Arizona gas tax
State fuel excise · tax year 2026 · federal tax excluded
On a 20-gallon fill
$3.60
Over 500 gallons
$90
Per gallon
18.0¢
state only
Rate rank
45
1 is the highest
What Arizona charges at the pump
- Every time you fill a tank in Arizona, part of what you pay is tax the state charges on fuel. On a twenty-gallon fill it comes to $3.60. 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 $90, and Arizona ranks 45 nationally on the rate behind it.
- Diesel gets no penalty in Arizona. Twenty gallons of it carries $3.60 of state tax, against $3.60 on gasoline, and over a year the diesel total is $90. Most states charge diesel more. This one does not.
- The headline rate is not quite the whole story in Arizona. 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.
- Arizona's motor fuel excise adds $3.60 to a twenty-gallon gasoline purchase and $90 across five hundred gallons, ranking 45 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.
- No diesel premium applies in Arizona: $3.60 per twenty gallons against gasoline's $3.60, or $90 annually at five hundred gallons. ⚠️ The majority of states levy diesel above gasoline to recover heavier road wear, so the parity here is a genuine cost advantage for freight operating in-state rather than a data artifact.
- Arizona 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 | 18¢ |
|---|---|
| Fuel tax, year | $112 |
| You must earn | $166 |
| Hours of work | 4.6 hr |
State excise only. Federal fuel tax and any local levy are not included.
Tax in a tank
A $75,000 salary
| State rate | 18¢ a gallon |
|---|---|
| Tank costs | $44.80 |
| Fifty tanks a year | $126.00 |
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 Arizona 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 | 18.0¢ | $3.60 | $90 |
| Diesel | 18.0¢ | $3.60 | $90 |
| 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 Arizona.
- 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 Arizona 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 Arizona 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.
Is this a cheap state for this?
Near the bottom: 45 of 51. Low tax and low price are not the same thing, and only the first is set by the state.
Is diesel taxed the same as gasoline?
Different rate entirely — lower than gasoline here. The split is deliberate and rests on which vehicles do most damage to the road surface.
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 45 of 51, in the lower third. ⚠️ Excise rank is a poor proxy for retail price: production, distribution and retail margin dominate the final figure, and the tax component is the only part under state control.
How does the diesel rate relate to the gasoline rate here?
Diesel is taxed at a rate set independently of gasoline and is lower 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.