Fuel Cost Calculator India: Compare Petrol Diesel CNG and EV Per Km
The only calculator that compares all four fuel types side by side from one set of inputs, pulls live city prices, and shows the exact break-even distance for switching to an EV.
Cost Per Kilometre Model: Four-Fuel Running Cost Comparison
Enter your daily distance and each vehicle’s mileage. Prices auto-fill by city.Why Is Fuel Choice a Lakh-Rupee Decision?
Most people choose their fuel type at the showroom based on the sticker price of the car and a vague sense that diesel is cheaper to run or that EVs are the future. Then they spend the next several years discovering the real cost one tankful at a time.
The truth is that the running cost gap between fuel types, compounded over the life of a vehicle, dwarfs almost every other cost of ownership except the purchase price itself.
Consider a simple case. A petrol car doing 50 km a day at 15 km per litre burns through roughly 1,200 litres a year. At about 95 rupees a litre, that is 1.14 lakh rupees annually, every year, for as long as you own the car.
An electric car covering the same distance on home charging might cost 24,000 rupees a year in electricity. That is a gap of 90,000 rupees each year, which over a ten-year ownership is 9 lakh rupees.
The car you thought was expensive at purchase might be the cheaper car by the time you sell it.
This is the counterintuitive truth that the fuel comparison makes visible: the cheapest car to buy is frequently the most expensive car to own, and the gap is often large enough to change which vehicle a rational buyer should choose.
Yet almost no one runs this comparison before signing at the showroom, because the fuel cost arrives invisibly, spread across hundreds of small transactions over many years, while the purchase price arrives all at once and dominates the decision.
This calculator exists to make that comparison visible before you commit, not after. It takes your actual daily distance, the mileage each fuel type delivers, and the current price of each fuel in your city, then shows petrol, diesel, CNG, and electric side by side across per-kilometre, monthly, and annual cost.
Seeing all four fuels in a single view, with the cheapest option clearly marked, turns an abstract worry about running cost into a concrete set of numbers you can act on. You no longer have to trust a salesperson or a headline; you can see for your own distance and your own city exactly what each choice will cost you.
No other Indian fuel calculator compares all four in a single view, and none of them show you the break-even distance at which an EV’s higher purchase price is recovered through fuel savings.
How Does the Cost Per Kilometre Actually Work?
The arithmetic is simple once you see it, and understanding it lets you sanity-check any running-cost claim a salesperson makes.
The core formula
Cost per kilometre is the price of one unit of fuel divided by how many kilometres that unit takes you. For petrol and diesel, the unit is a litre, so the sum is price per litre divided by mileage in kilometres per litre.
A petrol car at 95 rupees a litre doing 15 km per litre costs 95 divided by 15, which is 6.33 rupees per kilometre.
For CNG, the unit is a kilogram, so it is price per kilogram divided by kilometres per kilogram. For an electric vehicle, the unit is a kilowatt hour, so it is tariff per kWh divided by kilometres per kWh.
Scaling to daily, monthly, and yearly
Once you have the per-kilometre cost, everything else follows by multiplication. Multiply by your daily distance to get the daily cost. Multiply the daily cost by the number of days you drive in a month to get the monthly cost.
Multiply the daily cost by 365 to get the annual cost, since even if you drive only on working days, the annual figure gives a clean year-on-year comparison.
The calculator does all of this for each of the four fuel types at once, so you see not just which is cheapest per kilometre but what that difference amounts to over a month and a year.
The break-even calculation
An EV usually costs more to buy than a comparable petrol car. The break-even distance tells you how far you must drive for the fuel savings to repay that premium. Divide the price premium by the per-kilometre saving.
If an EV costs 5 lakh more than the petrol version and saves 5 rupees per kilometre, the break-even is 5,00,000 divided by 5, which is 1,00,000 kilometres. Drive more than that over your ownership and the EV is cheaper overall; drive less and the petrol car wins on total cost. The calculator computes this instantly from your inputs.
