Hawaii Propane Price 2026: Cost Per Gallon, Suppliers & Delivery

Hawaii residential bottled propane runs about $4.15/gal in 2026, roughly 55% above the $2.67 national mark. HI sits alongside Alaska as one of the most expensive US markets for the same structural reason: every gallon arrives by tanker, with no in-state production and no rail or pipeline link to mainland supply. This is the no-spin breakdown of Hawaii pricing, the Hawaii Gas SNG-vs-bottled-propane distinction, fill-cost math, and how to find a licensed dealer.

Latest EIA residential propane price

Source: Hawaii residential propane retail estimate (no EIA SHOPP series; verified against public supplier and PUC filings). Current data is the final release of the 2025/26 heating season (week ending 30 March 2026). EIA pauses weekly publication April-September; next release expected October 2026. Refreshed 26 May 2026.

Hawaii Propane Pricing Snapshot (2026)

Hawaii residential avg

$4.15/gal

Manually-verified retail estimate; EIA SHOPP does not publish a HI series

vs national average

+55%

National avg $2.67/gal. HI pays $1.48 more per gallon.

vs West regional avg

+44%

Region avg $2.88/gal. HI sits well above the regional norm.

Typical HI annual cost (200 gal)

$830

Most HI homes burn 100-300 gal/yr (water heat + cooking, no space heat)

100-gallon refill (80 usable)

$332

The most common HI residential tank size

Most expensive US markets

HI + AK

Both states are import-only; persistent top-of-table pricing

One caveat to read carefully. The mainland model of "1,000 gallon annual heating-season use" does not describe Hawaii. With no winter, residential propane goes to water heating, cooking, and (rarely) backup generators. Most HI homes burn 100 to 300 gallons per year, not 800 to 1,200. Adjust the 1,000-gallon column you see on national-average pricing pages down to your real annual usage before comparing to other states.

Why Hawaii Propane Prices Sit Where They Do

Hawaii is structurally one of the two most expensive US propane markets, alongside Alaska. The drivers are geographic and logistical, not seasonal, and they will not normalise without a substantial shift in inter-island supply infrastructure.

1. Import-only supply. Hawaii has no domestic propane production. Roughly 90% of US propane comes from natural gas processing in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and the Marcellus/Utica shale. Hawaii sits 2,400+ nautical miles from the nearest US propane terminal (Long Beach / Los Angeles). Every gallon arrives by tanker into Honolulu Harbor, Hilo Harbor, or Kahului, with shipping, port-handling, and storage costs baked in before any retail markup.

2. Inter-island distribution. After tanker discharge at Oahu, propane is barged or shipped to terminals on Maui, Kauai, Hawaii (Big Island), Molokai, and Lanai. Inter-island freight is one of the largest line-items separating Honolulu pricing from a Big Island or Molokai delivery quote. Off-grid neighbor-island households routinely pay 30-60 cents per gallon above Oahu retail for the same product.

3. No heating-season demand to amortise infrastructure. Hawaii has effectively zero winter heating load. Residential propane goes to water heating, cooking, and the occasional generator. Suppliers cannot amortise tanker scheduling, storage, and inter-island freight across a Q4-Q1 volume spike the way they do in the Northeast or Midwest, so per-gallon overhead stays high year round.

4. Hawaiian Electric dominance keeps electric heating viable. Most HI homes use electric water heating because there is no cold-weather efficiency gap to overcome. The propane customer base is a self-selected subset (gas-cooking enthusiasts, restaurants, off-grid households, hotel laundries), which keeps total volumes small and per-customer overhead high.

Hawaii Gas SNG vs Bottled Propane: The Critical Distinction

Before you compare quotes, identify which fuel you actually have. "Gas" in Hawaii is two different products with two different price models, both delivered by the same dominant utility brand.

Hawaii Gas SNG (utility, piped). Synthetic natural gas, manufactured at the Hawaii Gas SNG plant at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu by reforming naphtha (an oil-refining by-product) into methane. Composition: roughly 77% methane, 11% hydrogen, 6% butane, 6% CO₂, with growing blends of renewable natural gas and hydrogen. Distributed via about 1,000 miles of underground main between Kapolei and Hawaii Kai to roughly 35,000 utility customers. Rates are set by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Billed as a regulated utility tariff, not a per-gallon retail product. The Division of Consumer Advocacy at DCCA represents customer interests in PUC rate cases.

