New York Propane Price 2026: Cost Per Gallon, Suppliers & Delivery

New York residential propane runs $3.75/gal in 2026, roughly 40% above the national average and within the high Northeast cluster. NYC, Long Island, and Westchester run on Con Ed and National Grid natural gas; the Catskills, Adirondacks, Finger Lakes, and Western NY snow belt are propane country. This is the no-spin breakdown: regional pricing, HEAP via OTDA, the All-Electric Buildings Act timeline, and how to actually save in a high-cost market.

Latest EIA residential propane price

Source: EIA New York residential propane price survey. 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.

New York Propane Pricing Snapshot (2026)

New York residential avg

$3.75/gal

EIA 2026 survey, full-service residential delivery, statewide retail average

vs national average

+40%

National avg $2.67/gal. NY pays $1.07 more per gallon.

vs Northeast region avg

+2%

Region avg $3.69/gal. NY sits inside the high-NE cluster, just below CT, NJ, NH, and RI.

Annual fuel cost (1,000 gal)

$3747

Typical upstate NY propane-heat household uses 1,000-1,400 gal/year; East End second homes 200-500 gal

500-gallon refill (400 usable)

$1499

Most common residential tank size in upstate NY rural counties

Pre-buy savings (May-Aug)

$300-$600/yr

Lock-in or cap-price contracts beat winter spot in the Catskills, Adirondacks, Finger Lakes

New York is the seventh-most-expensive Northeast market for residential propane in our 2026 dataset, sitting inside the high-NE cluster alongside Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The $$3.75/gal statewide retail average masks a real spread of 50 to 70 cents per gallon between the cheapest ZIP codes (Westchester, Long Island near the gas-main edge) and the most expensive (Adirondacks, Catskills, Suffolk East End). Drivers: distance from Gulf Coast and Marcellus or Utica supply, dense natural gas competition in the metro NYC and Long Island areas, sparse supplier coverage in the rural northern and western counties, and CLCPA-era policy pressure on long-term residential propane growth.

Why New York Propane Sits Where It Does

New York is the most geographically and economically split state in our Northeast dataset. The Adirondack Park alone is six million acres, larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined, with almost no natural gas service. New York City and Long Island are blanket-covered by Con Edison and National Grid gas mains. Both extremes share a $$3.75/gal statewide propane average, but the structural drivers are completely different. Five factors set the floor.

1. Bifurcated demand: gas-served metro vs propane-dominant rural. NYC, Long Island, and Westchester are dominated by Con Edison and National Grid natural gas. Propane in those areas is mostly appliance-only: pool heaters, generators, fireplaces, outdoor kitchens, and gas-main-edge homes. Annual usage runs 200 to 500 gallons. The Catskills, Adirondacks, North Country, Finger Lakes, and Western NY rural belt have effectively no gas service and use 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year for primary heat. The statewide average splits the difference.

2. Distance from production, with Marcellus and Utica relief. About 90% of US propane comes from Gulf Coast natural gas processing (TX, LA, OK) and Mid-continent shale. New York gets a meaningful share via Pennsylvania Marcellus and Utica supply, which is why NY tends to run a little below CT, MA, and VT. But the supply still arrives via rail-to-truck handoffs at Selkirk and other NY terminals before bobtail delivery. Each handoff is a margin layer. There is no in-state refining of consequence to shave that.

3. Rural delivery economics in the Adirondack and Catskill belts. Long routes plus low customer density push the per-gallon delivery component up sharply. A North Country supplier might cover 40 miles between two residential customers. A Westchester supplier might cover four. The cost difference shows up in retail mark-up, particularly in counties (Hamilton, Essex, Franklin, Sullivan, Delaware) where only two or three suppliers actively compete.

4. Heating-oil legacy in Western NY and the Hudson Valley. Much of NY's rural and small-town residential heating ran on heating oil through the 2000s. The 2010s Marcellus-and-Utica shale boom dropped propane wholesale prices and triggered widespread oil-to-propane conversions, especially in Western NY (Wyoming, Allegany, Cattaraugus, southern Erie) and the Hudson Valley. That transition is mostly complete, but the dual-fuel customer base means many NY suppliers run combined oil-and-propane delivery operations, which keeps overhead higher than a propane-only operator.

5. Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act pressure. NY's 2019 CLCPA mandates 85% greenhouse-gas reduction by 2050 and 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040. The 2023 All-Electric Buildings Act, implementing CLCPA's building-sector targets, prohibits fossil fuel heating equipment in most new construction from 1 January 2026 (buildings up to seven stories) and 1 January 2029 (all new construction). For existing propane households nothing changes; replacement furnaces and boilers are not affected. But the long-term residential propane customer base in NY is now policy-capped, which makes supplier economics more conservative on capital investment and route expansion. Near-term retail prices stay a function of supply chain and route economics, not policy, but it is the structural backdrop.

New York Propane Companies: Verified Supplier List

Nine residential propane suppliers we are working to verify across New York's nine distinct service belts. The state breaks naturally into Long Island and East End, NYC suburbs and Westchester, Hudson Valley, Catskills, Capital Region, Adirondacks and North Country, Mohawk Valley and Central NY, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier, and Western NY (Buffalo, Rochester, lake-effect belt). The placeholders below preserve the structure and the editorial guidance while we confirm current supplier ownership, county footprint, and active service area for each tier. Always quote at least three suppliers, including one national chain, one in-state regional, and one local independent in your county, before signing a service contract or pre-buy.

[Tier 1 NY-headquartered regional]

Regional family operator (in-state HQ)

Coverage: [Verify HQ location and county footprint before publishing. NY's largest in-state propane retailer historically serves the Hudson Valley, Westchester, Long Island, and metro NYC, with secondary coverage in the Capital Region.]

Notes: [Placeholder pending verification. NY-headquartered private operators tend to undercut national chains by $0.20-$0.40/gal on dense routes because in-state bulk storage shaves a rail-to-truck handoff. Confirm current ownership, any 2024-2026 acquisitions, and active service area before quoting customers to.]

[Tier 2 national chain]

National chain

Coverage: [Verify NY office locations and counties served. National chains typically maintain 8-15 NY service points covering both downstate metro and rural upstate routes.]

Notes: [Placeholder. National chains offer predictable service and 24/7 dispatch but pricing rarely beats in-state regionals. Negotiate hard on first-fill rate and per-gallon contract before committing.]

[Tier 3 Western NY family operator]

Regional family operator (Western NY)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Wyoming. Western NY family operators typically anchor in Buffalo, Rochester, or rural Cattaraugus and serve the lake-effect snow belt.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Family operators in the Western NY belt often run their own bulk storage and tend to price competitively versus national chains. Confirm pre-buy programs, automatic delivery thresholds, and emergency-fill turnaround before signing.]

[Tier 4 Adirondacks / North Country specialist]

Local independent (North Country)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Essex, Hamilton, Franklin, Clinton, St. Lawrence. North Country specialists serve the Adirondack Park, where route density is low and rural-supplier mark-up is highest.]

Notes: [Placeholder. North Country independents are often the only realistic option in their service zone. Tank ownership and summer pre-buy are the strongest cost levers because supplier-switching is harder when there are only two or three active retailers in your county.]

[Tier 5 Capital Region operator]

Regional operator (Capital Region)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Columbia, Greene. Capital Region operators typically anchor in the Albany metro and serve mixed urban-and-rural Hudson Valley North.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Capital Region operators sit between the dense downstate metro and the rural North Country, and prices typically track the NY statewide average within 5 cents.]

[Tier 6 Catskills / Hudson Valley operator]

Regional operator (Catskills / Hudson Valley)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Sullivan, Delaware, Ulster, Greene, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland. Catskills and Hudson Valley operators serve a mixed primary-heat-and-second-home customer base.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Mixed second-home seasonal-occupancy plus rural primary-heat is the hardest book to manage; suppliers in this zone often run differentiated pricing for full-time and seasonal customers. Ask explicitly which rate tier you fall into.]

[Tier 7 Finger Lakes / Southern Tier operator]

Local independent (Finger Lakes / Southern Tier)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Yates, Schuyler, Steuben, Tompkins, Tioga, Chemung, Broome, Chenango. Finger Lakes and Southern Tier operators serve the rural propane belt in the southern half of the state.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Lower-volume rural routes; pre-buy and tank ownership matter more here than supplier-switching. Confirm route schedule and minimum-delivery threshold before signing.]

