State prices
Out of seasonIowa propane prices
Latest surveyed price (Mar 30, 2026): $1.660/gal, wholesale $0.963/gal. EIA weekly survey (October-March).
Data through Mar 30, 2026 · source last checked Sep 2, 2026 · page revised Aug 26, 2026
Cite
- Residential
- Wholesale
About this data
- Source
- EIA State Heating Oil and Propane Program survey
- Series
- Residential retail propane price
- Basis
- Residential, retail
- Geography
- Iowa propane prices
- Unit
- $/gal
- Calculation
- Weekly survey, Oct-Mar heating season
- Last observation
- Mar 30, 2026
- Update frequency
- Weekly, Oct-Mar
Now $1.660/gal, 7.4% below the 4-yr median. The EIA weekly price survey runs October through March; the latest reading is $1.660/gal from Mar 30, 2026. The survey resumes in October.
Iowa residential propane finished the March survey at $1.660/gal on Mar 30, up 0.8 cents from the week prior and 7.4% below the four-year median. The weekly EIA price survey resumes in October.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs 4-yr median | $1.660/gal | $1.792/gal | -7.4% |
| Year over year | $1.660/gal | $1.656/gal | +0.2% |
| vs 4 weeks ago | $1.660/gal | $1.634/gal | +1.6% |
| Week over week | $1.660/gal | $1.652/gal | +0.5% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Homes heating with propane | 165,991 |
| Share of occupied homes | 12.6% |
| Occupied homes (all fuels) | 1,315,707 |
| National rank by propane share | #7 of 51 |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Iowa residential propane stood at $1.660/gal as of March 30, up 0.8 cents on the week. The price finished heating season 7.4% below the four-year median, a comfortable close. The EIA weekly price survey resumes in October.
An earlier week
Iowa residential propane prices finished the heating season at $1.660/gal on Mar 30, up 0.8 cents on the week and 7% below the 4-year median.
About Iowa propane prices
Iowa runs on grain drying. In a wet fall, dryers across the corn belt pull propane at a rate residential heating never matches, and that draw lands in October and November, ahead of the heating season proper. Both loads refill by pipeline from the Gulf Coast and from the Conway hub in Kansas. When a wet harvest and an early cold snap stack in the same autumn, Iowa is usually where the strain shows first.
The price above comes from EIA's State Heating Oil and Propane Program, which surveys a sample of retail dealers in Iowa once a week and publishes the state average on Wednesday afternoon. It runs October through March only, so nothing new prints between April and September. The second line on the chart is the wholesale price Iowa dealers pay at the rack. What separates the two lines is the cost of getting a gallon into a tank behind a house, which is delivery, tank service and dealer margin together, not margin alone. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, on five-year estimates, puts propane as the main heating fuel in 12.6% of occupied Iowa homes, well above the national middle. That is a large block of homes to keep supplied through a cold January.
Iowa reports into EIA's Midwest district, so the wider read is Midwest propane prices and the Midwest inventory behind them. Estimate your fill cost with the propane usage calculator, which works from tank size, gauge reading and what the household burns.
Common questions
What is the current propane price in Iowa?
EIA surveys residential propane prices only from October through March, so there is no current residential figure for Iowa right now. The wholesale (rack) price dealers pay in Iowa is $0.963/gal a gallon as of Mar 30, 2026, and the last surveyed residential price was $1.660/gal on Mar 30, 2026. The weekly survey restarts in October.
When is propane most expensive in Iowa?
Residential propane runs highest in the middle of the heating season, ordinarily January and February, and cheapest through the summer while Midwest stocks are building and nothing is drawing on them. The regional wrinkle is that the Midwest season starts before the thermostat does: propane fires grain dryers across the Corn Belt in October and November, and a wet harvest can pull volume hard weeks ahead of heating demand. Why propane prices rise in winter has the mechanics.
What is the difference between the residential and wholesale price on this page?
The residential price is what a Iowa household pays for a delivered gallon: the dealer's own cost plus trucking, tank service and margin. The wholesale price is that dealer cost at the rack, before any of it. The gap between the two is the delivered-service stack, and how propane is priced walks through each layer of it.