Commercial vs Residential Propane Price Per Gallon
In 2024, US commercial customers paid $17.96 per million Btu for propane against $27.08 for residential customers, a gap of 33.7%. At the EIA heat content of 91,452 Btu per gallon that is $1.642 per gallon commercial against $2.477 residential, a difference of $0.83 per gallon. Source: EIA State Energy Data System, series PQCCD and PQRCD, 2024 data released 26 June 2026.
What EIA actually publishes for each sector
The weekly series this site tracks, the EIA Heating Oil and Propane Survey, has two propane prices in it: residential retail (W_EPLLPA_PRS_NUS_DPG) and residential-supplier wholesale (W_EPLLPA_PWR_NUS_DPG). There is no weekly commercial series in it. If the weekly survey is the only place you look, the commercial price looks unpublished.
A commercial price does exist. EIA publishes one annually in the State Energy Data System, series PQCCD, alongside residential (PQRCD), industrial (PQICD) and transportation (PQACD), for every state and the US total. EIA describes SEDS as estimated price data rather than a direct weekly survey, and it lags: the current edition covers calendar 2024 and was released 26 June 2026. Annual and estimated, but published, named and checkable, which is the standard every figure on this page is held to.
US propane price by sector, 2015 to 2024
| Year | ResidentialRes. | CommercialCom. | IndustrialInd. | TransportTran. | Com. vs res.Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $2.081 | $1.158 | $0.733 | $1.345 | -44.4% |
| 2016 | $1.972 | $1.101 | $0.710 | $1.314 | -44.2% |
| 2017 | $2.300 | $1.443 | $1.040 | $1.741 | -37.3% |
| 2018 | $2.371 | $1.575 | $1.161 | $1.859 | -33.6% |
| 2019 | $2.078 | $1.233 | $0.840 | $1.557 | -40.7% |
| 2020 | $1.883 | $1.150 | $0.759 | $1.448 | -38.9% |
| 2021 | $2.452 | $1.813 | $1.399 | $2.256 | -26.0% |
| 2022 | $2.688 | $1.928 | $1.497 | $2.236 | -28.3% |
| 2023 | $2.492 | $1.545 | $1.067 | $1.784 | -38.0% |
| 2024 | $2.477 | $1.642 | $1.133 | $1.848 | -33.7% |
EIA State Energy Data System, series PQRCD, PQCCD, PQICD and PQACD, 2024 edition released 26 June 2026, pulled 2 October 2026. The per-gallon column is the published dollars-per-million-Btu value multiplied by 91,452 and divided by a million, the same heat content SEDS itself implies for propane.
The gap is not stable. Across these ten years it ran from 26.0% in 2021 to 44.4% in 2015, and it tends to compress when the whole propane complex is expensive. In 2015 residential was $2.081 per gallon; in 2021 it was $2.452. The commercial price moved far less in both directions, so the percentage gap narrowed as residential fell back toward it.
Why commercial pays less
The gap is not goodwill, and it is not a negotiated discount off a common list price. It is what happens when the same gallon is delivered under different cost structures. A commercial account takes more gallons per stop, so the cost of getting a bobtail truck and a driver to the site is spread over a larger delivery. It takes more gallons per year, so the fixed cost of carrying the account at all, regulator service, leak checks, billing, emergency call coverage, is recovered over a larger annual volume. And it usually buys under a signed supply contract with an agreed pricing formula rather than calling for a fill when the gauge drops, which removes the pricing risk a dealer otherwise has to carry into every will-call gallon.
Those three mechanisms are well established and you can see their combined effect in the published sector prices. What no public source gives you is a breakdown of how much each one is worth per gallon, so this page does not put a figure on them.
The gap is mostly a residential story
Looking at the sector prices state by state turns the usual framing around. Commercial propane is priced within a narrow band almost everywhere: in 2024 it ran from $15.45 per million Btu in Montana to $20.57 in Rhode Island, a spread of about 33.1%. Residential propane is not: it ran from $16.67 in Iowa to $49.95 in Hawaii, roughly 3.0 times as much.