LPG / propane (bottled, bulk-tank). Liquefied petroleum gas (propane) imported by tanker, delivered to homes and businesses in 20-lb cylinders, 100-120 gallon residential tanks, or 500-1,000 gallon bulk tanks. Hawaii Gas itself sells LPG to neighbor-island and off-main Oahu customers; multiple licensed independents also serve the islands. Pricing is unregulated retail, quoted in dollars per gallon. This is the fuel covered by this page. If your tank is outside your house and a truck refills it, you are an LPG customer at roughly $4.15/gal.

Hawaii Propane Fill Costs by Tank Size (at $4.15/gal)

Propane tanks fill to 80% of stated capacity (the "80% rule") to allow for thermal expansion. Below is what each fill costs at the HI 2026 retail estimate. Real-world quotes vary 10-20% above or below depending on island, supplier, and inter-island freight surcharges. 100-120 gallon tanks are the dominant residential format in Hawaii because the only loads are water heating and cooking; 500 and 1,000 gallon tanks are commercial / restaurant / off-grid only.

Tank size	Usable gallons (80%)	Fill cost at $4.15/gal	vs national ($2.67/gal)	Typical use
100 gal	80 gal	$332	+$118	Single residential cylinder. The most common HI residential setup.
250 gal	200 gal	$830	+$295	Larger residential tank, common for off-grid neighbor-island homes.
500 gal	400 gal	$1660	+$590	Restaurant, hotel laundry, or large off-grid household.
1000 gal	800 gal	$3320	+$1181	Commercial kitchen, food-truck commissary, hospitality. Rare residential.

Compare to the national refill cost guide or check pricing in other states.

Hawaii Annual Propane Use & H-HEAP Assistance

Hawaii residential propane usage is dominated by water heating and cooking, not space heating. A family of four with a propane water heater plus a propane range typically burns 100-300 gallons per year. At $4.15/gal that is $415 to $1245 annually for fuel alone, before tank rental fees, inter-island freight, or service-contract charges.

Off-grid Big Island, Molokai, and Lanai households running a propane generator, propane refrigerator, propane water heater, and propane range can reach 500-800 gallons per year, roughly $2075 to $3320 per year, but this represents a small minority of HI residential propane customers. Restaurants, food trucks, hotel laundries, and commercial kitchens are the high-volume buyers and routinely run 1,000-3,000 gallons per month at peak.

H-HEAP energy assistance for income-qualified households. The Hawaiʻi Home Energy Assistance Program (H-HEAP), formerly LIHEAP, is administered by the Hawaii Department of Human Services, Benefit, Employment & Support Services Division (BESSD). Two benefits are available: Energy Crisis Intervention (ECI), accepted year-round for households facing service disconnection, and Energy Credit (EC), a one-time payment toward an electric or gas utility bill issued during a defined annual application window. Because Hawaii has effectively no winter heating load, H-HEAP weights toward cooling, water heating, and electric utility costs rather than space-heating fuel. Apply through your island's Community Action Program (Honolulu CAP, Maui Economic Opportunity, Kauai Economic Opportunity, or Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council), not the state office. Program details at humanservices.hawaii.gov/bessd/liheap.

Hurricane-season fill timing. The single biggest demand spike for Hawaii propane is hurricane-prep refilling in May-November before forecast tracks reach the islands. Suppliers run out of bobtail capacity for 24-72 hours when a forecast threatens. If your tank is below 50% in early hurricane season, top up at calm-weather rates. Waiting until a storm warning is the wrong play: prices are unchanged but availability collapses.

How to Find a Licensed Propane Supplier in Hawaii

Hawaii regulates LP-gas dealers through several overlapping bodies. Buying from an unlicensed delivery is both a safety risk and a consumer-protection risk. Use the official lists.

