Gas prices are soaring — don’t forget this Google Maps trick to save money

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, gas prices are currently, uh… not great! One month ago, the average price for regular, unleaded gas was about $2.90 per gallon. Today, it’s over $3.90 and climbing. Where I live in Michigan, regular gas is selling for $4.00/gallon and above.

There’s no indication that prices will come down anytime soon, so we’ll likely be dealing with higher gas prices for a while. The good news? The Google Maps app on your Android phone has an old, often-forgotten-about trick to help you find the cheapest gas in your area.

Gas prices have been available in Google Maps since 2015, so it’s far from a new feature. However, whether you’ve never looked at gas prices in Google Maps or simply forgot the option existed, finding them is extremely easy.

To do so, just open Google Maps and either search “gas” in the search bar or tap the Gas icon right below it. Once you do this, Google Maps shows all of the gas stations near you. And as you might notice, the listing for each location includes the current per-gallon price of regular gas at that station.

If you tap on a gas station to view more information about it, you’ll find a more exhaustive list of prices for different types of gas that the station sells — such as midgrade, premium, and diesel.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. If you want to look at gas prices in a nearby town to see if there’s a better deal elsewhere, simply use the map to move to a new area and search for gas again. Alternatively, you can use the search bar and search “[Town name] gas” to search for gas prices in other cities/towns that way, too.

Finding gas prices in Google Maps couldn’t be easier. But can you trust the prices it shows you?

In my area, for major stations such as BP, CITGO, Shell, and Speedway, gas prices match those on GasBuddy and the stations’ real prices. At least, most of the time. Some station prices appear to be updated more slowly than others, especially for gas types other than regular. If a price is potentially outdated, Google Maps marks it with an asterisk that it’s the price “as of 24+ hours ago.”

There are also some gas stations in Google Maps that don’t show prices at all. At least where I live, this mostly applies to supermarkets with attached gas stations, including Sam’s Club, Costco, Walmart, and Meijer.

Furthermore, unlike some gas price applications (such as GasBuddy), Google Maps’ gas prices aren’t user-editable. Only Google controls and updates gas prices in Google Maps, and there’s no way to suggest an edit.

In short, your mileage will vary with how much you get out of Google Maps gas pricing. I’ve been pretty happy with its performance, as have some of my colleagues at Android Authority. It’s not as robust as a dedicated gas price app, but it’s also much easier than fiddling with yet another app on your phone — especially if you’re already using Google Maps for navigation.