Petrol Cost Calculator: Work Out Your Petrol Spend
Use this as a petrol calculator by selecting petrol as your fuel type above. Enter the distance and your car’s mileage, and it returns the litres of petrol needed and the total cost at the current pump price (around Rs 104 per litre in most metros). For a 500 km trip in a car that returns 15 km per litre, that is about 33 litres, or roughly Rs 3,467. Because petrol is priced per litre, your mileage is the single biggest lever: moving from 12 to 18 km per litre cuts the same trip’s petrol cost by a third. The petrol calculation updates live as you change the distance or mileage, so you can compare cars or plan a monthly petrol budget in seconds.
Mileage Calculator: How Mileage Changes Your Fuel Cost
This doubles as a mileage calculator: enter your vehicle’s mileage in kilometres per litre (or km per kg for CNG) and see exactly how it drives your running cost. Mileage is the number that decides whether a fuel-heavy commute costs you Rs 2,000 or Rs 4,000 a month. To find your real-world mileage, fill the tank, note the odometer, drive normally, then divide the kilometres covered by the litres refilled at the next full tank. Enter that figure here to get an honest cost per kilometre. A small hatchback at 20 km per litre, a sedan at 15, and an SUV at 10 can differ by more than double on the same route, which is why checking mileage before you buy, and after any service, pays off.
Fuel Prices and Running Costs: The 2026 Picture
Fuel prices vary by state because of differing state VAT rates, and the running cost of each fuel type differs sharply. These are representative 2026 figures the calculator uses as defaults, which you can override with the exact price at your pump.
| Fuel type | Typical 2026 price | Typical mileage | Cost per km |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petrol | Rs 94 to 107 per litre | 15 to 18 km/l (car) | Rs 5.50 to 7.00 |
| Diesel | Rs 87 to 96 per litre | 18 to 22 km/l (car) | Rs 4.00 to 5.50 |
| CNG | Rs 75 to 94 per kg | 22 to 28 km/kg | Rs 3.00 to 4.00 |
| Electric (home) | Rs 6 to 9 per kWh | 6 to 7 km/kWh | Rs 1.00 to 1.50 |
| Electric (public DC) | Rs 18 to 26 per kWh | 6 to 7 km/kWh | Rs 2.60 to 4.00 |
The single biggest variable for EV owners is whether they charge at home or rely on public fast chargers. Home charging keeps the per-kilometre cost near one rupee, cheaper than every other fuel by a wide margin.
Public DC fast charging can cost two to three times as much per kilometre, which narrows the gap against CNG considerably. If you cannot charge at home, the economic case for an EV weakens sharply, and this calculator lets you model both scenarios by switching the EV charging mode.
How Does the Live Price Feature Stay Current?
Fuel prices in India change frequently, sometimes daily, as oil marketing companies revise rates in line with global crude prices and the rupee’s exchange rate. A running-cost estimate built on last year’s prices is worse than useless because it quietly misleads you. This calculator addresses that by auto-filling current prices for your selected city rather than making you look them up. For trips outside India, particularly across Spain and Latin America, fuel prices and consumption patterns differ: the calculadora de consumo de combustible por viaje from PlanetaCalculadoras covers trip fuel costs for those markets.
When you open the tool and choose your city, the petrol, diesel, CNG, and electricity fields populate with recent representative prices for that location. These come from a price file that is refreshed regularly, so the defaults stay close to reality without you doing any research.
If the file is temporarily unavailable, the calculator falls back to a set of verified recent prices baked into the tool, so it always works and never shows you a blank or a zero.
Crucially, every price field remains fully editable. The auto-filled figure is a convenience, not a constraint. If you know the exact price at the pump you use, or you want to model a scenario at a different price, simply type over the default.
The calculator recomputes everything instantly. This combination of a sensible auto-filled starting point and complete manual control is what makes the tool both quick for a casual user and precise for someone who wants an exact figure for their own vehicle and fuel station.
For the definitive same-day price, the tool links directly to the official Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, the government body that publishes fuel pricing data.
Treat the calculator’s auto-filled prices as an accurate planning estimate and the official source as the final word for a specific transaction. Between the two, you have both convenience and authority, which is more than any static calculator that simply asks you to guess the current price can offer.
Fuel Cost Versus the True Cost of Ownership
While fuel is the largest running expense and the focus of this calculator, a complete picture of what a vehicle costs you needs a few more line items. Understanding how they interact helps you make a genuinely informed choice rather than one driven by the fuel figure alone.
