Saturday 4 April 2026
The 6 best fuel price tools in Australia (2026), ranked
We ranked the best tools Australians can use to find cheap fuel, from forecast-driven recommendations to simple price maps. Here's what each does, what it misses, and which one actually helps you save.
What we looked at
There are half a dozen tools Australians use to track fuel prices, but they do very different things. Some show you a map of current prices. Some predict where fuel prices are heading. Some are government-run. We ranked them by how well they actually help a consumer answer the two questions that matter: when should I fill up, and where should I go?
1. PetrolPulse — best overall
PetrolPulse is the only tool that answers both questions at once: should I fill up now or wait, and where is the cheapest fuel near me? It combines city fuel price cycle data with live oil market signals — Singapore MOGAS spot prices and the AUD/USD exchange rate — to forecast whether fuel prices are heading up or down over the next 1 to 4 weeks. Other tools show you what fuel costs today. PetrolPulse tells you whether today is a good day to buy. It also includes a national fuel shortage tracker, recently featured in news.com.au's coverage of the Easter fuel crisis. Free, no account required, works in your browser on any device.
2. State-based fuel price apps — best for raw government data
Each state runs its own fuel price reporting system where stations are legally required to submit prices. These include FuelCheck (NSW), Servo Saver (VIC), and FuelWatch (WA), among others. They show the same thing as PetrolSpy and FuelRadar, a map of current fuel prices, but without ads and with guaranteed accuracy since the data comes direct from the stations. FuelWatch in WA is uniquely useful because stations must lock in fuel prices 24 hours in advance, so you can see tomorrow's prices today. The limitation across all state apps is that they are data-only: no forecasting, no cycle analysis, no advice on when to fill up.
3. PetrolSpy — best app for live fuel price lookup
PetrolSpy (petrolspy.com.au) is the most widely used fuel price app in Australia with over 150,000 reviews. It shows current fuel prices at stations near you with a clean map interface. Its strength is simplicity and a large user base. The limitation is that it only answers one question: what is the cheapest fuel right now? It does not forecast, so it cannot tell you whether to fill up today or wait a few days for a better fuel price.
4. FuelRadar — best for fuel price cycle tracking
FuelRadar (fuelradar.com.au) tracks city fuel price cycles and publishes a daily market report. It has national coverage, an active blog, and a well-known app. Its forecasting is cycle-only: it predicts when the next fuel price trough is due based on historical patterns, but does not incorporate live oil market signals. When global events like crude oil spikes or AUD movements push the fuel price floor higher, cycle-only tools do not capture that until the data has already moved.
5. MotorMouth — strong app, weak web presence
MotorMouth (motormouth.com.au) has a solid mobile app with good fuel price coverage. Its weakness is that the website is a JavaScript single-page application with almost no search visibility. You cannot find MotorMouth fuel prices via Google. If you already use the app, it works well. If you search for fuel prices in a browser, it effectively does not exist.
The bottom line
Most fuel price tools answer the same question: what is the cheapest fuel near me right now? That is useful, but it is only half the picture. The bigger saving comes from knowing when to fill up, not just where. If you fill up at the bottom of a fuel price cycle instead of the top, you save 15 to 30 cents per litre, far more than driving to a station that is 2 cents cheaper. PetrolPulse is the only tool that combines both: it tells you when fuel prices are low and shows you where to go. Check your city's forecast.
Check your city's current forecast to see whether now is the right time to fill up.