. California stood at $6.4008 per gallon of regular, the highest of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Indiana stood at $3.7902, the lowest in the same table. Subtracting the second figure from the first gives $2.6106, which rounds to the $2.61 in the headline. AAA’s national average for regular that day was $4.3961, so California sat about $2.00 above the national figure and Indiana about 60 cents below it.
Daily averages move, and AAA updates the table every day. The pair above is a snapshot of one date rather than a standing rule, and the exact gap can widen or narrow by a few cents from one morning to the next. The order of the two states, though, is not in doubt: California holds the top of the table and Indiana the bottom.
Eight states under $4, six over $5
AAA’s October 2 table shows eight states with regular gasoline below $4.00 a gallon: Indiana at $3.7902, Georgia at $3.9131, Texas at $3.9397, Louisiana at $3.9563, Tennessee at $3.9584, Mississippi at $3.9596, South Carolina at $3.9652 and Arkansas at $3.9819. Alabama, at $4.0105, sits just over the line, a reminder of how thin the margin is for states near the threshold.
At the other end, six states average above $5.00: California at $6.4008, Hawaii at $5.6316, Washington at $5.4891, Nevada at $5.4882, Oregon at $5.0433 and Alaska at $5.0331. Idaho ($4.9647) and Utah ($4.9610) are close behind, and Arizona is at $4.7656. Those counts were tallied from AAA’s table on the date it was read; AAA itself does not publish them as a ranking, and a move of a few cents would shift a state across either line.
What the Energy Information Administration measured the same week
The federal government tracks the same fuel on a different clock. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update for the week ending September 28, 2026 put the national average for regular at $4.465 per gallon, down $0.013 from the prior week but $1.347 higher than a year earlier. EIA’s California average for that week was $6.189, up $0.186 on the week and up $1.743 on the year. The West Coast region, which EIA calls PADD 5, averaged $5.724.
The cheapest of EIA’s regions was the Gulf Coast at $3.924, which also rose from a year ago, by $1.252. The Midwest averaged $4.291 and the East Coast $4.290. EIA does not publish an Indiana price in that update, which is why the state-to-state comparison rests on AAA’s table instead. The agency’s next weekly release is scheduled for October 6, 2026.
The two sources differ in timing. EIA’s figure covers a completed week ending September 28, while AAA’s is a daily average for October 2, which is why the national numbers, $4.465 and $4.3961, are not identical. Neither contradicts the other: both show gasoline well above where it stood a year ago.
Why a gallon costs more in California
Part of the answer is the price of crude oil. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a trade group for state energy assistance programs, noted in a July 23, 2026 statement raising its emergency LIHEAP funding request that crude oil had reached $100 per barrel. A higher crude price lifts every state’s pump price, but it lifts the states that already pay the most for fuel at least as far as the rest.
EIA’s regional table shows the same ordering that AAA’s state table does: the West Coast region at $5.724, the Rocky Mountain region at $4.486, New England at $4.369, the Midwest at $4.291 and the Gulf Coast at $3.924. California, at $6.189 in EIA’s weekly survey, sits above even its own region. Indiana belongs to the Midwest region, whose $4.291 average fell $0.095 on the week.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts as the price increase
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures gasoline inside its consumer price index rather than at the pump. In its August 2026 CPI release, published September 11, the gasoline index rose 3.9 percent over the month and 27.4 percent over the past twelve months. That is a national index for gasoline, a different measure from the regular-grade pump prices EIA and AAA publish, but it points the same direction.
The $2.61 spread is easy to translate into a tank. On a 15-gallon fill-up, the distance between the two states is roughly $39, a figure that follows directly from the AAA prices above. Against the national average of $4.3961, a California driver pays about $2.00 more per gallon and an Indiana driver about 60 cents less.
EIA’s own annual forecasts for 2026 and 2027, published in its September 9 Short-Term Energy Outlook, were set before this run-up and sit well below the weekly actuals. The weekly and daily readings above are measured prices rather than projections, and they are the ones that decide what a driver pays on any given day. The next AAA update and EIA’s October 6 release will show whether the California and Indiana gap is holding at the figures recorded here.
Gas is only one line of the household energy budget
A price table like AAA’s shows what a gallon costs and says nothing about relief for the other costs of keeping a home running. Heating and cooling help, home-repair help and property-tax relief each come with their own applications and renewal dates, and the gap between knowing a program exists and having applied is where households tend to lose out.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit that lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, along with an application log and renewal calendar for keeping those dates in one place.
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This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the prices and changes were checked against AAA’s state averages table, the EIA weekly update and the BLS August CPI release.
