Costco Gas: Do You Need a Membership, and Is There a Discount?

Costco runs no fuel rewards program at all — no points, no app, no cents-off tier. Gas is simply sold to members at whatever Costco prices it, and a $65 Gold Star membership is the entire cost of entry.

So the question at Costco is not "how do I get the discount." It is "does the membership pay for itself," which is arithmetic you can do yourself.

Do you need a membership?

Yes, with one published exception. Costco's gasoline Q&A states that "The fuel station is open to Costco members only," and the exception is prepaid Costco Shop Cards: Shop Card customers do not need to be members.

How to sign up

Gold Star membership is $65 a year. Executive is $130 — that is the $65 membership fee plus a $65 upgrade. Both include a free Household Card and work at Costco locations worldwide.

At the pump it is self-serve pay-at-the-pump, taking Visa, most PIN debit cards, and prepaid Costco Shop Cards. Your digital membership card works at the gas station.

How to stack it

Nothing stacks, and Costco says so in writing. The Executive membership's 2% Reward explicitly excludes gasoline. The exclusion list in Costco's Executive Rewards terms reads: "Rewards are not calculated: (i) on purchases of cigarettes or tobacco-related products, gasoline, Costco Shop Cards, postage stamps..."

So upgrading to Executive buys you nothing at the pump. No membership tier gets a different fuel price than another.

We could not confirm the gas-category cash back on the co-branded Costco Anywhere Visa from a Costco page, so no figure appears here.

Watch-outs

We are not publishing a savings-per-gallon number. You will see cents-off figures for Costco quoted widely. None of them come from Costco. The company makes no comparative pricing claim against competitors anywhere we could find, and its own positioning is only that it offers "the best quality fuel for the best value to our members."

So get your own number instead. Compare your local Costco against the station you would otherwise use, on the same day, then run the warehouse club break-even calculator.

Oregon and New Jersey are full-service. State law requires it, so expect an attendant and a slower fill.

Not every warehouse has a gas station. Check before driving.

The fuel is TOP TIER certified. Regular is typically 87 octane and premium typically 91.

Member price vs. the sign price

Costco posts its price on public street signage, but only members can buy, so the posted price is the member price. There is no member-versus-non-member split to work out here — the split is whether you can buy at all.