Hawaii State Fire Council and county fire departments adopt NFPA 58, the LP-Gas Code, which governs storage, transport, and delivery safety. The Honolulu Fire Department, Hawaii County Fire Department, Maui County Fire Department, and Kauai County Fire Department each issue LP-gas storage permits and are the primary safety authority over dealers operating in their county. See, for example, the Honolulu Fire Department and Hawaii County Fire Department code pages.
Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) handles commercial dealer registration through Professional and Vocational Licensing, and the DCCA Division of Consumer Advocacy oversees the regulated gas utility (Hawaii Gas SNG service) in PUC rate cases.
Pacific Propane Gas Association at pacificpga.org is the regional trade body covering Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. Member directory lists licensed dealers across the four states.
National Propane Gas Association at npga.org maintains the national member directory.

Always get a written quote that itemises per-gallon price, delivery fee, tank rental (if applicable), and any inter-island freight surcharge. Per-gallon spreads of 50 cents or more between an Oahu address and a Big Island delivery zip are common, and the freight line is sometimes hidden inside an opaque "service charge". Ask for the breakdown.

Tier-1 supplier list coming. A hand-curated list of named Hawaii propane suppliers (with island coverage, contract types, and notes on inter-island surcharges) is in our editorial pipeline. We publish supplier lists only once each name has been verified against the official county fire-department permit lists and the supplier's active service-area page. We do not generate supplier names from training data; that is a hallucination risk we treat seriously.

Hawaii vs Other West Region States (2026)

State	Price/gal	500-gal refill (400 usable)	vs national ($2.67)
Hawaii (this page)	$4.15	$1660	+55%
Alaska	$3.85	$1540	+44%
California	$3.42	$1368	+28%
Washington	$3.02	$1208	+13%
Oregon	$2.98	$1192	+11%
Nevada	$2.95	$1180	+10%
New Mexico	$2.93	$1172	+10%
Arizona	$2.72	$1088	+2%
Idaho	$2.40	$959	-10%
Utah	$2.34	$935	-13%
Colorado	$2.30	$921	-14%
Wyoming	$2.27	$906	-15%
Montana	$2.12	$848	-21%

Hawaii sits at or near the top of the West cluster, alongside Alaska, for the same structural reason: import-only logistics with no rail or pipeline link to mainland propane production. The full West region averages $2.88/gal, well above the $2.67 national mark.

Hawaii Propane FAQ

How much does propane actually cost per gallon in Hawaii?

Hawaii residential bottled propane runs around $4.15/gallon in 2026, roughly 55% above the $2.67 national average and above the West regional average of $2.88/gal. Two important caveats. First, the EIA's State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP) does not publish a Hawaii residential price series, so this figure is a manually-verified retail estimate from public Hawaii supplier price sheets, Public Utilities Commission filings by the regulated gas franchise, and informal county surveys. Second, "propane" in Hawaii means two different products. Hawaii Gas pipes synthetic natural gas (SNG) to roughly 35,000 utility customers in urban Oahu via underground main; everywhere else, including all neighbor islands and the rest of Oahu, propane is delivered as LPG in cylinders, ASME tanks, or bulk fills. The per-gallon price quoted on this page is bottled/bulk LPG, not piped utility SNG.

Why is propane so expensive in Hawaii?

Three structural reasons. (1) Import-only supply. Hawaii has no domestic propane production, no refineries that yield propane in commercial quantity, and no rail or pipeline link to mainland supply. Every gallon arrives by tanker from US Gulf Coast or West Coast ports into Honolulu Harbor, Hilo, or Kahului, then gets trucked or barged to neighbor-island terminals. Each leg adds cost before retail markup. (2) Port handling and inter-island logistics. After tanker discharge, propane is stored at coastal terminals, then either trucked to Oahu customers or barged to Maui, Kauai, Hawaii (Big Island), Molokai and Lanai. Inter-island freight is one of the largest line-items separating Honolulu pricing from Big Island pricing. (3) Small residential heating market. Hawaii has effectively no winter heating demand, so propane volumes are dominated by water heating, cooking, restaurant kitchens, food trucks, and off-grid generators. Suppliers cannot amortise infrastructure across a heating-season volume spike, so per-gallon overhead stays high year round.

Does H-HEAP (Hawaii LIHEAP) help pay for propane bills?