[Tier 8 Long Island / East End operator]

Local independent (Suffolk East End)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Suffolk East End (Hamptons + North Fork) and Shelter Island. East End operators serve a high-second-home, generator-heavy book with strong seasonal demand spikes.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Hurricane-prep and standby-generator load is a defining feature here. Confirm winter and summer rate tiers, generator-fill priority programs, and emergency-fill premium pricing before signing.]

[Tier 9 Mohawk Valley / Central NY operator]

Local independent (Mohawk Valley / Central NY)

Coverage: [Verify counties: Oneida, Herkimer, Madison, Onondaga, Cortland, Otsego. Central NY operators serve the rural belt south and east of Syracuse, plus Mohawk Valley.]

Notes: [Placeholder. Mid-volume rural routes between the Adirondack and Finger Lakes belts. Prices typically track the NY statewide average closely; pre-buy savings here are similar to the upstate norm.]

Verification note. NY does not maintain a single state propane dealer registry; licensing is handled at the local-jurisdiction level via county and town code enforcement. The NY Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes administers the LP-Gas Code under Title 19 NYCRR, and the NY Department of Agriculture and Markets, Division of Weights and Measures tests propane delivery truck meters every April through November. The trade body is the New York Propane Gas Association (NYPGA) at nypropane.com. Confirm any quoted supplier is registered with your county code-enforcement office before signing.

New York Propane Fill Costs by Tank Size (at $3.75/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 NY 2026 average. Real-world quotes vary 10 to 15% above or below the EIA average depending on supplier, contract type, delivery frequency, and your service belt. Adirondacks and Suffolk East End run above; Westchester, Nassau, and Long Island gas-edge customers run below.

Tank size	Usable gallons (80%)	Fill cost at $3.75/gal	vs national ($2.67/gal)
100 gal	80 gal	$300	+$86
250 gal	200 gal	$749	+$215
500 gal	400 gal	$1499	+$429
1000 gal	800 gal	$2998	+$858

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

New York Heating Season, Pre-Buy Strategy & HEAP

New York's heating season is shorter on Long Island and in the NYC metro (about five months, mid-November through mid-April) and longer upstate (about six months, late October through April), with the coldest stretch and highest demand in January and February statewide. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and the wider Western NY lake-effect snow belt see annual snowfall of 90 to 130-plus inches, well above the state average, which pushes annual propane consumption higher per household.

Typical upstate NY propane-heat households consume 1,000 to 1,400 gallons per year, depending on house size, insulation, snow-belt exposure, and how much load is propane versus another fuel. A 2,400 sqft Adirondack four-season home running propane for space heat, water heat, range, and standby generator averages 1,200 to 1,400 gallons. A Catskills second home with weekend-only use runs 400 to 700 gallons. A Suffolk East End second home with a pool heater, generator, and gas-line edge appliance load runs 200 to 500 gallons. Translated to dollars at the NY 2026 average: a 1,000 gallon household pays $$3747 per year for fuel alone, before tank rental fees, delivery surcharges, or service contracts. That is roughly $$1073 more than a comparable household in a national-average market.

HEAP assistance for income-qualified households. New York's Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is administered by OTDA (the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance) through county Departments of Social Services. The Regular Benefit pays your propane supplier directly. The Emergency Benefit covers households out of fuel or below a quarter tank. The Heating Equipment Repair or Replacement (HERR) component covers furnace and boiler repair. The Cooling Assistance Benefit covers a window AC unit for medically-vulnerable households in summer. Income limits run to 60% of State Median Income (or 150% of the Federal Poverty Level for very large households, whichever is greater). SNAP, Temporary Assistance, and SSI households may auto-qualify. Apply through your county DSS or via mybenefits.ny.gov; full detail at otda.ny.gov/programs/heap.

Summer pre-buy is the biggest single lever in NY. Pre-buying or capping in May through August routinely saves $300 to $600 per year for a 1,000-gallon Catskills, Adirondacks, or Finger Lakes household versus paying winter spot rates. Most NY suppliers run pre-buy enrollment between 1 May and 31 August. Read the contract: cap-price contracts let you keep savings if wholesale falls; flat pre-buy locks you in either way.

