The simple version

The national average price of regular gasoline was $4.006 a gallon for the week ending August 10, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the federal agency that tracks energy prices. That is above the four dollar line most people treat as the mark of expensive gas.

The same agency publishes a second version of that price history, one that converts every past price into today's money. By that measure the most expensive year on record was 2012, when the sign at the station read about $3.63. Measured in August 2026 dollars, that year averaged $5.27 a gallon, which is well above what gas costs now.

The numbers

• $4.006 per gallon: the national average for regular gasoline, week ending August 10, 2026 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices)
• $5.27 per gallon: what gasoline averaged in 2012 measured in August 2026 dollars, the highest annual average in the agency's inflation-adjusted series, which starts in 1976. The unadjusted average that year was $3.63 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook real prices)
• $5.23 per gallon: the 2011 average in the same dollars, second highest, about four cents behind 2012 (same source)
• $4.103: the April 2026 monthly average, the first month above $4 since July 2022, when it was $4.559 (U.S. Energy Information Administration, monthly retail series)
• $4.479: the May 2026 monthly average, the third-highest monthly average in a series running back to 1976 (same source)
• $4.050: the June 2026 monthly average, tenth highest, a fraction below June 2008 at $4.054 (same source)
• $3.932: the July 2026 monthly average, before the move back above $4 (same source)
• $6.22 per gallon: June 2008 measured in August 2026 dollars, the most expensive single month in real terms, which is a different question from the most expensive year (same source)

Why the sign at the station is the wrong yardstick

A price is a number of dollars, and dollars change. When people compare gas today to gas in 2012, they are comparing two numbers measured in different units without noticing, because both units are called the dollar.

Adjusting for inflation converts old prices into today's money, which is the only way to ask whether something actually got more expensive. A dollar in 2012 bought meaningfully more than a dollar buys now, so $3.63 back then took a bigger bite out of a paycheck than $4.006 does today. The pump sign went up and the real cost came down, and both statements are true at once.

That distinction has a name. The nominal price is the number printed on the sign, and the real price is what it costs you in purchasing power. Nominal prices almost always rise over decades, which is why nearly every price looks like a record if you never adjust, and why the phrase highest ever means little on its own.

The adjustment cuts the other way too, and honesty requires saying so. On a monthly basis the most expensive gasoline in the agency's records was June 2008, which works out to about $6.22 in August 2026 dollars even though the pump read $4.05. So 2012 holds the record for the most expensive year while 2008 holds it for the most expensive month, and neither one is close to today.

The recent path matters as well, because it cuts against the feeling that today is a peak. The average crossed $4 in April, reached $4.479 in May, then fell through June and July to $3.932 before turning back up to just over $4. Today is not a new threshold, it is a return to a level this year has spent most of its time near.

The Real Cost lens on 480 gallons

Put both prices on the same household so the comparison has a size. Every assumption is stated.

• A household driving 12,000 miles a year at 25 miles per gallon burns 480 gallons, the same stated example used in our earlier gasoline coverage
• At today's $4.006, that is about $1,923 a year
• At the 2012 average of $5.27 in the same dollars, those 480 gallons would run about $2,531, roughly $608 more
• Put another way, gasoline today costs about 24% less in real terms than it did in the most expensive year on record

None of that makes today's price feel better at the pump, and it is not meant to. It is meant to give you a yardstick that works across decades, because the one most people use, remembering what the sign used to say, systematically makes the past look cheap.

What this means

Whenever you compare a price across years, ask whether the comparison has been adjusted. Wages, home prices, college tuition, and gasoline all get discussed with unadjusted numbers, and unadjusted numbers make almost every recent year look like a record.

That is not an argument that things are fine. Some prices have genuinely outrun inflation, and the adjustment is what proves it rather than what hides it. The point is that you cannot tell which is which until you do the conversion, and for gasoline the conversion is published, free, by the same agency that publishes the price.

What this is NOT

This is not a prediction of gasoline prices, and any forecast figure belongs to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and is labeled as its forecast rather than ours. This is not advice about fuel purchases, vehicles, or any financial decision, and it is not advice about any security, fund, or commodity. This is not a claim that gasoline is affordable or unaffordable for any particular household, which depends on income and driving that a national average cannot see. National averages also hide real differences, because prices vary substantially by state and market. The household figures are stated illustrations, not measured averages. This is not investment or financial advice of any kind.

Sources

• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, Real Petroleum Prices (inflation-adjusted series, August 2026 dollars): https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/realprices/
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, monthly U.S. regular all formulations retail gasoline prices: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/leafhandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epmr_pte_nus_dpg&f=m
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, the basis for the inflation adjustment: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/