How much state gas tax you pay per gallon in all 50 states and DC, which states have suspended their gas tax right now, and what a holiday road trip pays in fuel tax. Tap any state.
Add the states you'll drive through and roughly how many miles in each. The date matters: a holiday only counts if it's still running the day you fill up.
| State | State tax today | Normal rate | With federal | Status |
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Cents per gallon of gasoline. State taxes and fees in effect July 1, 2026 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, revised August 2026; Illinois and Utah corrected to their revenue departments). Gas tax holidays and cuts last checked November 1, 2026.
Every gallon of gasoline sold in the US carries two layers of tax that the posted price already includes. The first is the federal gas tax: 18.3 cents of excise plus a 0.1-cent fee that pays for cleaning up leaking underground storage tanks, 18.4 cents in all. Congress set it in 1993 and has not raised it since, so it buys less road every year.
The second layer is the state gas tax, and that is where the spread is. Most states charge a flat excise per gallon. A growing number index it to inflation or to the wholesale price of fuel, which is why rates in states such as Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California change every year (Indiana's use tax even changes every month). Many states add smaller per-gallon fees for inspections, environmental cleanup or storage tanks. The map shows all of those state-level charges added together, the way the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration report them, so states that split their tax into several pieces can be compared fairly with states that charge one excise.
What the figure leaves out: county and city fuel taxes (Hawaii and Nevada counties charge their own), general sales taxes that some states apply to fuel, and percentage taxes collected from refiners or distributors. In those states the true tax at the pump is a little higher than the map shows. The state notes call these out where they matter.
A gas tax holiday is a temporary suspension of a state's excise, usually passed by the legislature or ordered by the governor under a state-of-emergency declaration when prices spike. In 2026 high fuel prices led several states to act. Georgia suspended its tax twice, once in the spring and again from late September. Indiana suspended both of its gas taxes and has renewed the order month by month. Ohio and North Carolina passed holidays in October. Utah chose a smaller six-month cut, and Illinois skipped its scheduled inflation increase. Proposals in Connecticut and Michigan stalled.
Holidays end on a fixed date unless they are extended, and extensions are often announced only days before. That is why this map checks each holiday's dates against today's date (and against your trip date in the calculator) instead of labelling a state "suspended" forever. When an end date passes, the state switches back to its normal rate here until we confirm an extension.
Not always. A station's price is set by the market, not by the tax bill. When a state suspends its tax, the cut first shows up at the wholesale rack, and how much reaches the sign depends on competition and demand. Analyses of the 2022 holidays in Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland (CNBC summary of the research) found that most of the cut reached drivers, but not all of it. Two practical habits follow from that. Fill up toward the end of a holiday rather than the first morning, when stations may still be selling fuel they bought with the tax included. And top off before the end date: the full tax is back on the next delivery.
Fuel tax is a small slice of a road trip, but on a long multi-state drive it adds up, and it is the one part of the price that changes sharply at a state line. A 1,000-mile round trip in a 28 MPG car burns about 36 gallons. At California's rate that's roughly $26 in state tax, while across the line in Arizona it's about $7. Where you can choose, fill up in the cheaper-tax state before you cross. The calculator above does the arithmetic with the holiday dates applied for the day you travel. To see the rest of the trip budget, the Travel Budget Calculator handles lodging and food, the Gas Prices page shows this week's average pump prices by region, and the Gas vs EV Calculator compares fuel cost per mile if you're choosing which car to take.
State rates are the U.S. Energy Information Administration's table of federal and state motor fuel taxes, rates in effect July 1, 2026 (revised August 2026), cross-checked line by line against the Tax Foundation's July 2026 figures. Where the two disagree we say so in the state's note: Nevada and Vermont differ by one and three cents, and we show the EIA figure. Illinois and Utah changed their rates on July 1 in ways the EIA table had not picked up, so those two use their revenue departments' rates. Holiday dates come from each state's revenue department where one was published, otherwise from local news reports, and each state's panel links its source. Many indexing states announce their January 1 rates in November and December; we'll update this page when they do.
California, at 73.64 cents a gallon in combined state taxes and fees (rates in effect July 1, 2026). Illinois, Indiana, Washington and Pennsylvania follow. Add the 18.4-cent federal tax for the total at the pump. Indiana's is suspended for now, so its drivers are paying almost none of it.
Alaska, at 8.95 cents a gallon. During a gas tax holiday a state can drop below that: Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Indiana have all charged less than a cent and a half in state gas tax this fall while their suspensions run.
As of our last check on November 1, 2026: Georgia (through November 30), North Carolina (through November 30), Ohio (through January 2, 2027) and Indiana (through November 4, renewed monthly so far). Utah has a smaller temporary cut through December 31. The map uses today's date to decide whether each one is still running.
18.4 cents a gallon: an 18.3-cent excise plus a 0.1-cent fee for leaking underground storage tanks. It has not changed since 1993. A federal gas tax holiday has been proposed in Congress but has not passed.
Usually by less than the full tax. Stations and suppliers set prices, and studies of past holidays found that part of the cut went into margins rather than into lower prices, especially when demand was strong. Compare the posted price before and after the holiday starts rather than assuming the whole tax comes off.
No. These are state taxes and fees per gallon in the style of the American Petroleum Institute's reports. County taxes (Hawaii, Nevada and others), local sales taxes and percentage taxes collected from refiners or distributors are not included, so a few states pay more at the pump than the figure shown.