Our story
Built because the other apps
weren't telling you enough
Every petrol app in Australia shows you what prices are right now. None of them tell you what's coming.
The problem with every other petrol app
I used to do what most Australians do: open GasBuddy or the Petrol Spy app, find the cheapest station nearby, and drive there. Sometimes I'd save a few cents per litre. Sometimes I'd watch the price jump 15 cents the next morning and wish I'd filled up the day before.
The apps were showing me the wrong thing. They were solving for "where is the cheapest petrol right now?" - but the question I actually wanted answered was "should I fill up today, or wait?"
Those are completely different questions. And no app was answering the second one.
Why it's actually a solvable problem
Petrol prices in Australia don't move randomly. They follow a cycle - prices drop gradually over several days, then spike sharply, then fall again. If you know where you are in that cycle, you can make a better call about when to fill up.
But there's more. The retail price you pay at the pump is largely determined before the fuel reaches Australia. Global crude oil prices, the Singapore MOPS benchmark, and the AUD/USD exchange rate together account for roughly 80% of what you pay. These numbers move publicly, in real time, days before they flow through to your local servo.
That gap - between wholesale signals moving and retail prices catching up - is where the forecast opportunity lives.
So I built it for myself
My background is in data and operations - I spent years at PwC working on analytics and later at Uber thinking about how data can drive better decisions for consumers and businesses. When I looked at the petrol price problem through that lens, the answer was pretty clear: the signals exist, they're public, and they can be turned into a useful forecast.
PetrolCast tracks wholesale price signals - global oil markets, the Singapore MOPS benchmark used to price Australian fuel, and AUD/USD movements - and combines them with historical price cycle data for each city. The result is a city-level forecast: is the price likely to rise or fall in the next few days, and how confident are we?
I built it for myself first. Then I thought other people might find it useful, so I put it online. That's the whole story.
What PetrolCast is - and isn't
PetrolCast is a forecasting tool. It tells you whether prices are likely to go up or down, and by roughly how much, over the coming days. It's free to use, no account required.
It is not a real-time price comparison tool. If you want the cheapest station within 2km right this moment, GasBuddy does that well. We're answering a different question.
Forecasts aren't guaranteed. Global markets are unpredictable, and sometimes an unexpected event will break a pattern. We show you confidence levels for exactly that reason - and we track our accuracy over time so you can judge for yourself whether the forecasts are useful.
PetrolCast covers all major Australian cities. Forecasts are updated daily and are free to access without any sign-up.
Check your city's forecast
See whether prices are likely to rise or fall in the next few days.