Purchase price and depreciation
The upfront cost differs sharply between fuel types. EVs typically cost the most to buy, petrol cars the least, with diesel and CNG in between. Depreciation, the loss in resale value over time, is the single largest cost of car ownership for most people, often exceeding fuel.
EVs have historically depreciated faster because of battery-life concerns, though this is improving as the market matures. When you weigh an EV’s fuel savings against its price premium using this calculator’s break-even feature, remember that resale value also affects the total picture.
Maintenance and servicing
EVs have far fewer moving parts than combustion engines, with no oil changes, spark plugs, or exhaust systems, so their maintenance costs are genuinely lower, often half those of a comparable petrol car.
Diesel engines tend to cost the most to maintain because of their more complex fuel and emission systems. CNG vehicles need periodic tank certification. These differences are smaller than the fuel gap but real, and they generally reinforce rather than reverse the EV’s running-cost advantage.
Insurance and road tax
Insurance premiums scale roughly with the vehicle’s value, so a more expensive EV may cost more to insure. Road tax, by contrast, often favours EVs, which enjoy full or partial exemptions in most states, while diesel vehicles attract a surcharge in several states.
When you add road tax to the purchase decision, use the companion road tax calculator to see the state-specific figure, since it can meaningfully shift the total cost comparison between an EV and a diesel car at the point of purchase.
Putting it together
The honest way to compare two vehicles is to add their purchase price, expected depreciation, fuel cost over your ownership period, maintenance, insurance, and road tax, then compare the totals.
This calculator gives you the fuel component, which is the largest variable and the one most people underestimate. Combine its output with the other line items and you have a defensible total-cost-of-ownership comparison rather than a decision driven by the showroom sticker price alone.
A useful discipline is to run this fuel comparison first, since it produces the single biggest number in the ownership equation, and then treat the remaining line items as adjustments around it.
For two vehicles that are close on purchase price, the fuel comparison alone often settles the decision, because the annual running-cost gap compounds year after year while the purchase-price difference is a one-time event.
For two vehicles far apart on purchase price, the break-even feature tells you how many years of fuel saving are needed to justify paying more upfront, which is exactly the calculation most buyers skip and later regret.
Which Fuel Matches Your Driving Profile?
There is no single cheapest fuel for everyone. The right answer depends on three things: how far you drive, where you can refuel or charge, and how long you will keep the vehicle. Working through your own profile against these three factors is more useful than following whichever fuel is fashionable this year.
The high-distance city driver with home charging
If you cover 50 kilometres or more a day, mostly in the city, and you can install a home charger, an electric vehicle is almost unbeatable on running cost. At roughly one rupee per kilometre against six or seven for petrol, your annual saving can exceed a lakh, and your high distance means you recover the EV price premium quickly.
This is the profile for which EVs make the strongest financial case, and the calculator’s break-even feature will usually show a payback well within the ownership period.
For a driver in this category, the main question is not whether to go electric but whether home charging can be arranged, since that single factor is what unlocks the near-one-rupee-per-kilometre economics that make the case so compelling in the first place.
The low-distance city driver without home charging
If you drive modest distances and live in an apartment without charging access, the EV case weakens considerably. Relying on public fast chargers raises your per-kilometre cost to the point where CNG, at three to four rupees per kilometre with no charging hassle, often works out cheaper and more convenient.
For this profile, a CNG car or even an efficient petrol car may be the pragmatic choice, and the calculator will show CNG beating a publicly-charged EV on cost.
The high-distance highway driver
If most of your kilometres are on highways over long distances, diesel’s superior mileage delivers real savings, and its steadier highway consumption suits the driving style. An EV can still be cheaper per kilometre, but frequent long trips mean range planning and reliance on highway fast chargers, which adds friction and cost.
For a driver not ready for that logistics, diesel remains the sensible running-cost choice, though the road-tax surcharge on diesel at purchase should be weighed against the fuel saving.
The occasional or weekend driver
If you drive only occasionally, running cost matters far less than purchase price, because you simply do not burn enough fuel for the per-kilometre difference to add up.
For this profile, the cheapest car to buy, usually a petrol model, often makes the most sense overall, since the fuel savings of a pricier EV or CNG car would take many years to repay at low annual distances. The calculator makes this clear by showing how small the annual cost difference becomes at low daily distances.
