Frequently Asked Questions

Queensland prices are updated every 15 minutes. New South Wales, ACT, and Tasmania prices are updated every 30 minutes. These updates come directly from government fuel price reporting schemes — the same data the government uses.

There can be a short delay between a station changing its price at the bowser and that change appearing in the government database. In practice, most price changes show up within 15–30 minutes.

A few reasons this can happen:

• The station changed its price after the last update cycle.
• The station is running a board price that differs from their reported price.
• You're comparing the base price on BowserBuddy with a loyalty-discounted price at the bowser (or vice versa).

BowserBuddy shows official government-reported prices. Always confirm the price on the bowser before filling up.

It depends on how far away the cheaper station is, how much cheaper the fuel is, and how much fuel you're putting in. A 5 cent per litre saving on a 50 litre fill-up is $2.50 — but if you drive 20 km out of your way to get it, you could spend more than $2.50 in extra fuel just getting there and back.

This is exactly the problem BowserBuddy's "Worth the Drive" calculator solves. When you tap on a station and have your location set, the app calculates:

1. How much you'd save on your fill-up by choosing the cheaper station.
2. How much extra fuel you'd burn driving the round trip to get there (based on your car's fuel consumption).
3. The net saving — whether the fill-up savings outweigh the detour cost.

For example, if Station A near you is 185.9 c/L and Station B is 179.9 c/L but 8 km away:

• Saving on a 50L fill: $3.00 (6c × 50L)
• Extra fuel for 16 km round trip at 11 L/100km: 1.76L × $1.859 = $3.27
• Net result: −$0.27 — not worth the drive!

The calculator uses real driving distances (not straight-line), so the result accounts for actual road routes, not just how far away the station looks on the map.

As a rule of thumb: driving to a cheaper station is usually worth it if the station is on your regular route or within a few kilometres. For stations more than 5–10 km out of your way, the savings need to be significant (10+ cents per litre) to cover the detour fuel cost.

BowserBuddy can show estimated prices with Everyday Rewards or Flybuys discounts applied. Toggle them on using the checkboxes in the filter bar.

Both programs currently offer 4 cents per litre off at participating stations:

• Everyday Rewards — accepted at EG Ampol stations and most Ampol Foodary locations.
• Flybuys — accepted at Coles Express and Reddy Express stations.

These are estimates based on the standard discount amount. Your actual discount may vary depending on promotions, loyalty tier, or whether the specific station participates. Stations marked with an asterisk (*) may not accept the discount at all locations.

You can also enter a custom discount for any brand — useful if you have a staff discount, fleet card, or other promotion.

BowserBuddy shows prices for U91 (regular unleaded), E10 (ethanol blend), U95 (premium 95), U98 (premium 98), Diesel, Premium Diesel, and LPG. Use the fuel type dropdown in the filter bar to switch between them.

Click "History" on any station card to see a price history chart. The chart shows three lines:

• Blue (solid) — this station's daily average price.
• Green (dashed) — the suburb average, so you can see if the station is above or below its local area.
• Amber (dotted) — the local government area (LGA) average, for a broader regional comparison.

Today's dot shows the current live price. Suburb and LGA averages update once daily overnight. You can toggle between 30-day and 90-day views.

Fuel price pins on the map are colour-coded:

• Green — the cheapest price currently visible on the map.
• Amber/yellow — within 1 cent per litre of the cheapest.
• White — all other stations.

If you have accessibility mode enabled (the "A11y" button in the navbar), pins also show a ★ for cheapest and ≈ for near-cheapest, so colour isn't the only indicator.

BowserBuddy currently covers Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, and Tasmania. More states are planned — each state just needs a connection to its government fuel price data source.

All four regions have mandatory fuel price reporting, which means every service station is required by law to report its prices. This gives us complete coverage, not just a sample.

Yes, completely free. No accounts and no paywalls. BowserBuddy is a personal project built to help Australian motorists find the cheapest fuel. We show a small number of ads to help cover hosting costs, but the service itself is free. The government APIs that supply the price data are also free.

The calculator uses real driving distances from a routing service, your entered fuel consumption rate (L/100km), and your fill-up volume to estimate whether driving to a cheaper station saves you money. It accounts for the round trip — you have to drive there and back.

The main variables that affect accuracy are:

• Your fuel consumption — the default is 11.1 L/100km (average Australian car). Adjust this to match your vehicle for more accurate results.
• Traffic conditions — the distance is based on normal routing, not live traffic. Stop-start city driving uses more fuel than the calculator assumes.
• Whether the station is on your route — the calculator treats it as a dedicated detour. If the cheaper station is on your way to work, the real cost is much lower.

Think of it as a good estimate, not an exact science. If the calculator says "not worth it" by a large margin, it's definitely not worth the drive. If it's borderline, use your judgement.