GasBuddy

Co-founders Dustin Coupal and Jason ToewsJason ToewsJason Toews is a co-founder of GasBuddy, the crowdsourced gas-price website and app, which he launched with Dustin Coupal in 2000; he repeatedly spoke to the media on the company’s behalf and stayed on after OPIS acquired it in 2013. In 2022, he took part in acquiring AbaData, a Canadian energy geographic information software company, and became its chief executive officer.Open the full entry were childhood friends. After the two left small-town Saskatchewan to go to school in the United States, they found that gas prices varied widely from one neighborhood to another; in the summer of 2000, frustrated by constantly overpaying for gas, they came up with the idea of a gas-price sharing website.⁠[1][2]

In June 2000, the first GasBuddy website went live. GasBuddy Organization began as a collection of local websites that let the public freely share gas prices at stations in their area: drivers entered the prices they saw on the site for others to look up. The service was free and relied entirely on advertising revenue to cover operating and development expenses, and prices were automatically removed from the site 96 hours after they were entered.⁠[3][2][3][3][3]

In 2001, GasBuddy opened a historical gas price database to the public; in 2006 it launched a heat map showing real-time gas prices across the country; and in 2008 it launched the Trip Cost Calculator, which helped drivers plan where to refuel and what fuel would cost on road trips.⁠[4][4][4]

On April 6, 2004, GasBuddy Organization Inc. was registered in Minnesota, United States, as a domestic business corporation, with its principal office in Brooklyn Park and Jason Toews listed as chief executive officer; the company changed its name to Buddies Forever Inc. in 2013, was administratively dissolved several times thereafter, and is now inactive.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

That same year, the site reached 1 million visits a day, though traffic fell when gas prices came down.⁠[6]

In April 2006, Toews explained on an NPR program that the site’s prices were mostly reported by ordinary motorists and that it had about 900,000 registered members, though registration was optional; the site checked who posted a price, where the station was, and how it compared with prices nearby, and banned people found posting inaccurate prices.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

During rising U.S. gas prices in May 2007, GasBuddy.com was likely to break its record of 4 million visitors in a single day, and the site had to buy more servers. At the time, it offered gas prices for 180 locations in the United States and Canada, and the company claimed to monitor 900,000 stations with several hundred thousand registered volunteers; users could also send an email containing a postal code to find the cheapest stations nearby. Toews said the site had not made him or co-founder Coupal millionaires, but advertising revenue was enough to sustain the operation.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][6]

In August 2010, GasBuddy released its first mobile app, for Android, allowing drivers to check and enter gas prices anywhere; the same year it launched Price Hike Alerts based on the GasBuddy algorithm and started a blog on which petroleum analysts wrote about price trends and fuel-saving advice.⁠[2][4][4][4]

On March 1, 2013, Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), an oil price information company owned by the privately held business information group UCG, announced that it had acquired GasBuddy and its sister company OpenStore. At the time, GasBuddy’s website and app were used by more than 26 million motorists to find gas prices in the United States and Canada, with more than 10 million users each month and coverage of more than 100,000 gas stations and convenience stores; OpenStore, founded and operated by the same management team, provided multi-channel marketing for gas stations and convenience stores, including websites, mobile apps, email, SMS, and social media, and was used by more than 6,000 convenience stores. Horizon Partners served as financial advisor to GasBuddy and OpenStore.⁠[8][9][9][9][9][8][8][8][8]

OPIS said it would increase investment in the OpenStore software and expand its couponing features; Toews said GasBuddy would gain access to OPIS’s enormous database of spot and wholesale gasoline prices and its daily news wire. The two founders remained at GasBuddy after the sale. The same year, GasBuddy launched a daily drawing that gave one user $100 in gas money each day, and in June 2013 its 10 millionth member signed up.⁠[8][8][8][10][4][2]

On June 11, 2015, GasBuddy celebrated the 15th anniversary of its launch: users had submitted more than 1.2 billion gas prices, covering more than 550 metro areas in the United States and Canada. The same year, GasBuddy held its first “Tank Takeover” event in Los Angeles, taking over a gas station and filling drivers’ cars for free.⁠[2][2][2][4]

On January 26, 2016, GasBuddy announced that Walt Doyle, founder of Where Inc. and former general manager of PayPal’s Boston office, would become chief executive officer, and opened a new office in Boston, moving its headquarters there; the company had previously been headquartered in Saskatchewan, Canada. The two co-founders remained on the leadership team to advise on product and growth strategies.⁠[11][11][11][10][10][11]

At the time, GasBuddy’s apps had been downloaded more than 50 million times and had about 15 million monthly active users, without the company paying for downloads; in addition to its consumer website and apps, the company sold white-label software for sending coupons to gas station convenience store chains, 150 of which had signed on. After the acquisition, UCG had sought out the new chief executive officer to lead its expansion plans.⁠[10][10][10][11][10]