Regional Price Differences: Why Your State Matters
One reason a national fuel price figure is misleading is that state taxes create large variations. Two cities a few hundred kilometres apart can have petrol prices differing by several rupees a litre purely because of differing state VAT rates. This matters for your running cost and, for some drivers, for where they choose to fill up.
States levy their own value-added tax on fuel, and these rates range widely. Some states keep fuel taxes relatively low to ease the burden on residents, while others rely more heavily on fuel revenue.
The result is that a litre of petrol that costs around 94 rupees in one city might cost 107 rupees in another, a difference of more than 13 percent, entirely due to tax rather than any difference in the fuel itself. Over a year of driving, that difference compounds into thousands of rupees.
For most drivers this is simply a fact to be aware of when reading their running cost, and the calculator handles it by loading city-specific prices.
For a minority who live near a state border and regularly cross it, filling up on the cheaper side can be a legitimate saving, though it should never involve going out of your way, since the fuel burned on the detour would erase the benefit.
The practical takeaway is to enter the price you actually pay at your regular station, which the calculator lets you do, rather than relying on a national average that may be several rupees off for your location.
Getting this one input right matters more than most people realise, because the price per litre feeds directly into every downstream figure the calculator produces, from cost per kilometre to the annual total to the EV break-even distance.
An error of five rupees a litre in the price you enter can shift your annual cost estimate by several thousand rupees, so it is worth taking the extra moment to check your last fuel receipt rather than guessing.
CNG and electricity prices vary too, though for different reasons. CNG pricing depends on the city gas distribution company operating in your area and on the source of the gas, while electricity tariffs depend on your state electricity board and your consumption slab.
This is why the calculator treats each city separately and why the ability to override any figure with your genuine local price is essential to getting an accurate running-cost estimate for your own circumstances.
Worked Examples: Three Drivers, Three Cities
The right fuel choice depends entirely on how far you drive and how you charge. Here are three real drivers calculated exactly as the tool does.
Ravi drives 60 km a day commuting across Delhi and has a parking spot where he can install a home charger. At petrol 94.72 a litre and 15 km per litre, his petrol cost is 6.31 rupees per kilometre, or about 1.38 lakh a year.
An EV at 8 rupees per kWh charged at home, doing 6.2 km per kWh, costs 1.29 rupees per kilometre, roughly 28,000 a year. The annual saving is over 1.1 lakh.
If his EV cost 5 lakh more than the petrol version, he recovers that premium in under five years given his high daily distance. For Ravi, the EV is the clear financial winner.
Priya drives about 25 km a day in Mumbai and lives in an apartment with no home charging option. For her, an EV would mean relying on public fast chargers at around 22 rupees per kWh, which works out to roughly 3.55 rupees per kilometre, not the one rupee that home chargers enjoy.
A CNG car in Mumbai at 79.50 per kg doing 25 km per kg costs 3.18 rupees per kilometre, actually cheaper than her public-charged EV would be, and with none of the charging-time hassle. At her low daily distance, she would also take far longer to recover any EV price premium. For Priya, CNG is the smarter running-cost choice.
Arun covers 80 km a day, much of it on highways between Bengaluru and nearby towns for work. Diesel suits his profile: at 88.94 a litre and 21 km per litre on the highway, his cost is 4.24 rupees per kilometre, about 1.24 lakh a year at his distance. A petrol version would cost him nearly 1.9 lakh a year.
An EV would be cheaper still on paper, but his long highway runs mean frequent reliance on public fast chargers and range planning, which for his use case adds friction. For a high-distance highway driver who is not ready for EV charging logistics, diesel remains the pragmatic running-cost choice, though he should weigh the diesel surcharge on road tax at purchase.
Six Ways to Cut Your Fuel Cost Starting Today
Whatever fuel you drive, a few habits and checks reduce your per-kilometre cost immediately, without any change of vehicle. These are the levers within your control, and together they can meaningfully lower the annual figure the calculator shows for your current car.