Possibly, but Hawaii's program is structured differently from mainland LIHEAP. The Hawaiʻi Home Energy Assistance Program (H-HEAP), formerly LIHEAP, is administered by the Department of Human Services, Benefit, Employment & Support Services Division (BESSD), with applications processed by Community Action Programs on each island, not the state office. The program offers two benefits: Energy Crisis Intervention (ECI), accepted year-round for households facing service disconnection, and Energy Credit (EC), a one-time payment toward an electric or gas utility bill issued during a defined annual application window. Because Hawaii has effectively no winter heating load, H-HEAP weights heavily toward cooling assistance, water-heating costs, and electric bills, not space-heating fuel. Bottled-propane households can be eligible, but supplier payment routing is more complex than for utility-billed customers. Apply through your island's Community Action Program (Honolulu, Maui Economic Opportunity, Kauai Economic Opportunity, Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council).

What's the difference between Hawaii Gas SNG and bottled propane?

They are two different products served by the same utility brand, and the distinction matters for pricing and contracts. Hawaii Gas operates a synthetic natural gas (SNG) plant at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu that converts naphtha (an oil-refining by-product) into methane. SNG is roughly 77% methane, 11% hydrogen, 6% butane, 6% CO₂, blended with small volumes of renewable natural gas and hydrogen, and is piped via about 1,000 miles of underground main to roughly 35,000 utility customers between Kapolei and Hawaii Kai. Pricing is regulated by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Separately, Hawaii Gas (and other licensed dealers) deliver liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, ie propane) in cylinders, ASME residential tanks, and bulk fills to neighbor-island customers, off-grid Oahu households, and any urban Oahu address not on the SNG main. The LPG side is unregulated retail, priced by the gallon, and is what this page covers. If your stove or water heater is fed from a piped underground line in urban Oahu, you are likely on SNG and your bills are utility tariffs, not per-gallon propane.

What does it cost to fill a residential propane tank in Hawaii?

At the Hawaii statewide retail estimate of $4.15/gallon, filling a 100-gallon cylinder to its 80%-rule capacity (80 usable gallons) costs about $332. A 250-gallon residential tank fills for about $830, and a 500-gallon tank fills for about $1660. Most Hawaii homes use 100-120 gallon tanks (one or two outdoor cylinders) because residential demand is dominated by water heating and cooking, not space heating. 500 and 1,000 gallon tanks are typical only for restaurants, hotels, food trucks operating from a base, off-grid neighbor-island households running a generator, and commercial kitchens. The 80%-fill rule is a federal NFPA 58 safety requirement adopted by all four county fire departments in Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui, Kauai), not a supplier markup, and applies to thermal expansion in tropical heat just as it does on the mainland.

How much propane does a typical Hawaii household actually use?

Far less than mainland households. Hawaii has no winter heating season, so propane demand is concentrated in three loads: water heating (the dominant residential use), cooking, and (rarely) backup generators for hurricane prep. A family of four with a propane water heater plus a propane range typically burns 100-300 gallons per year, which translates to roughly $415-$1245 annually at current pricing. Households with electric water heating and only a propane range often use 30-80 gallons per year. Off-grid Big Island, Molokai, or Lanai households running a propane generator, propane refrigerator, and propane water heater can reach 500-800 gallons per year, but that is the exception, not the rule. The 1,000-gallon-per-year mainland heating-season figure does not apply to almost any Hawaii residence.

How do I find a licensed propane supplier in Hawaii?

Hawaii regulates LP-gas dealers through several overlapping bodies. The Hawaii State Fire Council and county fire departments (Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui, Kauai) adopt NFPA 58, the LP-Gas Code, which governs storage, transport, and delivery safety. Commercial dealer registration is handled through the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) Professional and Vocational Licensing Division. The DCCA Division of Consumer Advocacy oversees the regulated gas utility (Hawaii Gas SNG service) but not bottled-propane retailers. Three reliable starting points: (1) the Pacific Propane Gas Association at pacificpga.org, the regional trade body covering HI, AK, OR and WA, lists member dealers across the four states; (2) the National Propane Gas Association directory at npga.org; (3) your county fire department's permit list for LP-gas storage permits, which is a useful proxy for active commercial dealers in your area. Always get a written quote that itemises per-gallon price, delivery fee to your island and zip, tank rental (if applicable), and any inter-island freight surcharge. Per-gallon spreads of 50 cents or more between Oahu and a Big Island delivery address are common.