Fuel prices: when to fill up and what it saves
In most big cities, petrol prices don't just drift. They jump, then slide down, then jump again. If you know where you are in that cycle, you can pay less for the same tank of fuel. Here's what the real prices show, city by city.
Sydney
$224
A year, saved by filling up near the low of each cycle. Cycles here last about 37 days and swing 28c a litre.
See fuel prices in SydneyCanberra
195c
A litre of unleaded on average. Canberra has no price cycle, so when you fill up matters less.
See fuel prices in CanberraBrisbane
$233
A year, saved by filling up near the low of each cycle. Cycles here last about 36 days and swing 31c a litre.
See fuel prices in BrisbanePerth
$99
A year, saved by filling up near the low of each cycle. Cycles here last about a week and swing 17c a litre. Tuesday is the cheapest day.
See fuel prices in PerthDarwin
183c
A litre of unleaded on average in the year to 1 December 2024. Darwin has no price cycle, so when you fill up matters less.
See fuel prices in DarwinWhat does your car cost to run?
Put in how far you drive and what your car uses. See your fuel bill for a year at the real prices in your council area, and what good timing and the right brand would save you.
Work out your fuel billWhat's a price cycle?
In a price cycle, stations lift their prices by a lot over a few days. Then they cut them a little at a time, each one trying to win drivers from the station down the road. When prices get low enough, someone jumps again, and the rest follow.
The fuel itself doesn't cost the stations any more on the day prices jump. The cycle is how they set prices against each other. That's why the same tank can cost you very different amounts a week apart.
| City | Unleaded, average | Cycle | Swing | Cheapest day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 189.1c | 37 days | 28c | Any day |
| Canberra | 194.8c | None | – | Any day |
| Brisbane | 190.1c | 36 days | 31c | Any day |
| Perth | 187.6c | A week | 17c | Tuesday |
| Darwin | 183.4c | None | – | Any day |
Over each city's latest year of prices. The cheapest day only counts if it's at least 2c a litre below the dearest.
Where these prices come from
Stations in New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory must report every price change to their government, and those governments publish the records. We take each station's price at noon each day and average them. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania don't publish past prices we can use, so they aren't here yet.
The Northern Territory's records end on 1 December 2024.
Sources: NSW Government FuelCheck, CC BY-SA; Queensland Government, Fuel Price Reporting, CC BY 4.0; FuelWatch, Government of Western Australia, CC BY 4.0; Northern Territory Government, MyFuel NT, CC BY. Suburbs, councils and city areas: Australian Bureau of Statistics, CC BY 4.0. NSW and ACT figures are built from data shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licence, and can be reused under that same licence.