United Kingdom

Fuel price regulation varies by country. In the UK, there are currently no legal restrictions on when petrol stations can change prices — stations can raise or lower prices at any time. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) monitors the fuel market and has called for greater transparency. In Austria, since 16 March 2026, stations may only raise prices on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at exactly 12:00 noon, with reductions allowed at any time. In Germany, the Spritpreisregel (introduced 1 April 2026) permits only one daily price increase at noon. Both the Austrian and German models aim to reduce the frequent intraday price spikes that make it difficult for consumers to plan their refuelling. Petrol Price Watch tracks price changes across all six countries and flags suspicious increases outside permitted windows where regulations apply.

Our data comes directly from official government sources in each country. For UK stations, prices are sourced from publicly available fuel price data and updated regularly. Austrian and German prices are refreshed every 30 minutes via E-Control and Tankerkönig respectively, while French, Italian, and Spanish data is updated hourly from their national energy ministries. During the price-change window in regulated countries (Mon/Wed/Fri 11:55–12:30 Vienna time for Austria), we increase the polling frequency to every 5 minutes so you can track changes in near real-time. The "As of:" timestamp on each page shows exactly when data was last fetched. Prices that fall outside a plausible range (below £0.50 or above £3.00 equivalent) are automatically filtered out. Stations whose prices have not been updated for more than three days are excluded from the median calculation but still appear in individual station views.

Use our "Nearby" page — it shows the 10 cheapest petrol stations in your area, sorted by price and distance. You can either let your device detect your GPS location automatically or manually enter a postcode, town name, or street address. For each result, you will see the current price, distance in miles, and whether the station is currently open. Tapping a station opens directions in your preferred maps app. Regular commuters can save frequently used locations as favourites so the price comparison is just one tap away next time. Prices are updated every 30 minutes to one hour depending on the country, so the values shown are reliable when you set off for the station. For longer drives, use the route planner: enter your origin and destination, set a maximum detour of 3 to 15 minutes, and we will show you the cheapest stations along your route.

The median is the middle value when all station prices are sorted from lowest to highest — half the stations are cheaper, half are more expensive. Unlike the arithmetic mean, the median is not skewed by outliers. Expensive motorway stations, premium brands, or delayed data submissions are included but barely shift the result. This gives you a more realistic picture of what drivers actually pay at a typical petrol station. In practice, the median usually sits 1 to 2 pence below the average because the average is pulled upward by the small number of very expensive stations. Our methodology page explains the calculation in detail, including the 3-day freshness rule that ensures only stations with recently reported prices are included in the national and regional figures.

Petrol Price Watch currently covers 6 European countries with a total of over 71,000 stations: Austria (~2,900 stations via E-Control), Germany (~15,000 via Tankerkönig), France (~9,700 via data.economie.gouv.fr), Italy (~21,000 via MIMIT Open Data), Spain (~11,900 via MITECO), and the United Kingdom (~10,600 stations). All data comes exclusively from official government or regulatory sources — we do not use crowdsourced data or estimates. For each country, we show the national price trend, regional breakdowns (counties, Bundesländer, départements, regioni, etc.), the cheapest stations per region, and an individual station search with full price history. Update frequency varies by data source: Austria and Germany every 30 minutes, all other countries hourly.