The median unleaded price across the Australian Capital Territory is 202.9 c/L and diesel is 246.9 c/L, as at 16 August 2026. Unleaded is 12.0 c/L cheaper than a week ago. That makes ACT the sixth cheapest of 8 jurisdictions reporting, 2.0 c/L above the middle of the pack.
Every figure below is the median price across all reporting Australian Capital Territory sites, taken as a single panel. A median, not an average, so a few sites pricing far above the rest cannot drag the headline up.
| Fuel | Median c/L | vs a week ago |
|---|---|---|
| Unleaded 91 | 202.9 | -12.0 c/L |
| Diesel | 246.9 | -8.0 c/L |
Diesel is running 44.0 c/L above unleaded in the Australian Capital Territory. Diesel does not follow the discounting cycles petrol does, so this gap moves with wholesale costs rather than with retailer pricing rounds.
Over the 34 days since 14 July 2026, unleaded in the Australian Capital Territory has ranged between 175.9 and 217.9 c/L, a spread of 42.0 c/L. The typical day-to-day move is 1.8 c/L, and the largest single day move was -7.0 c/L on 10 August 2026.
The Australian Capital Territory is a single urban area, so a capital versus regional split would compare Canberra with itself. Every ACT site sits inside Greater Canberra.
Not on a weekly clock. Across 4 weeks of our own ACT readings, no single weekday stands out: the strongest is Tuesday, and it averages only +2.5 c/L, nowhere near enough to plan a fill-up around. The ACCC does not record a regular cycle in Canberra: prices here follow wholesale costs more than retailer discounting rounds, which is what our own readings show too.
| Day | Average change c/L |
|---|---|
| Sunday | +0.6 |
| Monday | -0.2 |
| Tuesday | +2.5 |
| Wednesday | +1.2 |
| Thursday | +0.2 |
| Friday | 0.0 |
| Saturday | +1.6 |
Mean day-over-day change in the ACT unleaded median, by day of the week, over 33 consecutive-day pairs. A short window: treat it as this season's pattern rather than a permanent one. Cycle lengths quoted above are the ACCC Quarterly Report on the Australian Petroleum Market; the weekday figures are our own.
The Australian Institute of Petroleum publishes a terminal gate price for every state and for the Northern Territory, but not for the Australian Capital Territory, which has no fuel terminal of its own and is supplied overland from Sydney. The retail margin comparison shown on the other jurisdiction pages therefore cannot be drawn here, and we do not estimate one.
Every figure on this page comes from FuelCheck, covering the ACT, run by the NSW Government platform, carrying ACT sites. It is the NSW FuelCheck scheme, which reports ACT sites alongside New South Wales ones - the territory has no price reporting platform of its own. We read it twice a day, take the median across the sites reporting, and publish it unaltered. We do not model, smooth or forecast the price.
That data is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. That is a share-alike licence, so this page and anything derived from it carry the same terms.
Fuel excise is a Commonwealth tax, so it is identical in the Australian Capital Territory and everywhere else. It returned to 53.7 c/L on 3 August 2026, worth up to about 18.8 c/L at the pump once GST is applied. Differences between states come from freight, competition and local costs, never from tax. What fuel excise costs per tank.
The national tracker: all eight jurisdictions, every fuel type, and what makes up a litre.
How these figures are derived: pricing methodology. Ways to pay less: save on fuel.