Цены на топливо: Georgia

Fuel Prices in Georgia: What Drivers Pay at the Pump

Drivers in Georgia currently pay about $1.41 per liter for gasoline, which works out to roughly $5.34 per US gallon. In the local currency, that is around ₾3.73 per liter. Diesel sits a little higher at about $1.581 per liter. Compared with the global average of $1.484 per liter, Georgia is somewhat below the world mean, ranking 72nd out of 170 countries surveyed. That mid-table position tells a familiar story for a small, energy-importing economy in the Caucasus.

Why Georgia Imports Almost All of Its Fuel

Georgia is not an oil producer in any meaningful sense. It refines very little domestically and relies on imports for nearly all of its gasoline and diesel, sourcing refined product and crude from neighbors such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Romania and Turkmenistan, with logistics running through Black Sea ports and overland routes. Because the country buys fuel on the open market, the pump price in Tbilisi or Batumi closely tracks two things: the global price of crude and refined products, and the strength of the Georgian lari (GEL) against the US dollar.

That currency link is decisive. Fuel is traded in dollars, so when the lari weakens, importers pay more in local terms even if the dollar price of oil is flat. Conversely, a stronger lari cushions Georgian drivers. This is why local-currency prices and dollar prices can drift apart, and why the ₾3.73 figure matters as much as the $1.41 figure for households budgeting their monthly travel.

Taxes, Not Subsidies, Shape the Price

Unlike oil exporters that subsidize fuel to keep it cheap, Georgia taxes it. The pump price includes an excise duty on petroleum products plus 18% VAT layered on top. There is no consumer subsidy keeping prices artificially low. This places Georgia in a middle group worldwide: well above heavily subsidized petro-states, but far cheaper than high-tax European markets. For perspective on the extremes, compare Georgia with subsidized markets like Syria and Argentina, or with import-dependent, tax-and-logistics-burdened markets such as Grenada and Haiti.

A Decade of Price History

Looking back over the period from July 2016 to June 2026, the average gasoline price in Georgia was about $1.047 per liter. The cheapest point on record was $0.677 per liter on 11 July 2016, set during a global oil glut when crude was historically weak. The peak came at $1.512 per liter on 18 July 2022, during the post-pandemic energy crunch and the supply shock that followed the war in Ukraine.

The trend that history implies is a clear upward drift. Today's $1.41 is well above the ten-year average of $1.047 and sits much closer to the 2022 peak than to the 2016 floor. For Georgian motorists, the era of sub-$1 gasoline appears firmly in the past, the product of both higher baseline oil prices and a lari that has lost ground against the dollar over the decade.

What to Watch Going Forward

Three levers will move Georgian fuel prices: the dollar price of crude, the GEL/USD exchange rate, and any change to excise rates or VAT. Because the country has no domestic production to fall back on and no subsidy buffer, Georgia is unusually exposed to international shocks. When global prices spike, Georgian drivers feel it quickly; when they fall, the relief shows up at the pump within weeks. You can compare Georgia against more than 170 markets on our world fuel prices page.

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