Bournemouth fuel prices: the cheapest near you

From the government’s Fuel Finder service. Since February 2026 the law (the Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025) requires every fuel retailer in the UK to report a change in its pump prices within 30 minutes, and the government publishes them as open data. We fetch them every half hour.

We fetch fresh prices every half hour, and the line under the map says exactly when. Each price shows the time the forecourt set it. A price a forecourt has not confirmed for more than six weeks is left out rather than shown as current, and so is one far from every other in the country (more than 15% below or 30% above the UK average), which is almost always a typing mistake. The cheapest in the whole UK counts only prices set in the last two weeks: an older price may still be right, but nobody should drive across the country on the strength of it. If our own copy is more than three hours old the page says so. Prices can change at any time, so always check the pump before you fill up.

Only roughly, and only if you tap Use my location. Your phone gives the page your position; the page asks our server for prices around a point rounded to about 10 km and works out the exact distances itself, so your exact location is never sent to us. A postcode is looked up through our own server, which asks the free postcodes.io service and keeps no record of it.

The figures in the “fuel prices today” section of this page are worked out from every forecourt reporting to the government’s Fuel Finder service and are updated every half hour. The average is the median: half the forecourts charge less and half more, so a handful of motorway services cannot drag it up. The table also shows the cheapest price in the country and how many forecourts reported each fuel.

The “what it costs to fill up” table shows every kind of vehicle at today’s average price of unleaded and diesel. Typical tanks: a motorbike about 15 litres, a small car 40, a family car 55, an SUV or estate 70, a van such as a Transit or Crafter 80, a motorhome 90, a 7.5-tonne lorry 150 and a 44-tonne HGV about 500 (some artics carry twin tanks of 1,000 litres or more). Pick yours in the fill-up box, or type your own tank size, and every price on the page shows what a full tank costs.

It changes day to day, so the “fuel prices today” section compares England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and lists the cheapest and dearest postcode areas from today’s prices; Northern Ireland has had the lowest averages in the data we have seen. Supermarket forecourts are often the cheapest locally, and motorway services the dearest.

It changes from day to day, so the “which supermarket has the cheapest fuel” section of this page ranks Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the others by today’s average price at their forecourts, from the government’s Fuel Finder data, next to the big fuel brands such as BP, Shell and Esso, and says how much cheaper the supermarkets are taken together. Costco forecourts are for members only. A brand’s forecourts are often run by different companies, so the cheapest one near you may not belong to the cheapest brand: the finder shows each one.

The “going up or down” section answers it from the government’s weekly UK average pump prices, published every Tuesday: this week against last week, four weeks ago and a year ago, with the record highs and a chart going back to June 2003. It also gives the day-on-day change from our own daily figures for every forecourt, recorded since 4 October 2026.

Two taxes make up a large part of it: fuel duty, a fixed amount a litre set by the government, and VAT at 20% on top of the whole price, duty included. Because duty is a fixed amount, its share falls as prices rise. The “going up or down” section works out this week’s split from the government’s own weekly figures.

The fill-up cost is your vehicle’s tank, in litres, at the price shown, from empty; most people top up from a quarter of a tank, so their bill is a little less. The saving is the same tank at the cheapest price against the average (median) price in the area you are looking at. For the whole UK, the box shows a tank at the UK average price and the range from the cheapest postcode area to the dearest, because the cheapest single forecourt in the country is rarely one you would drive to. Lorries are only shown diesel bills and motorbikes petrol.

Forecourts change prices during the day, and a change reaches the data a little after it reaches the pump. The price on the pump is the one you pay.

E10 is standard unleaded petrol (up to 10% bioethanol); E5 is super unleaded (up to 5%), which some older cars need. B7 is standard diesel (up to 7% biodiesel). Premium diesel is each brand’s higher-grade diesel.

Every forecourt in the UK that reports to the government’s service: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Search around Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, anywhere else by postcode or location,, or choose the whole UK to see the cheapest in the country.