New York vs Northeast Cluster (2026)

State	Price/gal	500-gal refill (400 usable)	vs national ($2.67)
Connecticut	$4.12	$1646	+54%
New Jersey	$3.82	$1528	+43%
New Hampshire	$3.78	$1512	+41%
Rhode Island	$3.76	$1503	+41%
New York (this page)	$3.75	$1499	+40%
Maryland	$3.74	$1496	+40%
Vermont	$3.73	$1493	+40%
Delaware	$3.73	$1492	+40%
Massachusetts	$3.65	$1460	+36%
Pennsylvania	$3.08	$1233	+15%
National average	$2.67	$1070	0%

New York sits inside the high-Northeast cluster, just below Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and just above Maryland, Vermont, Delaware, and Massachusetts. The full Northeast region averages $$3.69/gal, all of which sits well above the $$2.67 national mark. NY's slightly-better position versus CT and the upper New England states reflects shorter rail distance to Marcellus and Utica supply via Pennsylvania, and a denser propane customer base in the upstate counties. NY runs above MD, DE, VT, MA, and PA on a combination of distance from production, rural-route premium, and northeast-storage constraints.

New York Propane FAQ

Am I eligible for HEAP propane assistance in New York?

New York's Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is the state implementation of federal LIHEAP, administered by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) through county Departments of Social Services. Income eligibility runs to 60% of State Median Income (or 150% of the Federal Poverty Level for very large households, whichever is greater). Households on SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or SSI may auto-qualify. The Regular Benefit pays the supplier directly toward your propane delivery; the Emergency Benefit covers households out of fuel or below a quarter tank; the Heating Equipment Repair or Replacement (HERR) component covers furnace and boiler repair; Cooling Assistance covers a window AC unit for medically-vulnerable households in summer. NY propane at $3.75/gal makes HEAP particularly valuable for the rural propane-dominant counties. Apply through your county DSS or via mybenefits.ny.gov; full program detail at otda.ny.gov/programs/heap.

Who regulates propane dealers in New York?

New York does not have a single centralized state propane dealer license. Three agencies share oversight. The NY Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes administers the LP-Gas Code via Title 19 NYCRR (the state Fire Code chapter on liquefied petroleum gases adopts NFPA 58 with NY amendments) and oversees Authorities Having Jurisdiction at the local level. The NY Department of Agriculture and Markets, Division of Weights and Measures tests propane delivery truck meters every year between April and November, running three or more 100-gallon test fills against a calibrated prover; if a meter shorts a customer by five gallons or more out of 100 the truck is taken out of service. Local jurisdictions (county and town) impose the actual installer and dealer permitting, plus tank siting and inspection. The trade body is the New York Propane Gas Association (NYPGA) at nypropane.com, founded 1948.

How does the All-Electric Buildings Act change propane in New York?

New York's All-Electric Buildings Act (NYS budget 2023, implementing the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) prohibits fossil fuel heating and water-heating equipment in most new construction. From 1 January 2026, new buildings up to seven stories must be all-electric. From 1 January 2029, the prohibition extends to all new construction regardless of size, with exemptions for restaurants, hospitals, doctors' offices, agricultural buildings, factories, and emergency standby generators. The NY Fire Prevention and Building Code Council approved the implementing changes to the Energy Conservation Construction Code in July 2025. For existing propane-heated NY homes nothing changes: replacement furnaces, boilers, and water heaters are not affected, only new construction. But the Act caps the long-term residential propane customer base in NY because the rural Catskills, Adirondacks, Finger Lakes, and Western NY new builds that would historically have gone propane will now go heat-pump-electric. Realistically that pressure does not reach retail pricing for years; near-term NY propane prices remain a function of supply chain and route economics, not policy.

Why is propane more expensive in the Hamptons and on Long Island second homes?

