Nearly six months into the US war with Iran, its most visible impact for ordinary Americans is increasingly being felt far from the battlefield -- at gas stations, airports and in household budgets.
The national average retail price for regular gasoline stood at $4.006 per gallon as of Aug. 10, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), keeping fuel around the politically sensitive $4 threshold.
The increase is particularly striking compared with expectations before the conflict. In January, the EIA forecast that US gasoline prices would fall 6% in 2026. Its latest outlook instead projects an average price of $3.78 per gallon for the year, compared with $3.10 in 2025.
Government inflation data also reflects the scale of the energy shock. Although gasoline prices eased in July, they remained 24.6% higher than a year earlier, while overall energy prices were up 14.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Annual consumer inflation stood at 3.4% in July, compared with 2.4% in January, before the war began.
The impact varies considerably across the country. In the Washington metropolitan area, gasoline was 24.8% more expensive than a year earlier, while Dallas-Fort Worth recorded an increase of 19.8%.
