PEORIA, Ill. – You’ll get a slight break at the pump this week, but don’t expect the relief to last.
Peoria’s gas prices dropped 7.5 cents in the past week to an average of $4.12 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.
While that’s nearly 17 cents cheaper than what we were paying last month, our wallets are still taking a beating compared to last year. We’re currently paying 78.2 cents more per gallon than we did at this time in 2025.
If you shop around, you’ll find quite a range of prices. The cheapest gas in Peoria was $3.79 on Monday, while the most expensive was $4.49—that is a 70-cent difference just depending on where you pull in.
Across Illinois, prices were as low as $3.49 and as high as $5.79 a gallon.
AAA Illinois paints a slightly different picture but shows the same trend, tracking the Peoria-Pekin metro average at $4.20 a gallon on Tuesday, with the statewide average at $4.29.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country isn’t sharing in our local drop. The national average actually ticked up 2.2 cents this past week to $4.09 a gallon. That is up 10.6 cents from last month and a painful 90.8 cents higher than last year. In fact, AAA puts the national average at $4.15.
GasBuddy reports that Labor Day set an all-time record for the holiday, beating out the previous high of $3.83 set back in 2012.
But the real pain is for anyone running a diesel engine. Diesel prices surged in every single state last week, with some areas jumping nearly 50 cents in just seven days. The national diesel average hit a record-breaking $5.87 on September 3, beating the old record of $5.82 set in 2022.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, warns that six-dollar diesel is a very real possibility in the coming weeks. He says Ukraine’s ongoing attacks on Russian refining infrastructure are knocking supply offline, and until the global supply improves, diesel drivers will keep feeling the squeeze at the pump.
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