On January 8, 2016, the information services company IHS signed an agreement with UCG Holdings Limited Partnership to acquire OPIS for $650 million, and the deal closed on February 10. The purchase agreement listed GasBuddy/OpenStore, LLC and GB Internet Solutions, LLC as “Excluded Subsidiaries”, stating that the business being acquired did not include the businesses of those companies and that the seller had to transfer their ownership interests to the seller or a seller affiliate before closing; GasBuddy/OpenStore, LLC and OPIS also had a separate data license agreement dated January 1, 2016. At closing, GasBuddy/OpenStore was also to enter into an advertising agreement with the buyer to provide mobile app banner advertising for the buyer’s Carfax and Car Proof businesses at no cost for two years.⁠[12][13][14][13][13][13][13][13][13]

In March 2016, the GasBuddy app launched in Australia. At the time, it received 60 million price reports a month in the United States; besides advertising, the database itself was an important source of revenue, and the company had signed deals with carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz to supply gas price data to in-car navigation systems.⁠[15][15][15][15]

On September 14, 2016, GasBuddy announced that its app had surpassed 60 million downloads and at the same time introduced a new brand, a new logo, and a redesigned app with new features such as station ratings and enhanced search and filters, along with new media products for advertisers; its chief technology officer was Max Metral, former chief engineer of PayPal Retail. At the time, it covered more than 140,000 gas stations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The same year, the app added the ability to filter gas stations by amenities and to show the spread between the highest and lowest prices in an area.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16][4]

GasBuddy agreed to provide user location data to Reveal Mobile, a location-based marketing and analytics firm, at $9.50 per thousand users under an agreement starting March 1, 2017; the data included latitude, longitude, IP address, time stamps, and advertising identifiers, but not names. According to invoices from July to September 2017, GasBuddy provided data on more than 4.5 million users a month, and that data cost more than $40,000 a month. The contract allowed Reveal Mobile to pass the data on to third parties on GasBuddy’s whitelist, including those in advertising, data aggregation, political marketing, and insurance.⁠[17][17][17][17][17][17][17]

The contract and invoices became public documents in November 2017, after Reveal Mobile failed to pay for months and GasBuddy sued; Reveal Mobile owed $219,326.31 when the suit was filed, and GasBuddy moved to drop the case in January 2018. A GasBuddy spokesperson said that, as a free app, the company depended on advertising and data licensing revenue, and that users could turn off location tracking in the settings.⁠[17][17][17][17]

On August 28, 2017, GasBuddy launched Pay with GasBuddy, a fuel payment card developed with the corporate payments company WEX: the card was free to join with no credit application required, and after linking a checking account, users received 15 cents per gallon off their first fill-up and at least 5 cents off every subsequent one. Chief executive officer Doyle said the company had an installed base of nearly 70 million drivers at the time.⁠[18][18][18][18][18]

During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in September 2017, GasBuddy used its app to help affected people find gas stations that still had fuel.⁠[19]

In 2018, the GasBuddy app added a My Car feature providing vehicle recall information and fuel-usage tracking, launched Park with GasBuddy, which gave gas money for booking parking, and introduced a monthly paid membership offering up to 40 cents per gallon in savings plus roadside assistance; in 2019 it launched GasBack, through which users earn free gas credit from purchases at participating retailers; and in 2020 it launched Flash Deals, which offer individuals time-limited gas prices below advertised prices based on location and on discounts funded by retailers and partners.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

On April 27, 2021, PDI (then named Professional Datasolutions, Inc. and headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia) announced that it had acquired GasBuddy; the deal was announced and closed the same day, and the companies did not disclose terms. At the time, GasBuddy was headquartered in Boston, had five million active mobile users, provided gas price information on 150,000 stations across North America, and was led by chief executive officer Sarah McCrary. Berenson & Company and Moelis & Company served as exclusive financial advisors to PDI and GasBuddy, respectively.⁠[20][21][22][23][21][20][20][20][20]

In its acquisition announcement, PDI set out its strategy: to use GasBuddy to extend its ability to deliver promotional offers and communications directly to consumers and to engage consumers in convenience store and petroleum loyalty programs; to let convenience retailers use GasBuddy to attract new customers to their stores, deliver offers funded by consumer packaged goods brands, and enroll consumers in the retailers’ loyalty programs; to let retailers extend personalized fuel pricing offers in real time to consumers on-site or driving nearby and promote in-store products; and to integrate GasBuddy Business Pages, which provide listing services and reputation management, with existing PDI products so that retailers gain a more holistic view of consumer sentiment, visits, and purchasing behavior. Brandon Logsdon, president of PDI’s Marketing Cloud business, said that enriching crowdsourced gas pricing information and the conversations among consumers could help retailers drive sales and loyalty when consumers are ready to buy.⁠[20][20][20][20][20][20][20]

As of October 2026, GasBuddy is owned and operated by PDI Technologies, and its operating entity, GasBuddy LLC, is located in Dallas, Texas. Its app has been downloaded more than 150 million times, and more than 515,000 unique users reported fuel prices in August 2026; Patrick De Haan is head of petroleum analysis. The company says it has helped North American drivers save more than $3 billion, covers more than 150,000 gas stations, and offers the Pay with GasBuddy+ payment card and membership program.⁠[24][25][24][24][24][25][25][24]

GasBuddy: Official website: https://www.gasbuddy.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[25]

X: Public account: https://x.com/gasbuddy (opens in a new window)⁠[25]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gasbuddy (opens in a new window)⁠[25]