How much does a gas station owner make? What U.S. data shows

Summary: there is no salary survey for gas station owners, because an owner is paid from whatever the station earns after its costs. Public data gives the pieces. NACS says fuel margins averaged more than 40 cents per gallon in 2025, and OPIS puts the gross rack-to-retail gasoline margin at 39.7 cents (preliminary). After card fees, delivery and operating costs, a NACS walk-through leaves about 13 cents per gallon of net margin. Inside the store, foodservice was 28.5% of in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit in 2025. IRS data for tax year 2023 shows 8,157 gas station sole proprietorships with average net income of about $33,200; the 4,679 that made a profit averaged about $84,200.

Every figure below comes from a public source, linked in place and listed at the end. As of November 2026, the latest full-year industry data is for 2025. Averages hide a wide spread: location, gallons, the store, rent or debt and how the business is set up decide what one owner takes home.

How a gas station owner gets paid

An owner’s income is the station’s profit, plus any wage the owner pays themselves for working in the business. The profit comes from two sources: the fuel margin (the pump price minus the delivered cost of the fuel) and the gross profit on what sells inside. Out of that, the owner pays labor, card fees, utilities, insurance, maintenance, rent or loan payments and taxes.

The two sources behave very differently. In NACS’s 2025 data, fuel was 65.0% of sales dollars at convenience stores but only 38.8% of gross profit dollars. Fuel brings the traffic, and the store turns part of it into higher-margin sales: NACS says 57% of customers who refuel also come inside.

Fuel: what a gallon earns

The NACS net figure subtracts delivery from the terminal to the store, card fees, store operating costs, amortization of pumps, canopies and tanks, and inventory losses such as drive-offs. Federal data points the same way. The U.S. Energy Information Administration splits the 2025 average price of regular gasoline, $3.10 a gallon, into crude oil (51.4%), refining (14.3%), taxes (16.6%) and distribution and marketing (17.8%), and that last slice has to cover delivery, retail costs and the retailer’s profit (EIA).

Volume turns cents into income. NACS uses a hypothetical store selling 1.5 million gallons a year to explain the math; at that volume, every cent of margin is worth $15,000 a year (our arithmetic). Same-store volume is shrinking: OPIS estimates national average same-store sales fell about 3.3% in 2025, while NACS counted total industry gallons up 0.5%.

Inside the store

U.S. convenience stores sold $341.2 billion in food and merchandise in 2025, up 1.7%, across 151,975 stores (NACS, April 2026). That averages about $2.2 million of in-store sales per store per year, by our division; the count includes stores that do not sell fuel.

• Foodservice was the largest category: 28.5% of in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars. Prepared food made up 73.9% of foodservice sales.
• Packaged beverages were second, at 18.7% of in-store sales.
• Traffic fell: the average store had 45,160 transactions a month, pump and inside combined, down 2.7%.

Foodservice earns a bigger share of profit than of sales. But the inside business is thin once costs are counted. NACS reports that inside operating profit went from 1 cent per transaction in 2024 to a loss of about 7 cents in 2025 (NACS Magazine, June 2026). For the first half of 2025, NACS Research put the average inside operating loss at $7,805 per store per month, which is why fuel margins carry the average store’s profit (OPIS, Jan. 2026).

What owners report to the IRS

The closest public number to “owner pay” is the IRS count of sole proprietorships, where the business profit is the owner’s income. For tax year 2023, gas stations reported:

Two cautions. First, 3,478 of the 8,157 returns, about 43% by our math, showed no net income. Second, sole proprietorships are only one slice of the industry: owners who run a station through a corporation, an S corporation or a partnership file other returns and are not in this table, and their pay can look very different.

Costs that decide what is left

• Card fees: the industry paid a record $21.3 billion in swipe fees in 2025, including $4.6 billion charged on taxes collected. Cards paid for 82% of the industry’s $817 billion in sales.
• Store operating expenses: just under $166 billion in 2025, up 4.2%, after a 7.1% rise in 2024.
• Labor: the average store-level hourly wage was $15.04 in 2025, and employee turnover stayed above 100%.
• Depreciation: in 2024, depreciation and amortization rose 13% to $13,661 per store per month.
• Rent or debt: a lease payment or a loan comes out before the owner is paid, so two stations with the same sales can leave very different incomes.

What moves an owner’s income

• Gallons and location: volume multiplies every cent of margin, and local competition limits how much margin a station can hold.
• The store and its food: foodservice carries close to 40% of in-store gross profit, so the store program matters as much as the pump price.
• Conversion: more than half of fueling customers already come inside. Visibility from the pumps, a clear entrance and a layout that leads to coffee, food and cold drinks decide how much they buy.
• Costs: store operating expenses and card fees rose again in 2025 while transactions fell, so cost control is part of the owner’s pay.
• Scale: most of the industry is small operators. NACS counts 95,672 stores, 63% of the total, owned by companies with 10 or fewer stores, and convenience stores sell an estimated 80% of the fuel U.S. consumers buy (NACS store count).

Design does not set the street price of fuel. It does shape the parts an owner controls: how easy the site is to enter, whether the store is visible from the pumps, where food and coffee sit, and how fast the checkout moves. See convenience store design and gas station design for U.S. owners. If you are still budgeting the build, start with how much a gas station costs.

FAQ

What is the average fuel margin per gallon?

NACS reports more than 40 cents per gallon on average in 2025 and 43.5 cents in 2024. OPIS puts the 2025 gross rack-to-retail gasoline margin at 39.7 cents (preliminary) and diesel at 51.6 cents. These are gross figures, before any operating cost.

How much does a gas station make per gallon after costs?

Much less. A NACS breakdown takes a 35-cent gross margin down to about 13 cents of net margin after delivery, card fees, store costs, equipment amortization and inventory losses. NACS Research also reported that the average store needed a fuel margin of 22.96 cents per gallon just to break even in the first half of 2025.

Do gas stations make more money on fuel or in the store?

Fuel is most of the sales, and the store is a large share of the gross profit: fuel was 65.0% of sales dollars but 38.8% of gross profit dollars in 2025. After expenses, though, NACS shows the average store’s inside business running at a small loss per transaction, so fuel margins carry the average store’s bottom line.

How much do gas station owners make a year?

For sole proprietors, IRS data for tax year 2023 works out to about $33,200 of average net income per return, and about $84,200 among the returns that showed a profit. Owners who operate through a corporation or a partnership are not in this figure, and the spread between stations is wide.

Does Petrol sell fuel or run stations?

No. Petrol GROUP is a design firm: we design station layouts, canopies, convenience stores, brands and signs for owners. In 29 years we have delivered 983+ projects in 16 countries, including two projects in Texas.

Sources (accessed November 2026): NACS, “U.S. Convenience In-Store Sales Top $340 Billion” (Apr. 15, 2026); NACS Magazine, “5 Key Metrics Defining the Convenience Industry’s Health” (June 2026); NACS Magazine, “5 Big Takeaways From the 2026 NACS State of the Industry Summit” (June 2026); NACS Magazine, “Sluggish Start, Strong Finish” (June 2025); NACS, “Who Makes Money Selling Gas?” (Feb. 4, 2025); NACS/NIQ TDLinx U.S. Convenience Store Count (stores as of Dec. 31, 2025); OPIS Oil Express, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Jan. 5, 2026); U.S. Energy Information Administration, Factors affecting gasoline prices; IRS Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships, Table 1, tax year 2023 (March 2026). Figures are industry averages for planning, not a forecast for any station.

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