Gas Prices Expected to Drop in 2025
Good news is on the horizon for inflation-weary drivers, as GasBuddy projections expect gas prices to drop in 2025 for the third consecutive year. The national average for regular gas is expected to fall to $3.22 a gallon next year, marking a modest decline from 2024’s average of $3.33 and the lowest annual average since 2021.
This forecast is a significant improvement from the unprecedented surge above $5 a gallon in mid-2022, which had a profound impact on the American economy and consumer spending habits. According to GasBuddy, Americans can expect to spend about $115 billion less on fuel in 2025 than they did in 2022.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, notes that the national average will stay safely below $3.50 a gallon each month of 2025, even during the peak driving season. This means that the typical household will spend $2,252 next year on fuel, which is above the pre-Covid level of $1,952 in 2019 but well below the record high of $2,715 in 2022.
However, De Haan warns that this projection could be disrupted by several factors, including President-elect Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico. While GasBuddy assumes that Trump will ultimately not slap a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican oil, De Haan estimates that a tariff would lift retail gas prices by 30 cents to 70 cents a gallon.
The industry is highly skeptical of Trump’s promise to make gas prices go below $2 a gallon, with some experts predicting that this would require a recession or other crisis. Even at the cheapest end of the range, GasBuddy only expects the national average to fall to $2.81 in December 2025.