So the size of the commercial discount in any given state is mostly a statement about how expensive that state's residential market is. In Iowa the two sectors are nearly level, a gap of 3.2%. In Hawaii commercial sits 62.6% below residential. A single national percentage is the wrong unit for this question.
| State | ResidentialRes. | CommercialCom. | Com. vs res.Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $4.568 | $1.709 | -62.6% |
| Florida | $3.951 | $1.675 | -57.6% |
| Connecticut | $3.892 | $1.869 | -52.0% |
| Massachusetts | $3.815 | $1.868 | -51.0% |
| South Carolina | $3.381 | $1.675 | -50.4% |
| West Virginia | $3.323 | $1.675 | -49.6% |
| Virginia | $3.293 | $1.664 | -49.5% |
| North Carolina | $3.253 | $1.656 | -49.1% |
| Delaware | $3.197 | $1.656 | -48.2% |
| Maryland | $3.348 | $1.756 | -47.6% |
| District of Columbia | $3.332 | $1.756 | -47.3% |
| Rhode Island | $3.547 | $1.881 | -47.0% |
| Alaska | $3.016 | $1.643 | -45.5% |
| New York | $3.141 | $1.723 | -45.2% |
| Louisiana | $2.788 | $1.544 | -44.6% |
| Georgia | $2.967 | $1.644 | -44.6% |
| New Jersey | $3.183 | $1.766 | -44.5% |
| New Hampshire | $3.018 | $1.758 | -41.8% |
| Ohio | $2.519 | $1.472 | -41.5% |
| Mississippi | $2.691 | $1.581 | -41.2% |
| Maine | $3.133 | $1.855 | -40.8% |
| Kentucky | $2.483 | $1.476 | -40.6% |
| Texas | $2.618 | $1.570 | -40.0% |
| Arizona | $2.858 | $1.736 | -39.3% |
| Nevada | $2.882 | $1.756 | -39.1% |
| Alabama | $2.498 | $1.536 | -38.5% |
| Vermont | $3.018 | $1.864 | -38.2% |
| Idaho | $2.422 | $1.497 | -38.2% |
| New Mexico | $2.497 | $1.549 | -37.9% |
| California | $2.825 | $1.762 | -37.6% |
| Oregon | $2.628 | $1.643 | -37.5% |
| Tennessee | $2.355 | $1.490 | -36.7% |
| Utah | $2.319 | $1.499 | -35.4% |
| Wyoming | $2.258 | $1.469 | -35.0% |
| Colorado | $2.209 | $1.453 | -34.2% |
| Arkansas | $2.371 | $1.574 | -33.6% |
| Pennsylvania | $2.633 | $1.756 | -33.3% |
| Indiana | $2.201 | $1.490 | -32.3% |
| Montana | $2.038 | $1.413 | -30.7% |
| Michigan | $2.108 | $1.476 | -30.0% |
| Washington | $2.405 | $1.750 | -27.2% |
| Missouri | $1.948 | $1.451 | -25.5% |
| Oklahoma | $1.910 | $1.455 | -23.8% |
| Illinois | $1.825 | $1.480 | -18.9% |
| Minnesota | $1.821 | $1.488 | -18.3% |
| South Dakota | $1.775 | $1.451 | -18.2% |
| Kansas | $1.807 | $1.483 | -17.9% |
| Wisconsin | $1.729 | $1.462 | -15.4% |
| Nebraska | $1.628 | $1.469 | -9.8% |
| North Dakota | $1.585 | $1.462 | -7.7% |
| Iowa | $1.525 | $1.476 | -3.2% |
EIA State Energy Data System series PQRCD and PQCCD, 2024, released 26 June 2026. State names link to this site's weekly EIA residential page where the weekly survey covers that state; EIA surveys 38 states weekly but estimates SEDS prices for all 51 jurisdictions.
Contract structures used in commercial propane
Three structures dominate commercial supply. The differences between them are about who carries the price risk, not about a published price list, and the premium attached to each is set dealer by dealer.
