Google Maps and Waze now show UK petrol and diesel prices using the government's Fuel Finder data. That makes it easier to compare pumps before setting off. But a cheaper price on a map is only useful if reaching that pump makes sense for your journey.
How often is a cheaper pump nearby?
Fuel Finder UK checked the local choices around forecourts in its price data on the morning of 9 October 2026. For each station with a qualifying price, we looked for another station selling the same fuel at least 3p per litre less.
| Straight-line distance to a cheaper forecourt | Petrol forecourts with that option | Diesel forecourts with that option |
|---|---|---|
| Within 1 mile | 14% | 16% |
| Within 3 miles | 41% | 43% |
| Within 5 miles | 58% | 59% |
A 3p-per-litre difference is £1.50 on a 50-litre fill, before any extra travel. If the cheaper station is already on your route, that may be worth taking. A special trip could use up the saving.
Look beyond the pump price
That is why Fuel Finder UK offers an Est. real cost sort. It combines the estimated cost of filling up with an estimate of the fuel used to reach each station, based on your vehicle settings or stated defaults. It is a useful starting point, but it is not a route quote: the travel estimate uses one-way straight-line distance. Road distance, a return journey, time and vehicle wear could all change the result.
These figures describe forecourts, not the proportion of drivers who could save. Drivers do not start at a randomly selected station, and a forecourt without a cheaper neighbour may already be the best local option. We have not measured anyone's actual journey or purchase.
The government says households with a car could save around £40 a year from the Fuel Finder scheme. That is a modelled estimate, not a saving measured since the Google Maps launch. The underlying impact assessment assumes greater price transparency could encourage competition and lower prices more widely by 3p per litre. Our snapshot of nearby alternatives cannot tell us whether that wider effect has happened.
The practical takeaway is simple: compare prices at stations you would reasonably use, then consider the journey as well as the number on the pump. Google Maps makes prices easier to find. Choosing the cheaper fill-up still takes a little judgement.
How we checked
We took a read-only snapshot of Fuel Finder UK's production price data at 08:54 BST on 9 October 2026. The analysis included 6,215 forecourts with a qualifying E10 petrol price and 6,353 with a qualifying standard diesel price. Each forecourt counted once per fuel. We included active, open forecourts with usable locations and a valid price between 50p and 300p per litre whose source price timestamp was within the previous 14 days. We compared each with other qualifying forecourts selling the same fuel, using straight-line distance and a price difference of at least 3p per litre.
At three miles, 2,557 of 6,215 petrol forecourts (41.1%) and 2,708 of 6,353 diesel forecourts (42.6%) had a cheaper qualifying neighbour. The table rounds each result to the nearest whole percentage point. Excluding motorway and trunk-road sites produced similar three-mile results: 40.3% for petrol and 41.7% for diesel. These are point-in-time price comparisons, not driving distances, route recommendations or evidence of purchases or savings. Prices and availability can change; check the current price before travelling.