Pricele #35: Gasoline (1 litre) in United Kingdom 🇬🇧
The puzzle for 4 August 2026 asked what a litre of gasoline costs in United Kingdom. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Gasoline (1 litre) · United Kingdom
$1.97
1.46 GBP
About 7 minutes of the average local wage buys a litre of gasoline.
More expensive than 71% of the 32 countries in the game.
Source: Numbeo (crowd-sourced), retrieved 2026-08.
About gasoline
Crude oil trades on a world market at one price, so the pump price is almost pure policy. Countries that tax fuel heavily land near the top of the table; oil producers that subsidise it land at the bottom, sometimes below what it costs to refine. The spread between the cheapest and most expensive country here is wider than for any other item in the game.
Where United Kingdom sits
Of the 32 countries priced for gasoline, United Kingdom ranks #10 from the top at $1.97, 1.4× the median of $1.38.
The UK's prices sit between the eurozone and North America. Fuel duty plus VAT accounts for well over half the pump price, and most supermarket food is zero-rated for VAT, which is why the gap between British food and fuel prices is unusually wide. Zero-rating is not the same as exemption. It is a deliberate 0% band that still lets retailers reclaim VAT on their inputs, and it is one of the most generous food regimes in Europe against a fairly high 20% standard rate. Britain is the sharpest example in the table of a country that taxes driving heavily and eating barely at all.
| Nearby on the gasoline table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | $1.75 | 2.98 NZD | 5 min |
| Sweden | $1.88 | 17.92 SEK | 5 min |
| United Kingdom | $1.97 | 1.46 GBP | 7 min |
| Italy | $2.06 | 1.79 EUR | 9 min |
| Ireland | $2.07 | 1.8 EUR | 6 min |
What else costs what in United Kingdom
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $7.08 | 5.29 GBP | 24 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $1.55 | 1.25 GBP | 5 min |
| Cappuccino | $4.83 | 3.59 GBP | 16 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.69 | 1.26 GBP | 6 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $4.12 | 3.06 GBP | 14 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $3.03 | 2.25 GBP | 10 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $2.45 | 1.81 GBP | 8 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $43.00 | 31.8 GBP | 2.4 h |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $8.90 | 6.6 GBP | 30 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $17.21 | 13.4 GBP | 57 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.17 | 0.92 GBP | 4 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $24.77 | 19.29 GBP | 83 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $0.62 | — | 2 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $2.50 | 1.9 GBP | 8 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for gasoline in every country or everything priced in United Kingdom.