How to Find the Cheapest Fuel Near You as Pump Prices Near a Two Year High

With average petrol sitting close to 160p a litre and diesel above 184p, the gap between the cheapest and dearest forecourt in your area can be as wide as 15p a litre. On a typical 50-litre fill that is more than £7 left on the table for driving to the wrong station. From this spring, a government-backed open data scheme called Fuel Finder has started forcing every sizeable forecourt in the country to publish its prices in near real time, and the tools that read that data are free. Here is how to use it, how much you stand to save, and why prices are so high in the first place.

Why pump prices have climbed back towards a record

According to RAC Fuel Watch, the average price of unleaded reached 159.6p a litre on 26 May 2026, with diesel at 184.9p. Those are the highest levels since late 2022. The RAC breaks the unleaded figure down as roughly 63p in wholesale costs, 16p in retail and distribution, 54p in fuel and environmental duty, and around 27p in VAT, which is charged on the duty as well as the fuel, so drivers effectively pay a tax on a tax.

The spring spike followed a jump in wholesale oil costs after conflict in the Middle East and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which a large share of the world’s seaborne crude passes. Prices stabilised through May as markets calmed, but they have not fallen back to where they began the year. The 5p cut to fuel duty first introduced in 2022 is being held for the rest of the year, which keeps a lid on the duty element, yet the wholesale and retail margins still vary enormously from one retailer to the next.

That variation is the part you can actually control. Supermarkets and independents in the same postcode can differ by 10p to 15p a litre on the same day, and motorway services routinely charge far more than a town-centre forecourt a mile off the slip road. The problem has always been knowing, before you pull in, which station is cheap and which is quietly fleecing you.

What the Fuel Finder scheme actually does

Fuel Finder grew out of the Competition and Markets Authority’s 2023 road fuel market study, which concluded that competition in the sector was not working as well as it should. The CMA recommended a statutory open data scheme so drivers could compare live prices and force retailers to compete harder. The government accepted the recommendation and built it into law.

Since 2 February 2026, forecourt operators have been required to register with the scheme and report any price change within 30 minutes. That data is published as an open feed, free for any app, website, sat nav or in-car system to read. The CMA was handed the job of policing it. In its guidance the authority said it is “committed to taking effective and proportionate enforcement action to enable consumers across the UK to shop with confidence and find the best deal for them, and to reinvigorate price competition in the UK road fuel market”.

The CMA allowed a grace period of roughly three months while businesses updated their systems. That support phase ran until the beginning of May 2026, after which the regulator shifted its focus to enforcement, with the power to fine retailers that fail to register or that report inaccurate prices. In short, the scheme is now live and backed by real consequences for forecourts that do not play fair.

One point worth understanding: the government did not build a single official app. Instead the raw price data is released openly and flows into the apps and mapping services drivers already use. That means you have a choice of tools rather than one state-run service.

How to find the cheapest fuel near you

Several free apps and websites now read the Fuel Finder feed and plot prices on a map. The longest-running is PetrolPrices, which has tracked UK forecourts since 2006. The free myRAC app includes a fuel search that lets you set a radius of two, five or ten miles and sorts stations by price. PumpWatch and similar services display live prices from thousands of sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, refreshing every few minutes.

To put the scheme to work, follow these steps:

• Download a fuel comparison app before you next need to fill up, and allow it to use your location so it can rank nearby forecourts.
• Search within a sensible radius. Driving five miles out of your way to save 3p a litre rarely pays once you account for the fuel burned getting there.
• Check the price of the specific grade you buy. Some stations are cheap on standard unleaded but dear on premium or diesel.
• Fill up away from motorways where you can. Service station prices are consistently higher, so brimming the tank before a long trip is usually cheaper than topping up on the road.
• Sense-check the figure when you arrive. Prices update within 30 minutes under the rules, but if the pump price is higher than the app showed, that is exactly the kind of discrepancy the CMA wants reported.

If you drive an electric car, the same habit of comparing before you commit applies to public charging, where the cost per unit can swing dramatically between networks. Our guide to why public charging now reaches 79p per kWh shows how wide that gap has become.

How much you can really save

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said the scheme should save the average driver around £40 a year. Independent estimates suggest that drivers who actively use comparison apps to choose a cheaper nearby station can save in the region of £4 to £6 on every tank, which adds up quickly for anyone filling up weekly. For a two-car household the annual figure can run into the hundreds.

The savings come from two directions. The obvious one is picking the cheaper forecourt today. The less obvious one is the pressure the scheme puts on retailers over time. When every driver can see in seconds that the station down the road is 8p cheaper, the dearer site has to respond or lose custom. The CMA found that a lack of price transparency had allowed margins to widen, and the whole point of an open feed is to squeeze those margins back.

None of this changes the duty and VAT baked into every litre, which together account for roughly half the pump price. But on the part retailers control, information is the cheapest discount available, and it now costs you nothing more than a few seconds on a phone before you indicate left.

It is worth stacking the scheme with the discounts you already have. Several supermarket loyalty schemes knock a few pence a litre off for members, and some link the saving to your wider grocery spend, so comparing the headline price on an app is only half the picture if you also hold a fuel loyalty card. The smart approach is to use the comparison tool to shortlist the cheapest two or three forecourts within a sensible radius, then apply any loyalty discount on top to find the genuine lowest cost for your tank.

There is also a behavioural saving the apps encourage. Drivers who run their tank close to empty often have no choice but to fill at whatever station they reach first, frequently a pricey one. Keeping at least a quarter of a tank in reserve gives you the freedom to wait for a cheaper forecourt rather than paying a premium under pressure, and the live data makes it easy to judge whether it is worth holding on for a few more miles.

What to do this week

Install a free fuel comparison app today, set your home and work postcodes, and get into the habit of checking before you fill rather than pulling into the first station you pass. Keep an eye on whether the displayed pump price matches the app, since accurate reporting is now a legal duty. And if you are watching every penny, our coverage of why pump prices hit a two year high and the wider problem of forecourt fuel theft pushing up costs for everyone explains the forces behind the numbers on the totem pole.

Sources:

• https://competitionandmarkets.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/17/driving-better-road-fuel-prices-for-consumers/
• https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/fuel-watch/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/road-fuel-price-data-scheme
• https://www.fuelsindustryuk.org/consumer-information/fuel-finder-scheme-essential-information-for-industry-and-consumers/