Quick Reference: Fuel Running Costs at a Glance
| Petrol cost per km | Rs 5.50 to 7.00 (15 to 18 km/l) |
| Diesel cost per km | Rs 4.00 to 5.50 (18 to 22 km/l) |
| CNG cost per km | Rs 3.00 to 4.00 (22 to 28 km/kg) |
| EV home charging per km | Rs 1.00 to 1.50 (6 to 7 km/kWh) |
| EV public charging per km | Rs 2.60 to 4.00 |
| Cheapest overall | EV with home charging, by a wide margin |
| Best without home charging | Often CNG for city, diesel for highway |
| EV break-even (typical) | 80,000 to 1,00,000 km against petrol |
| Biggest EV variable | Home versus public charging cost |
| Live prices | Auto-filled by city, editable |
Fuel Cost Calculator Frequently Asked Questions
How is fuel cost per kilometre calculated?
Cost per kilometre is the price of one unit of fuel divided by the distance that unit takes you. For petrol and diesel, it is the price per litre divided by the mileage in kilometres per litre.
For CNG it is price per kilogram divided by kilometres per kilogram, and for an electric vehicle it is the electricity tariff per kWh divided by kilometres per kWh. This calculator applies the correct formula for each fuel type and shows all four side by side so you can compare directly.
Which fuel is cheapest to run in India in 2026?
An electric vehicle charged at home is by far the cheapest to run, typically around one rupee per kilometre, compared with roughly six to seven rupees for petrol. However, this assumes home charging at domestic electricity tariffs.
If you rely on public fast chargers, the EV cost rises to two to four rupees per kilometre, which can be more than CNG. So the honest answer is that an EV with home charging wins clearly, but without home charging the picture is more nuanced and CNG or diesel may be cheaper for your situation.
Where do the fuel prices in this calculator come from?
The calculator auto-fills current representative fuel prices for your selected city, pulled from a regularly updated price file, and you can override any figure with the exact price you pay at your pump.
Because state taxes vary and prices change frequently, always confirm the current rate at your fuel station or on the official Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell website. The prices shown are a close estimate for planning, not a live pump quote for a specific moment.
Is an EV really cheaper than a petrol car overall?
On running cost alone, an EV with home charging is dramatically cheaper, often saving 50,000 to 90,000 rupees a year for a typical commuter. But EVs usually cost more to buy. Whether the total cost favours the EV depends on how far you drive and how long you keep the car.
The break-even feature in this calculator shows exactly how many kilometres you must drive to recover the higher purchase price through fuel savings. Drive more than the break-even distance over your ownership and the EV wins overall.
How much does public EV charging cost compared with home charging?
Home charging at domestic tariffs costs roughly six to nine rupees per kWh, giving a per-kilometre cost near one rupee. Public DC fast chargers charge a service rate of roughly 18 to 26 rupees per kWh, which pushes the per-kilometre cost to between two and a half and four rupees.
That is two to three times more expensive than home charging. If you cannot install a home charger, the running-cost advantage of an EV over CNG or even diesel narrows considerably, which is why the calculator lets you model both charging modes.
Is diesel still worth it over petrol in 2026?
Diesel remains cheaper to run than petrol because diesel engines deliver better mileage, typically 18 to 22 km per litre against 15 to 18 for petrol, and diesel is priced slightly lower per litre. For a high-distance driver, especially one who covers highway kilometres, that difference adds up to meaningful annual savings.
However, diesel cars cost more to buy, attract a road-tax surcharge in several states, and face usage restrictions in some cities after ten years. Weigh the running-cost saving against these factors for your specific usage.
How much can CNG save me compared with petrol?
CNG typically costs three to four rupees per kilometre against six to seven for petrol, so it can roughly halve your fuel bill. For a city driver covering moderate distances, CNG offers most of the running-cost benefit of an EV without the charging infrastructure requirement.
The trade-offs are a smaller boot due to the CNG tank, a limited network of filling stations in some areas, and slightly lower performance. For many urban Indian drivers, CNG is the pragmatic middle path between cheap running and everyday convenience.
What mileage should I enter for my vehicle?
Enter your real-world mileage, not the manufacturer’s claimed figure, which is usually optimistic. Track your actual mileage over a few tankfuls by dividing the distance covered by the fuel added.
City driving delivers lower mileage than highway driving, so if you mostly drive in traffic, use a conservative figure. Using your genuine mileage makes the calculator’s cost estimate match what you actually spend, rather than an idealised number you will never achieve in daily conditions.
