# Diesel price vs crude oil $3.405/gal for the week of Aug 17, 2026: the US pump price minus WTI crude, converted to dollars per gallon. Not the crack spread; refining, distribution, taxes and margin combined, all netted against crude. _Data through Aug 24, 2026 · source last checked Aug 25, 2026 · page revised Aug 25, 2026_ > Now $3.405/gal, 56% above the 5-yr median. The gap widened by $0.143/gal this week. The pump-to-crude gap reached $3.405/gal, widened by $0.143/gal on the week. This spread, which nets refining costs, distribution, taxes and station margin against the crude input, now sits 56% above the five-year median. ## The numbers | Period | Current | Prior | Change | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Week over week | $3.405/gal | $3.263/gal | +4.4% | | vs 4 weeks ago | $3.405/gal | $3.125/gal | +9.0% | | Year over year | $3.405/gal | $2.177/gal | +56.4% | | vs 5-yr median | $3.405/gal | $2.177/gal | +56.4% | ## About Diesel price vs crude oil This gap is not the crack spread. A crack spread compares a wholesale refined product to wholesale crude. This is the RETAIL pump price minus crude, so it carries refining, distribution, station costs and federal and state fuel taxes all in one number, not just a refiner's margin. Crude moves fastest. The pump follows with a lag of days to weeks as the new crude cost works through refining and distribution, so a crude spike this week shows up at the pump gradually, not instantly, and the gap often widens briefly right after a sharp crude move before it settles back. A widening gap over a longer stretch, weeks rather than days, points at something other than crude: tighter refining capacity, a distribution bottleneck, or a tax change, since the crude cost is already netted out of this number. A narrowing gap points the other way, the pump catching up to a crude move that already happened, or refining and distribution costs easing. WTI, converted to dollars per gallon by dividing by 42 (the gallons in a barrel), is the crude benchmark used here. See the [WTI](/crude/wti) and [Brent](/crude/brent) pages for the raw crude benchmarks on their own. ## About this data - Source: Derived from EIA retail diesel and EIA daily crude oil spot - Series: US retail diesel minus WTI crude, converted to $/gal - Basis: Retail pump (taxed) minus crude; not the wholesale crack spread - Geography: United States - Unit: $/gal - Calculation period: Weekly, crude matched to the nearest business day - Last observation: Aug 24, 2026 - Update frequency: Weekly --- Cite: Diesel price vs crude oil: $3.405/gal for the week of Aug 24, 2026. Monday Diesel. https://mondaydiesel.com/crude/diesel-vs-crude Canonical URL: https://mondaydiesel.com/crude/diesel-vs-crude