The average national price has surged to $4.56 per gallon, AAA said, making fuel costs over Memorial Day weekend the highest they've been for the holiday in four years. The prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to push pump prices higher heading into the summer travel season.
The current average is up 3 cents from last week and $1.38 above the same period last year. The last time Memorial Day gas prices were this elevated was in 2022, when the national average reached $4.61 a gallon. AAA said gasoline demand is rising and pump prices are likely to stay elevated through the summer.
A record 45 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles over the holiday weekend, according to AAA, with 87% of those travelers driving to their destinations. Both figures mark an increase over the 44.8 million who traveled over the holiday in 2025 and the 42.8 million who did so in 2019.
Prices vary widely by state. California leads all markets at $6.14 per gallon, followed by Washington state at $5.78 and Hawaii at $5.64, according to AAA. Mississippi has the lowest average in the country at $4.01 per gallon. Every state has crossed the $4 threshold, and seven states are posting averages above $5.
Now in its 12th week, the Iran war has brought ship movement through the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint that accounts for about one-fifth of the world's oil supply — to a near standstill. GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan attributes more than nine-tenths of the year-over-year gap at the pump directly to the conflict with Iran.
"These states are all paying quite a bit more compared to last year, and it's very much because of what's going on with the Strait of Hormuz," De Haan told Axios. "That's what happens when the world's most vital waterway to the shipment of oil becomes a military target."
The summer fuel picture could worsen further. For the full stretch of the summer driving season, GasBuddy's modeling points to a nationwide per-gallon average of $4.80. Should the Hormuz closure drag on well into summer, analysts warn the record pump price of $5.02 a gallon — last touched in June 2022 — could come back into range, according to CBS News.
Research from Brown University's Climate Solutions Lab puts the cumulative gasoline burden on households since the Iran war began at roughly $24 billion, or close to $200 per household on average.
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