Diesel Price
This value carries a source timestamp from 7 days ago. The series is available as `DIESEL_RETAIL_USD` through the API.
The number people mean by “diesel price” is the pump price: the EIA’s weekly national retail average. Underneath it sit wholesale ULSD, a market-reporting distillate blend and the crude it is refined from. The stack below lines them up with the gaps between them, each computed only from current data.
Need this data in your app?
GET /v1/prices/latest?by_code=DIESEL_RETAIL_USD → $6.382The diesel price stack
All values in USD per gallon. A gap row appears only when both of its inputs are present and within their publication cadence; it is never estimated.
| Series | USD / gal | As of |
|---|---|---|
US retail diesel (EIA weekly average) DIESEL_RETAIL_USD | $6.382 | |
| ↳ taxes, distribution and station margin | +$1.38 | DIESEL_RETAIL_USD − ULSD_DIESEL_USD |
NY Harbor ULSD wholesale (EIA) ULSD_DIESEL_USD | $5.00 | |
| ↳ diesel–crude gap (per gallon) | +$2.61 | ULSD_DIESEL_USD − BRENT_CRUDE_USD |
Diesel — market-reporting distillate blend DIESEL_USDU.S. distillate (diesel/heating oil) market-reporting price, primarily derived from a heating-oil market blend. Tracks but is not the EIA Gulf Coast ULSD spot assessment; for an EIA diesel series use ULSD_DIESEL_USD. | $4.51 | |
Brent crude per gallon (÷42) BRENT_CRUDE_USD$100.44 per barrel | $2.39 |
Retail diesel by region
EIA weekly retail averages, USD per gallon. Districts whose series is unavailable are omitted rather than estimated.
Retail and wholesale in one call
Request the retail, regional and wholesale codes together and compute your own surcharge or margin view.
Source timestamps on every row
Each series carries its own observation date so a weekly survey and a daily assessment are never presented as the same moment.
Nothing estimated
A missing input drops the derived row rather than filling it with a default. What you see is what the sources published.
Why is diesel $6.38 at the pump when wholesale is $5.00?
The pump price sits on top of the wholesale price. Between the two are federal and state fuel taxes, the cost of moving fuel from the terminal to the station, and the station's own margin. On the EIA numbers above that gap is +$1.38 per gallon this week. Region matters as much as the national average: state taxes and fuel specifications differ, which is why the regional row above spreads well over a dollar between the cheapest and most expensive districts. Timing matters too. The EIA retail figure is a Monday survey published weekly, while the wholesale spot assessment moves every trading day, so the two can be days apart on a fast-moving week.
The term "diesel price" refers to several distinct quantities that are frequently conflated. Retail pump prices, wholesale rack prices, spot assessments at specific hubs and heating-oil proxies all circulate under the same name, and they can sit several percent apart on the same day. This page serves a market-reporting distillate price. The sections below state what the number is, how it differs from adjacent measures, and which measure fits which use.
What this number actually is - and is not
The value on this page is a market-reporting distillate price derived primarily from a heating-oil market blend. It tracks the direction of U.S. diesel closely, but it is not the EIA U.S. Gulf Coast Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel spot assessment, and on individual days the two diverge materially. Measured against our own EIA-sourced rows for the same dates, the gap reached -9.3% on 2026-08-05 and +12.6% on 2026-07-15.
Method note: until August 2026 our own catalogue described this series as the EIA Gulf Coast assessment. Measurement of the served data showed approximately 98% of observations originated from the heating-oil blend. We corrected the label on 2026-08-09 and added a conformance test that fails our build if the description drifts from the served data. The general property this illustrates: a distillate price is fully specified only by instrument, location and assessing body; a quote missing any of the three is ambiguous.
Diesel and heating oil: related distillates, distinct prices
Diesel and heating oil are both No. 2 distillates from the same part of the barrel, which is why one is often used as a proxy for the other and why futures desks historically hedged diesel with the heating-oil contract. But road diesel is ultra-low sulfur (15 ppm) and carries road taxes and specification premiums; heating oil historically allowed far more sulfur and prices against a different demand curve - winter heating rather than year-round freight.
In mild weather the two track tightly. In a cold snap, heating-oil demand can pull the blend away from what trucks are actually paying at the rack. If your use case is freight cost modeling or fuel-surcharge calculation, a diesel-specific assessment such as the EIA series is usually the better anchor; if you need a liquid, frequently-updated distillate signal, the blend serves well.
Which diesel number fits which use
For a frequently updated market signal: this page (DIESEL_USD). For the EIA's spot assessment methodology: ULSD_DIESEL_USD, which carries the EIA New York Harbor ultra-low-sulfur series - published on the EIA's schedule, so it updates less often but is a named, documented government assessment. For retail pump prices - what consumers pay, including taxes - use a retail series rather than any spot number; spot and retail can move days apart.
General rule: match the assessment to the decision. Fuel-surcharge formulas typically name a specific published index; substituting a correlated proxy introduces error concentrated on exactly the days the two series diverge, which are the days a surcharge calculation is most likely to be disputed.
Diesel FAQ
Is this the EIA Gulf Coast diesel price?
No. This series is derived primarily from a heating-oil market blend and tracks - but is not - the EIA Gulf Coast ULSD spot assessment. The two diverged by as much as 12.6% on individual days in mid-2026. For an EIA assessment use the ULSD_DIESEL_USD code, which carries the EIA New York Harbor ULSD series.
Why does your diesel price differ from what I see elsewhere?
Because 'the diesel price' is many different numbers: retail pump averages include taxes and station margin; rack prices are wholesale at terminals; spot assessments are hub-specific; and heating-oil-derived blends like this one price against distillate demand broadly. Differences of several percent between these on the same day are normal, not an error in either number.
How do I know your label matches the data?
It is enforced in software. After correcting this page's description in August 2026, we added a conformance test that runs on every code change: if the served data's source mix stops matching the description, or the alternative code we point to stops existing, our build fails. The label cannot silently drift from the data again.
Related Commodity Prices
Pull the whole stack from one API
Retail, regional, wholesale and crude codes, each with its own source timestamp, in plain JSON.