Cost-plus
The account pays a named benchmark on the day of delivery, usually Mont Belvieu or Conway or a specific rack posting, plus an agreed differential. The buyer carries the price risk: if the benchmark rallies, the bill rises with it. Ask for the benchmark and the differential to be named in the contract, because a cost-plus deal with an unnamed index is not really cost-plus. Our Mont Belvieu page carries the daily benchmark so you can check the index leg yourself.
Fixed-price
The account locks a per-gallon price for a defined volume over a defined period, usually the heating season. The dealer offsets the exposure with forward purchases. The buyer pays something for that certainty, and what it costs depends on where the forward curve sits when the contract is written, so it is not a fixed premium.
Capped
A hybrid: the buyer pays the market up to a ceiling and the dealer absorbs anything above it. Caps keep the downside if prices fall and cost a premium for the ceiling. They are common in agricultural propane, where a wet harvest can turn a crop-drying budget over in a few weeks.
What this means if you are a household
The sector gap is a comparison between two kinds of account, not a rate card you can ask to be moved onto. A residential customer cannot buy at $1.642 per gallon by asking for the commercial price.
What does move a household quote is the terms. Committing to an annual volume in writing, switching from will-call to automatic delivery, owning the tank rather than leasing it, and taking a pre-buy or capped contract all change the dealer's cost or risk and therefore the price you are offered. No public source publishes what each is worth, so the useful move is to ask your dealer to quote your current terms and the alternative side by side, and compare the two. The pre-buy and contract types page sets out what each structure does.
Related
- Restaurant propane price per gallon
- Agricultural propane price per gallon
- Forklift propane price per gallon
- Autogas (propane) price per gallon for fleets
- Wholesale vs retail: the spread, broken down
FAQ
Does EIA publish a commercial propane price?
Yes, annually. The weekly Heating Oil and Propane Survey covers residential and residential-supplier wholesale only, with no commercial series, which is why most propane pages say no commercial price exists. EIA publishes one in the State Energy Data System: series PQCCD, propane price in the commercial sector, for every state and the US total. For 2024 it reads $17.96 per million Btu nationally.
How much less do commercial propane customers pay than residential?
In 2024, US commercial customers paid $17.96 per million Btu for propane against $27.08 for residential customers, a gap of 33.7%. At the EIA heat content of 91,452 Btu per gallon that is $1.642 per gallon commercial against $2.477 residential, a difference of $0.83 per gallon. Source: EIA State Energy Data System, series PQCCD and PQRCD, 2024 data released 26 June 2026.
Is the commercial discount the same in every state?
No, and the spread is very wide. In 2024 the commercial price sat 62.6% below residential in Hawaii and only 3.2% below in Iowa. The reason is that commercial prices barely move across the country, from $15.45 per million Btu in Montana to $20.57 in Rhode Island, while residential prices run from $16.67 in Iowa to $49.95 in Hawaii. The size of the gap is mostly a fact about the residential market in that state.
Can a household get the commercial price?
No. The sector gap is a statistical comparison between two different kinds of account, not a discount a residential customer can ask for. A household can change the terms of its own quote by committing to an annual volume in writing, moving from will-call to automatic delivery, owning rather than leasing the tank, or taking a pre-buy or capped contract. No public source quantifies what each of those is worth, so ask your dealer to price them against your current terms rather than working from a published figure.
Is the commercial price the same as the wholesale price?
No. Commercial sits between residential retail and wholesale. For the week ending 19 October 2026 the EIA weekly series put residential-supplier wholesale at $1.242 per gallon and residential retail at $2.689 per gallon. The SEDS commercial figure of $1.642 per gallon for 2024 is an annual average and is not directly comparable week for week, but it lands between the two.
Why is the industrial propane price lower still?
EIA publishes an industrial sector price too, series PQICD, and for 2024 it reads $12.39 per million Btu, or $1.133 per gallon. Industrial buyers take the largest volumes in the fewest deliveries, often into their own storage and under supply contracts rather than retail terms, so the delivery and service costs that sit inside a retail gallon are largely absent.