TL;DR: Everyone’s been watching regular 91 flatline near 205 through August. Meanwhile the premium grades quietly climbed. On the Queensland feed today (6 Sep), Brisbane-metro medians are E10 203.5, regular 91 204.9, premium 95 222.9, premium 98 230.9 — and diesel 256.9. That puts 95 a full 18c over 91 and 98 a full 26c over 91 (98 is 8c over 95). In the last week alone premium jumped about 5c — 95 was 217.9 and 98 was 226.9 on 31 Aug — while 91 barely moved (202.2 to 204.9). So the value question sharpens: at an 18-to-26c gap, is 95 or 98 ever worth it? For the roughly 9 in 10 cars that only need 91, no — the ~3% economy-and-performance benefit (and only on engines actually tuned for it) is worth a few cents, nowhere near 18-26. The honest exceptions: cars that require 95/98 (many turbo and European engines — you don’t get a vote), and the odd station that prices 98 unusually close to 91. And even inside premium, shop hard: today’s dearest 98 is 255.9, the cheapest 207.5 — a 48c spread on the same grade.
The move nobody clocked
The headline all August was that 91 went nowhere. It’s true — regular has hovered around the low 200s for weeks, and today’s median is 204.9c/L. Boring, in a good way.
But grades don’t move in lockstep, and while 91 sat still, the premium grades did the opposite of nothing. Here’s the whole Brisbane board today, straight off the Queensland Government feed — the price each station reported, not a guess at the pump:
E10 and 91 are almost on top of each other. Premium sits a clear step up — and that step got taller this past week.
Five cents in a week, while 91 sat still
Rewind to 31 August. The premium medians were 95 at 217.9 and 98 at 226.9; 91 was 202.2. Fast-forward to today and 91 has drifted up a shade (204.9), but premium has jumped about 5c on both grades — 95 to 222.9, 98 to 230.9. Same week, very different behaviour:
That’s the quiet climb. The gap that was ~16c on 95 and ~25c on 98 a week ago is now 18c and 26c. Nothing about your car changed; the price of choosing premium did.
So is it worth it now?
This is where I have to point you at the post that does the full sum, because the answer turns on cents-per-100km, not the sticker gap. I’ve already ground through that maths — the economy credit, the break-even octane gain, the per-tank and per-year dollars — in 91 vs 95 vs 98: the cents-per-100km on a car that only needs 91. I won’t rerun the derivation here. The one line to carry over: on an engine the manufacturer says can run 91, a ~2% economy gain claws back only about 30 cents of the per-100km cost gap — leaving premium still a dollar-plus a 100km dearer. It doesn’t come close to closing 18c, let alone 26c.
So plug today’s fresh numbers into that finding. A week ago the gap was already too wide to pay for itself. Today it’s wider — 95 is 18c over 91, 98 is 26c. If premium didn’t earn its keep at 16c and 25c, it certainly doesn’t at 18c and 26c. The direction of the move only strengthens the verdict for a 91-tuned car: skip it.
For the roughly nine in ten cars on Brisbane roads that only need 91, that’s the whole story. The extra octane buys you a benefit in the low single-digit percentages — and only on an engine tuned to use it. Worth a few cents. Not worth 18 to 26.
When premium still wins — because it does
I’m not here to tell you premium is a con. It isn’t, and there are two honest cases where you should absolutely pay the gap:
- Your handbook says required, not recommended. Plenty of turbo, European and performance engines demand 95 or 98 — running 91 costs you power and can do actual harm. If that’s your car, you don’t have a value decision to make; buy what the manual demands and this post isn’t about you. (Check the word in the manual: required means pay it.)
- A station prices premium unusually close to 91. The 18-to-26c gap is a median — individual servos are all over the place. If you find a site where 98 is only a handful of cents over its own 91, and your engine likes the octane, the sum can flip. Rare, but real.
Even inside premium, shop hard
Here’s the part that makes the “which grade” question almost secondary. The spread within a single premium grade dwarfs the gap between grades. On the feed today, premium 98 runs from a cheapest of 207.5 to a dearest of 255.9 — a 48c spread on the identical fuel. Premium 95 is nearly as wild: 204.5 up to 264.
Sit with that. The dearest 98 in Brisbane (255.9) costs more than 48c a litre over the cheapest 98 (207.5) — and the cheapest 98 (207.5) is barely above the median 91 (204.9). If you must buy premium, where you buy it matters far more than which premium grade you pick. Buying 98 at the wrong servo can cost you more than the entire 91-to-98 upgrade would at the right one.
So what for you
- Car only needs 91? Ignore the premium buttons — the gap widened this week and the maths was already lopsided. Put the ~18-to-26c a litre back in your pocket.
- Car requires 95/98? No decision to make on grade — but you’ve got the biggest spread of anyone, so hunt the price. A cheap 98 and a dear 98 are nearly 50c apart today.
- Everyone: the servo beats the octane. The 48c within-grade 98 spread, and the 42c 91 spread I’ve flagged before, both swamp the 18-26c grade gap.
You can see today’s cheapest of every grade near you on Pinly Fuel — straight off the Queensland Government feed, so the number on the map is the number at the pump. Filter to your grade and let the map do the shopping.
How we measure: Brisbane-metro medians (within ~30km of the CBD, petrol and diesel) from the Queensland Government price feed — the board price each station reported. Today’s read is 6 Sep 2026 (E10 203.5 from 448 sites, 91 204.9 from 500, 95 222.9 from 359, 98 230.9 from 500, all-diesel 256.9 from 500); the week-ago read is 31 Aug 2026 (91 202.2, 95 217.9, 98 226.9). Gaps are median-of-medians, so a minority of premium-heavy or discount sites sit well off the middle — which is exactly why the within-grade ranges (98 from 207.5 to 255.9; 95 from 204.5 to 264) matter. The economy/performance benefit of higher octane on a 91-tuned engine (~2-3%) is external published guidance, not our data, and it’s the biggest lever in the value sum — see the full per-km derivation and plug in your own car’s figure. If your manual requires premium, that trumps every number here.
— Nate