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What Percentage of Gas Price Is Taxes?

Guides · October 11, 2026

About 18 percent, nationally. That is the number that surprises almost everyone, in both directions. People who assume taxes are half the pump price are wrong. People who assume taxes are negligible are also wrong. What percentage of gas price is taxes depends on where you buy it, when crude oil is priced, and how many layers of state fees sit on top of the federal 18.4 cents. The national average hides a range that runs from under 10 percent in Alaska to more than 30 percent in California.

The four slices of a gallon

Every retail gallon of gasoline is the sum of four things. Using nationwide figures from January 2026, the split looked like this:

Crude oil is the heavyweight, and that is why the tax percentage moves even when tax rates do not. When crude spikes, oil can drive more than 60 percent of the price and the tax share shrinks. When crude falls, the fixed cents-per-gallon taxes become a bigger slice of a cheaper gallon. The tax share is a ratio, not a rate, and the denominator does most of the moving.

The federal slice has not moved since 1993

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents a gallon, plus a tenth of a cent for the leaking underground storage tank fund. It has not changed since 1993, which means inflation has quietly cut it roughly in half in real terms. Every few years someone proposes a gas tax holiday, and the math keeps disappointing: suspending the whole federal tax would cut national average prices only about 4 percent, and research on past holidays finds consumers capture roughly 79 percent of the cut while retailers keep the rest. Our federal gas tax history guide covers why the rate froze, and where the money goes tracks what the 18.4 cents funds.

The average state adds about 33.5 cents on top, for a combined average of roughly 52 cents a gallon in taxes. The average American driver pays about $264 a year in gas taxes, assuming 12,000 miles at 23.6 miles per gallon. Our per-year guide runs the formula with your own mileage.

The states where taxes dominate

Now the extremes, because the national average is made of states that look nothing like each other. California stacks a 61.2-cent state excise tax, state and local sales tax, cap-and-trade compliance costs, a low carbon fuel standard charge, and small per-gallon fees. On a $4.50 gallon, the fixed charges alone are about 82 cents and the variable ones add 35 to 58 cents more. All told, taxes and regulatory costs are $1.17 to $1.40 of the price: roughly a quarter to a third of every gallon.

Washington is the other outlier. A 55.4-cent state fuel tax plus the Climate Commitment Act's carbon pricing puts more than $1.25 a gallon in government levies before crude, refining, or retail margins enter the picture, which can make taxes 40 to 50 percent of the pump price depending on crude costs. Compare that to Alaska at 8.95 cents a gallon in state tax, where taxes are under a tenth of the price even though Alaskans pay plenty at the pump for other reasons, as our lowest-tax ranking explains.

Why the number matters less than the structure

Here is the part worth sitting with. Taxes are the most visible slice of the gas price and the least understood, and that combination makes them a magnet for bad policy arguments. A gas tax holiday sounds like relief and delivers 4 percent. A state with low taxes and high prices, like Alaska, proves taxes are not the main driver. A state with high taxes and high prices, like California, proves they are not irrelevant either.

The honest use of the 18 percent figure is as a baseline for your own state. Look up your state's per-gallon tax, divide by your local pump price, and you have your number. If it is 12 percent, your prices are a crude-oil story. If it is 30 percent, your legislature is a co-author of every fill-up. Either way, you now know which lever actually moves your price, and it is probably not the one on the news.