Fuel prices in Spain today and what the pump labels mean

Two questions face most drivers on the way into Spain: what fuel costs today, and which of those Spanish words on the pump their car actually takes. Live national figures from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition come first, then a decoder for the labels on the forecourt.

What diesel and unleaded cost in Spain today

The ministry publishes the price of every product at every service station in Spain once a day, as open data. That file feeds this site, so the numbers below move on their own.

Precio de carburantes en las gasolineras españolas - MITECO, updated daily (datos.gob.es)

The national median for road diesel (Gasóleo A) is 1.809 €/l, across 11,109 stations. Unleaded 95 sits at 1.839 €/l. Today the cheapest and dearest diesel are 1.409 €/l and 2.249 €/l, and that spread is the figure worth remembering, because the gap between two forecourts inside one country is wide. Last snapshot: 3 Sept 2026, 23:31.

Use the median, not an average. Half the stations are cheaper than it, half dearer, and it is not dragged around by a handful of outliers.

The Spanish words on the pump

Spain labels its products with names that do not translate literally. This is the whole list you need for a car or a van: on the left the wording you meet on the pump or in the ministry's own price file, on the right what it actually is.

Official list of petroleum products in the ministry's price service

| On the pump | What it is | |---|---| | Gasóleo A / Gasóleo A habitual | Ordinary road diesel | | Gasóleo Premium | Premium diesel: a commercial grade of the same class A gasoil | | Gasóleo B | Agricultural and machinery gasoil - not for road use | | Gasóleo C | Heating oil - not for vehicles | | Sin plomo 95 / Gasolina 95 E5 / E10 | Unleaded 95 | | Gasolina 98 / Gasolina 98 E5 | Super unleaded 98 | | Gasolina 95 E5 Premium | Premium unleaded 95 | | GLP / autogas | LPG | | GNC / GNL | CNG / LNG | | Diésel renovable | HVO, renewable diesel |

Sin plomo means unleaded and gasóleo means gasoil, which is the trap: it looks like petrol to an English speaker and it is not. The 95 and the 98 are research octane numbers, and 95,0 RON is the minimum the Spanish specification sets for the standard petrol grade. On the diesel side the same royal decree fixes class A gasoil at a minimum cetane number of 51,0 with up to 7 % FAME biodiesel by volume, and defines class B as the grade for agricultural, rail, marine and non-road mobile machinery, class C as heating oil.

Real Decreto 61/2006: petrol and gasoil specifications, classes A, B and C (BOE)

The EU labels: circle, square, rhombus

Alongside the Spanish name, every nozzle in Spain carries a small harmonised symbol. It is the same one you have already seen in France, Germany or Poland, because it comes from EU law rather than from the operator.

The shape tells you the family. The DGT puts it as "un círculo para la gasolina, un cuadrado para el gasóleo y un rombo para los combustibles gaseosos" - a circle for petrol, a square for diesel, a rhombus for gaseous fuels.

Revista Tráfico (DGT): the three label shapes, in force since 12 October 2018

The text inside the shape tells you the exact product:

• Circle - petrol. E5, E10 and E85. Quality set by EN 228 or EN 15293.
• Square - diesel. B7, B10, B20, B30 and B100, whose quality is set by EN 590, EN 16734, EN 16709 or EN 14214, plus XTL for paraffinic diesel such as HVO.
• Rhombus - gases. LPG, CNG, LNG and H2.

CEN-CENELEC - European fuel labels under EN 16942 and the standard behind each identifier

The letter marks the biocomponent and the number its ceiling by volume. Spanish unleaded is normally sold as E5 or E10, and 10 % is the ethanol ceiling in the standard petrol specification; anything richer, such as E85, is a separate product with its own labelling. Ordinary Spanish diesel is B7, matching the 7 % FAME cap for class A gasoil.

This labelling is not a courtesy. It began with Article 7 of Directive 2014/94/EU, which required the graphical expression to be simple and easy to understand, shown on the dispensers and nozzles at refuelling points and on the filler cap and in the manual of compatible vehicles placed on the market after 18 November 2016. That directive has since been repealed by Regulation (EU) 2023/1804, but what binds a Spanish forecourt is the national text: Article 7 of Real Decreto 639/2016 names "la norma europea EN 16942 sobre «Carburantes. Identificación de la compatibilidad de los vehículos. Expresión gráfica para la información al consumidor»" as the reference for all fuels other than electricity, applicable to refuelling points and to motor vehicles registered from 12 October 2018.

Directive 2014/94/EU, Article 7: user information (EUR-Lex) Regulation (EU) 2023/1804, which repeals Directive 2014/94/EU (EUR-Lex) Real Decreto 639/2016, Article 7: EN 16942 labelling at refuelling points (BOE)

The practical rule follows from that: open your filler cap before you choose a pump. If the cap says B7, take the square B7 nozzle. If it says B7 and XTL, renewable diesel is also yours. If it says E10, E10 petrol is fine. If your car is older than 2018 and carries no symbol, go by the handbook, and if the handbook is not in the glovebox, check with the manufacturer or the rental company rather than guessing.

Why the price changes from one forecourt to the next

There is no regulated pump price in Spain. Article 38 of Ley 34/1998 is one line long: "Los precios de los productos derivados del petróleo serán libres" - the prices of petroleum products are free. Each operator sets its own, station by station, and the ministry republishes the lot every day as open data.

Ley 34/1998 del sector de hidrocarburos, Article 38 (BOE)

So the spread is structural, not noise: it moves with the province, with the operator and with two sites of the same operator in neighbouring towns. That is why a headline "fuel price in Spain today" is close to useless on its own, and why the ministry runs a public map of every station rather than publishing a single number. The tables below come from that same daily file, by province and by brand.

Geoportal de gasolineras - the ministry's own station map

The full breakdown by province and by brand is on Diesel for diesel and Unleaded 95 (E5) for unleaded 95; the station-by-station view lives on Diesel and Unleaded 95 (E5).

Before you pull in

The ministry's file carries each station's address, coordinates and opening hours as well as its prices, which is worth checking on a Sunday or late at night: some forecourts run unattended outside staffed hours (estación desatendida) and take cards only, often pay-first (prepago), and others simply close. Check the hours listed for the station and plan the last fill of the day rather than discovering the problem at midnight.

Compare before you commit: the cheapest and dearest diesel above are the day's national range, and a short detour off the autopista often puts you in a different part of it. If you drive a converted LPG car, remember the rhombus: autogas is a separate network with its own coverage, covered in LPG in Spain is called GLP or autogas: how to find it. A modern hire diesel will want AdBlue at some point - see AdBlue in Spain: where to buy it at the pump and what it costs. For where to cross the border with a full or an empty tank, Fuel prices: Spain vs France vs Portugal compares the three.