Alabama gas tax
State fuel excise · tax year 2026 · federal tax excluded
On a 20-gallon fill
$6
Over 500 gallons
$150
Per gallon
30.0¢
state only
Rate rank
19
1 is the highest
What Alabama charges at the pump
- Every time you fill a tank in Alabama, part of what you pay is tax the state charges on fuel. On a twenty-gallon fill it comes to $6. You never see it on the receipt because it is baked into the price at the pump. Across a year of ordinary driving it adds up to $150, and Alabama ranks 19 nationally on the rate behind it.
- Diesel drivers pay more in Alabama. Twenty gallons of diesel carries $6.20 of state tax against $6 for ordinary fuel, so each fill costs $0.20 more in tax alone. A year of it comes to $155.
- The headline rate is not quite the whole story in Alabama. There are separate charges on fuel too — inspection fees, environmental levies, that sort of thing — and they add $0.20 to a twenty-gallon fill on top of the main tax. Small on its own. Included in the price all the same.
- Alabama's motor fuel excise adds $6 to a twenty-gallon gasoline purchase and $150 across five hundred gallons, ranking 19 nationally by rate. ⚠️ Federal excise is excluded from both figures: it is identical in every state, so including it would compress the interstate differences this page exists to show. Fuel excise is levied per gallon rather than as a percentage, which means its real value erodes with inflation unless a legislature or an indexing formula moves it.
- Alabama sets its diesel rate above its gasoline rate, producing $6.20 per twenty gallons versus $6, a gap of $0.20 per fill and an annual $155. ⚠️ For an owner-operator this is a direct operating cost that varies by route state, which is why interstate carriers reconcile fuel tax across jurisdictions rather than paying it purely where they buy.
- Alabama reports additional fuel levies apart from its principal excise — typically inspection, environmental or underground-storage charges — contributing $0.20 per twenty-gallon fill. ⚠️ These are reported separately by the state and are excluded from the headline rate on which the national rank is computed, so a like-for-like comparison against another state requires knowing whether that state folds equivalents into its main rate or reports them apart.
Your year of fuel tax
A $75,000 salary
| State fuel taxper gallon | 30¢ |
|---|---|
| Fuel tax, year | $187 |
| You must earn | $282 |
| Hours of work | 7.8 hr |
State excise only. Federal fuel tax and any local levy are not included.
Tax in a tank
A $75,000 salary
| State rate | 30¢ a gallon |
|---|---|
| Tank costs | $44.80 |
| Fifty tanks a year | $210.00 |
State excise only. The federal fuel tax and any local levy are on top of this.
Gasoline, diesel, and the charges reported separately
Per-gallon rates are shown as Alabama publishes them, to a tenth of a cent. The money columns are what those rates come to on a 20-gallon fill and across 500 gallons. Federal tax is charged on top of all of it and is not included.
| Fuel | Per gallon | On a fill | Over a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | 30.0¢ | $6 | $150 |
| Diesel | 31.0¢ | $6.20 | $155 |
| Other state charges | 1.0¢ | $0.20 | — |
What this page cannot tell you
- ⚠️ Federal fuel tax is charged on top of all this and is not included above. It is the same everywhere in the country.
- The tank and the year here are round reference amounts, not a guess at your driving. Your own total scales directly with the gallons you actually buy in Alabama.
- And some places add local fuel taxes of their own on top of the state's. Those are not counted here.
- ⚠️ Federal motor fuel excise applies in addition to every figure on this page and is deliberately excluded, being uniform nationally. Including it would raise each state's figure by the same amount and compress the differences this page exists to show.
- Quantities are reference points rather than estimates of consumption: liability is strictly proportional to gallons purchased, so any household's figure is this one scaled by its own volume. ⚠️ Fuel purchased outside Alabama is taxed by the state where it is bought, which is why the figures describe purchases rather than mileage.
- Local option fuel taxes exist in a number of states and are excluded from these figures, which cover the state levy only. Where a county or city in Alabama imposes its own charge, the true per-gallon burden at that address exceeds what this page reports.
Questions people ask
Why is there no tax line on my fuel receipt?
The tax is collected upstream and per gallon, not at the register. That is why the sign price is the final price, and why a cheaper week does not mean a smaller tax.
How does this compare with other states?
Around the middle: 19 of 51. Nearby states are unlikely to differ dramatically at this position.
Is diesel taxed the same as gasoline?
No — it carries its own rate, a higher one here. States set the two separately, usually reasoning about road wear from heavy vehicles rather than about the fuel itself, so the gap between them is a policy choice rather than a chemical one.
Why does motor fuel excise not appear as a separate charge?
Motor fuel excise is levied per gallon at the distributor or terminal, not at retail, so it is embedded in the pump price and not separately stated. Because it is volumetric rather than ad valorem, liability per gallon is invariant to the retail price and its real value erodes with inflation absent legislative change.
Where does this state sit in the national distribution?
This state ranks 19 of 51, within the middle third. Cross-border substitution effects are weakest at this position because adjacent-state differentials are typically small relative to travel cost.
How does the diesel rate relate to the gasoline rate here?
Diesel is taxed at a rate set independently of gasoline and is higher in this state. The differential is generally justified by road-wear attribution to heavy vehicles rather than by fuel characteristics, and several states index the two grades differently.