Photo: Maridav (Shutterstock)
Gas prices have come down from the historic high of over $5 per gallon national average it hit last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, our current $3.71 per gallon is nothing to scoff at. Luckily, there are ways to use technology to help us find the best deals on gas. Apps like Waze use crowdsourcing to show prices at gas stations along your route, so you can select the cheapest option when you’re starting to get low.
How Waze can find you the cheapest gas stations
First, download Waze to your device if you don’t already have it. Once you’re on the map, there are a couple of options to locate cheap gas. If you want to find a station along a route you’re driving, enter your destination address in the search bar. From there, you can choose to add a stop by hitting the gas station icon, which will bring up a list or a map view of gas stations and prices (and you can see when the per-gallon price was last updated).
Screenshot: Emily Long
If you simply want to browse gas prices independent of a specific driving route, you can also type “gas station” into the search bar.
You can also update your default gas station search options (narrowing by gas type or brand, for example) in My Waze > Settings > Gas stations.
(Note that because gas prices are crowdsourced, they may not always be current.)
Alternatives to Waze for finding cheap gas
We’ve written about a few other ways to find the cheapest gas stations around. Google Maps allows you to search for gas stations or browse a map area to see pins of nearby stations, along with the current price per gallon, if available. You can sort further by stations that are open now. Many of us already have and use Google Maps on our phones, so there’s no additional app download required. (Unfortunately, Apple Maps users are out of luck on this front, as the app shows gas station locations but not prices.)
If you don’t mind another app, though, GasBuddy shows you nearby stations and real-time prices. You can narrow your search by company or use the app to determine the most fuel-efficient route for your trip. You may even be able to pay for your gas through the app at some stations.
