How FuelPriceAtlas calculates UK fuel prices
Where our UK data comes from, how we compute national averages, daily history and rankings, and the limits of the data.
Our UK prices come from the government’s Fuel Finder scheme, which publishes the prices reported by forecourts. We import them every hour.
What we do with the data
- We keep each station’s latest price for each fuel and ignore stale prices.
- We discard obviously wrong values (for example prices outside a plausible range).
- National and town averages are simple averages across stations with a current price.
- History starts when we began collecting UK data in October 2026, so weekly and monthly changes build up over time.
Limits
Not every station reports promptly, and a price can change between updates. Always confirm at the pump.
Step by step
- Collect. Each hour we download the complete station and price list from the Fuel Finder service.
- Clean. Prices are converted from pence to pounds, obviously wrong values are discarded, and station addresses are tidied.
- Filter for freshness. A price is “current” if the retailer changed or confirmed it within the last 21 days. Older prices are shown but marked, and are excluded from averages and rankings.
- Aggregate. We calculate averages for the country, nations, towns, brands and postcode areas from the current prices, and rank stations by price.
- Publish. Pages are rebuilt from the database; daily figures are stored so we can draw trends and weekly reports.
What the averages mean
Our averages are simple means across stations, not weighted by sales volume, so a quiet rural station counts as much as a busy one. They are therefore a guide to the prices on offer, not to what the average driver paid. Other published averages, such as the Government’s weekly road fuel prices or the RAC’s Fuel Watch, use different samples and methods, so their numbers can differ slightly from ours.
Our history
Our UK database began on 22 October 2026, so trend charts and reports start from that date. We do not backfill with estimates.
More detail, including how we treat errors, is on the methodology page; our standards for articles are set out in the editorial policy.
Frequently asked questions
How often is the data updated?
Hourly, from the Fuel Finder feed.
Why do your averages differ from the RAC’s?
Different samples, timing and methods. We average current prices from every station in the Fuel Finder feed, while other sources may use a panel of stations or a different day.