Gas Fell Below $4 Nationally. L.A. Drivers Are Still Paying $5.75.

AAA's Los Angeles-Long Beach average fell about 60 cents in a month, but L.A.-area consumer prices rose 0.6% in October.

A gallon of regular averaged $3.98 nationally on Tuesday, the first sub-$4 reading in three months, LAist reported, citing AAA. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles-Long Beach average was $5.75, according to AAA.

That gap of about $1.80 a gallon is the number to hold onto. LAist, running NPR's report, said cheaper crude, the refinery switch to a less costly winter blend and the usual fall slump in driving cut the national price by 38 cents in a month. L.A. dropped harder, about 60 cents over the same stretch, AAA's figures show. It's still about 87 cents above where it was a year ago.

At Wednesday's average, a 15-gallon fill-up in L.A. runs about $86. A year ago it was about $73.

The city has been here before. L.A.'s all-time high for regular, $6.49, came on Oct. 5, 2022, and AAA still lists it as the record. NPR reported that this year's national price is a record for this point in the calendar. GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan told NPR the national average could reach $3.75 by Thanksgiving if there aren't any geopolitical surprises.

The pump was one of the few places prices fell. The Labor Department's October consumer price report showed national prices up 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis, with housing costs making up more than 30% of the increase and food up 0.5%. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, prices before seasonal adjustment rose 0.6% from September, the bureau's local table shows. That's three times the national 0.2% measured the same way, though the bureau warns that local numbers swing more than national ones.

The usual yearly comparison isn't there this time. During the 2025 government shutdown, the bureau didn't collect October prices, so it can't publish 12-month changes for most of the index. L.A.'s last annual reading, for September, was 3.7%, the same as the nation's. LAist reported that the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank estimated national October inflation at 3.7% as well, against average wage gains of 3.1%. That means the typical worker is falling behind.

Diesel is the part that hasn't come back down much. The L.A.-area average set a record of $8.56 on Oct. 18 and was $8.19 Wednesday, nearly $3 higher than a year ago, AAA's figures show. NPR traced it to the war with Iran and to damaged Russian refineries that normally export a lot of diesel. That cost rides along on everything that comes by truck, train or ship. "You're starting to see higher freight costs get passed through," economist Mike Reid of RBC Capital Markets told NPR.

The bureau's November report comes out Dec. 10. De Haan didn't promise much relief before then. Diesel prices "will come down but they will still remain very elevated," he told NPR.

Source: LAist, retrieved November 11, 2026. Other sources: gasprices.aaa.com, bls.gov, bls.gov (2).