CMA Fuel Price Data vs fuelfinder.ai
The Government publishes the raw files. This site makes them answerable in one search.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority runs the Pump Watch open-data scheme, under which participating fuel retailers publish their pump prices in machine-readable files. It is genuinely open: anyone can download the feeds, and every price on fuelfinder.ai comes from them. If you want the primary source, you should use it.
The catch is that the scheme publishes retailer files, not answers. Each participating retailer exposes its own file in its own structure, prices are quoted in different units, station identifiers do not always line up between refreshes, and nothing in the raw data tells you which forecourt is nearest to you or which is cheapest right now.
What this site adds is the boring, unglamorous middle layer: normalising the feeds into one schema, geocoding forecourts so a postcode search works, filtering out impossible prices, holding a history so you can see whether a station is trending up or down, and stamping every row with the time its price was last confirmed. The methodology page documents each of those steps, and where a price looks wrong you can report it in one tap.
How It Works
- Step 1: Search a postcode — No account, no app install, no email required first.
- Step 2: Compare every brand — Supermarkets, branded majors and independents in one ranked list — The Competition and Markets Authority publishes a machine-readable open data feed of retailer-declared pump prices.
- Step 3: Navigate and fill — Hand off to your usual maps app with the forecourt already set.
Why Drivers Use fuelfinder.ai
- Stated source — Every price traced to the Government CMA Pump Watch feed, with a visible last-updated time.
- Brand neutral — No retailer pays to rank higher. Ordering is pence per litre, full stop.
- No sign-up wall — Prices are never held behind an account or an email capture.
- Mobile first — Built to answer one question in a couple of seconds on a phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the CMA Pump Watch scheme?
It is the UK Government scheme under which fuel retailers publish their pump prices as open data, introduced to improve price transparency in the road fuel market. Participation has expanded over time and continues to grow.
Does the CMA data cover every UK petrol station?
No. Coverage is broad but not complete — participation varies, and some independents and motorway forecourts are not represented. Where a station is missing from the feed, it cannot appear here either.
How often is the CMA data updated?
Retailers refresh their files through the day. fuelfinder.ai ingests twice daily and displays the last-updated timestamp per station, so you can always see how old a figure is.
Can I get the raw data myself?
Yes. The CMA publishes the participating retailers' feed locations publicly, and the data is free to use. This site is a convenience layer over that same public source, not a replacement for it.