No, gas prices aren’t $1.51 a gallon in the United Kingdom

A tweet has gone viral, claiming to show that fuel prices in the U.K. are significantly lower than they are in the U.S. The post from Jan. 21 shows a price sign reading 151.9 for regular unleaded fuel and 173.9 for regular diesel.

“Gas is only $1.51 a gallon in the UK. This is what Biden is hiding from you,” the tweet says.

As of Jan. 23, the tweet has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

THE QUESTION

Are gas prices $1.51 a gallon in the United Kingdom, as a viral tweet claims?

THE SOURCES

• Federal Reserve currency exchange rate for pound sterling to dollar
• AAA
• RAC Fuel Watch, a British auto service company
• Google Maps

THE ANSWER

No, gas prices aren’t $1.51 a gallon in the United Kingdom. This image shows the price of fuel in British pounds per liter, not dollars per gallon.

WHAT WE FOUND

The photo shows the prices at a BP station in London, England. VERIFY confirmed the location using Google Maps street view. 

In London, fuel is sold by the liter and the currency is the pound sterling. So to translate that sign into dollars per gallon, we have to do some conversions.

First, there are 3.785 liters in one gallon. 

Second, as of Jan. 20, one pound sterling equals $1.24.

The price seen in the photo shows £1.51 per liter. We’ll convert pounds to dollars -- £1.51 per liter is $1.87 per liter. We multiply that by 3.785 (the number of liters in a gallon) and we get $7.08 per gallon of regular unleaded. 

According to AAA, the current average gas price in the U.S. is $3.42 per gallon of regular gas.

In the U.K., the current average as of Jan. 23 is £1.48 per liter, which would be $6.94 a gallon in the U.S.