Why do fuel prices differ between cities and states?
While the base price set by oil marketing companies is similar nationwide, each state levies its own VAT or sales tax on fuel, and these rates differ significantly. Some states also add additional cesses.
This is why petrol can cost several rupees more per litre in one state than in a neighbouring one. The calculator auto-fills prices by city to account for these differences, and you can always enter the exact price from your local pump for precision.
Does the calculator account for maintenance and other costs?
No, this calculator focuses specifically on fuel or energy running cost, which is the largest and most variable operating expense. Maintenance is a separate consideration, and it generally favours EVs, which have fewer moving parts and lower servicing costs, and diesel engines, which can be more expensive to maintain.
For a complete ownership-cost picture, add estimated annual maintenance and insurance to the fuel figures the calculator provides. The fuel comparison alone, however, captures the biggest running-cost difference between the options.
How do I calculate my monthly fuel budget?
Enter your daily distance and the number of days you drive each month, and the calculator computes the monthly cost for each fuel type automatically. This is your fuel budget line.
For a commuter who drives 50 km a day for 26 working days, a petrol car might cost around 8,000 to 9,000 rupees a month, while the same commute in an EV charged at home could cost under 2,000. Seeing the monthly figure makes the difference tangible in a way that a per-kilometre number does not.
Is it worth switching from petrol to CNG for an existing car?
Retrofitting a CNG kit to a petrol car costs roughly 40,000 to 70,000 rupees for an approved kit and installation. Given that CNG can save three to four rupees per kilometre against petrol, a driver covering high distances can recover that cost within one to two years.
For a low-distance driver, the payback takes longer and may not justify the boot space lost to the tank. Use the calculator to compare your petrol and CNG per-kilometre costs, then divide the kit cost by the per-kilometre saving to find your own break-even distance.
How accurate are the running-cost estimates?
The estimates are as accurate as the inputs you provide. If you enter your real-world mileage and the actual price you pay for fuel, the per-kilometre and annual figures will closely match your real spending.
The main sources of variation are driving style, traffic conditions, and seasonal price changes, none of which a calculator can predict. Treat the output as a reliable planning estimate and a fair basis for comparing fuel types, rather than a guarantee of an exact rupee figure.
Should I consider a hybrid instead of a full EV?
Strong hybrids have emerged as a practical middle option for drivers who want better fuel efficiency without depending on charging infrastructure. A hybrid delivers noticeably better mileage than a pure petrol car, often 20 to 25 km per litre, which lowers the per-kilometre cost.
It does not match an EV’s home-charging economy, but it needs no charger and has no range anxiety. If you cannot charge at home and drive varied distances, a hybrid can be the most broadly sensible choice, sitting between petrol and full electric on both cost and convenience.
Do EV running costs change with battery age?
Yes, slightly. As an EV battery ages, its usable capacity gradually reduces, which means a full charge takes you a little less far and your effective per-kilometre cost rises marginally.
Most current Indian EV batteries show 10 to 15 percent range reduction after five to six years, which is modest and covered by the typical eight-year battery warranty. For running-cost planning, the effect is small enough that the EV’s large advantage over petrol persists throughout normal ownership, so it does not change the basic economic case.
Can I use this calculator for a two-wheeler?
Yes. Enter your two-wheeler’s mileage, which is usually much higher than a car’s, often 40 to 60 km per litre for a petrol bike, along with the fuel price. The per-kilometre cost for a two-wheeler is correspondingly lower.
Electric two-wheelers are also covered if you enter their efficiency in kilometres per kWh and your charging tariff. The calculator works for any vehicle as long as you provide its efficiency in the correct unit for its fuel type, so it is equally useful for bikes, scooters, and cars.
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Disclaimer and Editorial Transparency
This fuel cost calculator provides running-cost estimates based on the mileage and prices you enter. City fuel prices are auto-filled from a regularly updated file and are indicative, not live pump quotes. Confirm current prices at your fuel station or on the official Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell and check EV charging tariffs with your electricity provider. Actual costs vary with driving conditions, vehicle maintenance, and price changes. This tool is for planning and education, not financial advice. CalcWise.Finance does not store the values you enter and this tool carries no advertising.