Suffolk County's East End (the Hamptons and the North Fork) is one of the few NYC-metro pockets where propane is the primary heating fuel, because much of the East End sits outside the Con Edison and National Grid natural gas main footprint. Combine that with high seasonal-occupancy second-home density, low full-time customer counts per route, and weekend-loaded delivery scheduling, and per-gallon margins routinely run 20 to 40 cents above the NY statewide $3.75/gal average. Coastal hurricane prep adds another factor: many East End homes maintain whole-house propane standby generators for the regular Long Island Sound storm risk, which means tanks must be kept above 40% year-round and supplier emergency-fill premiums apply. North Fork and Shelter Island customers see similar economics with even thinner supplier coverage. Tank ownership and a summer pre-buy contract are the strongest cost lever in this zone because they let you shop the September-October refill rather than the supplier's automatic-delivery premium rate.

What drives the propane premium in the Adirondacks and Catskills?

The Adirondack Park (six million acres, larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined) and the Catskill Park have almost no natural gas service. Propane and heating oil are the only delivered-fuel options for primary heat across Essex, Hamilton, Franklin, Clinton, Sullivan, Delaware, and most of upstate Greene and Ulster counties. Annual residential propane usage in this belt runs 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year because of the long heating season and older housing stock. Drivers of the regional premium versus NY's $3.75/gal statewide average: long delivery routes with low customer density push per-gallon delivery cost up; far fewer suppliers compete for any given town than on the I-87 corridor; and seasonal road weight restrictions during spring mud season can push deliveries into more expensive emergency windows. The Finger Lakes (Yates, Schuyler, Steuben) and Western NY rural counties (Wyoming, Allegany, Cattaraugus) see similar economics on a smaller scale. Same playbook applies: own your tank, lock a summer pre-buy or cap-price contract, and top up to 80% in October.

Does Western NY pay more for propane because of lake-effect snow?

Indirectly, yes. Buffalo, Rochester, and the Erie/Niagara/Chautauqua lake-effect belt see annual snowfall of 90 to 130+ inches, well above the NY state average. That stretches the heating season and pushes annual propane consumption higher per household, which compounds the bill rather than the per-gallon rate. The Western NY rural belt outside the Buffalo and Rochester natural gas footprints (small-town Wyoming, Allegany, parts of Cattaraugus and southern Erie) is propane-dominant and historically heating-oil-legacy: many homes converted from oil to propane in the 2010s as oil prices spiked and propane wholesale fell with Marcellus and Utica shale growth. Buffalo and Rochester themselves are natural-gas-dominant via National Grid. Lake-effect storm prep means standby generators are common, which adds 50 to 150 gallons per year to the average household propane load. Annual fuel costs in the Western NY snow belt commonly run $4122 to $5246 for primary-heat households, $749 to $1874 for appliance-and-generator-only.

Is summer pre-buy worth it for New York propane?

Yes, especially for upstate primary-heat households. NY propane prices follow the national seasonal cycle: wholesale bottoms in May through August, retail will-call peaks in January and February with cold-snap demand and constrained Northeast storage. For a 1,000-gallon-per-year Catskills, Adirondacks, or Finger Lakes household, locking a pre-buy or cap-price contract in May through August routinely saves $300 to $600 versus paying winter spot at $4.05 to $4.35/gal. Cap-price contracts (a maximum-price ceiling that lets you keep savings if wholesale falls) are the better middle ground if you do not want to commit cash up front. Most NY suppliers open pre-buy enrollment between May 1 and August 31. Read the contract: flat pre-buy locks you in either direction, while cap-price contracts let you benefit if the market falls. Long Island appliance-only households burning 200 to 500 gallons per year see smaller absolute savings but the same percentage discount.

When is the best time to fill a propane tank in New York?

Late spring (May) through midsummer (June and July). NY wholesale propane bottoms after heating season ends and before next-winter pre-buy contracts open. By September most NY suppliers have raised will-call and cap-price rates ahead of October deliveries. The worst months to fill are December through February: cold-snap demand, lake-effect Western NY draws, and constrained Northeast storage push spot rates 30 to 80 cents above summer lows. Tactical sequence: top up to 80% in June or July at off-season rates, run from that into October, then take a single shoulder-season top-up in late September to start the heating season at 80 to 90% full. This sequence rarely needs an emergency winter fill. Suppliers also tend to waive minimum-delivery surcharges in the off-season, so a smaller June top-up can be cheaper net than waiting for a full-tank January delivery.