US gasoline at $4.1044 a gallon on August 20, 2026 — up 97 cents in a year
The US national average for regular gasoline was $4.1044 a gallon on August 20, 2026, according to AAA. That is 3 cents above $4.0715 a week earlier and 97.07 cents above $3.1337 a year earlier. The driver was not demand — US gasoline demand actually fell to 8.68 million barrels a day — but crude, with Brent holding near $94 on continued Strait of Hormuz disruption
The three lines
- Price — $4.1044 a gallon on August 20. Up 3 cents on the week, 97.07 cents on the year
- Cause — demand fell to 8.68 million b/d and stocks rose. What moved was crude, not the pump
- Backdrop — Hormuz disruption is in its sixth month. Brent is 40.54% above a year ago
Key questions
- What is the current US gas price?
- **$4.1044 a gallon** for regular, national average, as of **August 20, 2026** (AAA). A week earlier it was $4.0715, so **3 cents higher**; a year earlier it was $3.1337, so **97.07 cents higher**. Converting for readers outside the US: a gallon is about 3.785 litres, which puts this near **$1.08 a litre**. That comparison should be handled carefully — US fuel taxes vary by state and are considerably lower than in most of Europe and East Asia, so the same crude price produces very different pump prices across countries.
- Is demand pushing prices up?
- No. **Demand fell.** In the weekly US federal data, gasoline demand dropped to **8.68 million barrels a day** from 8.96 million the previous week. Total domestic supply *rose* to 209.4 million barrels from 208.7 million, and production averaged 9.7 million barrels a day. On domestic balances alone, prices should have eased. AAA's own report said as much — demand is down, as is typical for the season, and it is crude that is pushing the national average up.
- Why isn't crude falling?
- The **Strait of Hormuz**. Brent traded near **$94 a barrel** on August 21, heading for a second consecutive weekly gain of around 6 percent, and sits **40.54 percent** above a year ago. WTI settled at $85.83 mid-week in AAA's citation. A substantial share of seaborne crude passes through a waterway that has not functioned normally for close to six months. Crude is priced on the **probability of supply being cut**, not on current inventories — which is why a market with rising US stocks can still carry a large risk premium.
American drivers are paying 97 cents a gallon more than a year ago.
The national average on August 20, 2026 was $4.1044. In August 2025 it was $3.1337.
The cause of that increase is not inside the United States.
1. The numbers
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| National average (Aug 20) | $4.1044/gal |
| A week earlier | $4.0715 (+3 cents) |
| A year earlier | $3.1337 (+97.07 cents) |
In litres that is roughly $1.08.
Set that beside a European or East Asian pump price with care. US fuel taxes are set state by state and are far lower than in most other developed markets. The same barrel of crude produces very different retail prices depending on the tax layer above it.
2. It is not demand — demand fell
When fuel prices rise, the first instinct is to look for demand. Here it points the other way.
| Item | This week | Previous week |
|---|---|---|
| Gasoline demand | 8.68m barrels/day | 8.96m |
| Total domestic supply | 209.4m barrels | 208.7m |
| Gasoline production | 9.7m barrels/day | — |
Demand fell. Stocks rose. On US balances alone, this is a set of conditions that lowers prices.
AAA said so directly: demand is down, as is typical for the season, and it is crude that is pushing the national average up.
So the increase was imported, not generated domestically.
3. The import — Hormuz
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Brent (Aug 21) | near $94/bbl |
| Weekly trend | Second consecutive weekly gain, about 6% each |
| Versus a year ago | +40.54% |
| WTI (mid-week settlement) | $85.83 (cited by AAA) |
The cause converges on one place — the Strait of Hormuz.
This page has tracked the waterway repeatedly: Hormuz traffic at 3% of pre-war levels on August 15, zero transits on a Sunday on August 18. On August 22 Iran granted passage to some Iraqi tankers, a selective permission rather than a reopening.
The key mechanism here is that crude is priced on the probability that supply gets cut, not on current inventories. There is no physical shortage of gasoline in the United States — stocks rose. What holds the price up is that oil futures are pricing whether ships will pass next month and next quarter.
4. From barrel to pump
A 40 percent rise in crude does not produce a 40 percent rise at the pump. There are layers between.
| Layer | Content |
|---|---|
| Crude | The international benchmark price: Brent, WTI |
| Refining | Cost and margin of turning crude into gasoline and diesel |
| Distribution | Pipelines, tanker trucks, storage |
| Tax | Federal plus state |
| Retail | Station margin |
Those layers dampen the pass-through. Over the past year Brent rose 40.54 percent while the US pump price rose about 31 percent ($3.1337 → $4.1044).
They also add lag. This page set out the timing of that transmission on August 3 in How many days it takes for oil prices to reach your wallet, and the benchmark differences on August 11 in Dubai, Brent and WTI.
5. What is not confirmed
- Brent's exact close — August 21 is reported at $94.09, $94.39 and $95.29 across sources. This page writes "near $94."
- The 60% claim — a widely quoted rise since late February was not checked against the AAA weekly series.
- Composition of the increase — the 97-cent annual rise was not broken into crude, refining margin and distribution.
- Cross-country comparison — the per-litre figure is arithmetic; tax regimes make direct pump comparisons unreliable.
- Next checkpoint — the weekly AAA national average and US federal stock-and-demand data. If Hormuz transits recover, these move first.
Sources
- AAA Newsroom — High Crude Oil Prices Push Up National Average (August 20, 2026)
- AAA Fuel Prices — News
- Fortune — Current price of oil as of August 21, 2026
- Vantage Markets — Brent Crude Oil Price Holds Near $94 as WTI Steadies (August 21, 2026)
- CNBC — Oil prices are little changed after Iran's president indicates Tehran wants war to end soon
- CNN — August 21, 2026: US gas prices up nearly a dollar from a year ago as Hormuz traffic remains low
- U.S. Energy Information Administration — Short-Term Energy Outlook