Resources for media covering The Gas Index
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AI is finally deployed on the US Gas Crisis: The “Gas Index.” AI agents call thousands of gas stations across America to ask the price per gallon and create a real-time, per-station price index.
Two AI engineers + Claude Code have built (in one weekend) what it has taken its closest competitor 26 years to make and a more complete data set of gas prices than even Google has. The team is behind Ireland's viral “Guinndex” or “Guinness price index,” which has brought transparency to Guinness pricing across Ireland, has turned their AI agent creation to gas station prices in America, and it's a gamechanger.
Website: gasindex.ai
NEW YORK, 6 April 2026 - Gas has topped $4.07 nationally and two AI engineers have used AI to unearth the best deals for every-day Americans with station-by-station granularity. Americans are feeling the impact at the pump, with every fill-up now costs nearly $17 more than before the war in Iran began. And there's no single place to get the real, complete picture of what gas actually costs near you.
So over one weekend husbands Matt Cortland and John Fleming used AI tools like Claude Code and ElevenLabs to build a solution: A real-time price index by that's editable and maintainable by the American public. In one weekend the pair have made a more full-featured product than its nearest competitor has made in over 26 years. The sheer power of AI and its ability to form new business ventures has never been more apparant.
Cortland is an AI engineer from New Jersey. Fleming, his husband, is an AI and neurotech researcher from Ireland. They live in London and don't own a car, but Cortland's mom in New Jersey won't stop calling them about the price of gas.
“We had just built The Guinndex for Ireland and it was taking off, and my mom calls me and is like, 'why can't you just do something about gas?',” said Cortland. “So we laughed but then thought, 'OK... but can we?' And here we are.”
The Gas Index (gasindex.ai) is a real-time consumer price index covering 170,000+ stations across all all 50 states. Search by current location or address and it shows you the cheapest gas near you, how prices are moving, and what the war is specifically costing you at the pump.
But what makes it different is how the Gas Index gets its data.
AI agents that call gas stations. The team built The Hills, a family of very friendly conversational AI agents named after King of the Hill (America's propane-loving family). Bobby and Hank have Southern accents and are really friendly. Peggy is there as a backup in Spanish. All three disclose in the first sentence of every call that they are AI. Bobby's opening line: “Hey, I'm Bobby from Gas Index, I'm an AI. What's regular goin' for today?” 19,000+ stations dialed with thousands of actual conversations from AI to station attendees. 75+ hours on the phone. Almost everyone just answered the question. You can hear Bobby in action at the top of gasindex.ai.
AI that reads your pump photos. Snap a photo of the pump display, the station's sign, or your receipt. AI geolocates you to pull up the station you're at, extracts the prices from the image, and updates them in real time. No typing. Just point and shoot.
An “Is It Worth the Drive?” calculator. Enter your car's MPG and tank size. The Gas Index calculates whether driving to a cheaper station actually saves you money after the fuel cost to get there.
A war impact calculator. Enter your vehicle and driving habits and see exactly how much the Iran war is costing you personally, per fill-up.
My Garage. Save your vehicles and up to 5 locations (home, work, mom's house) for personalized calculations every time you visit.
35 years of context. Historical EIA data going back to 1990 so you can see where today's prices sit in the bigger picture.
All of it is free. All of it updates in real time as people snap photos. And it gets better with every price that drivers contribute.
Over St. Patrick's weekend, the pair launched the Guinndex (guinndex.ai), Ireland's pint price index, which went viral after an AI agent named Rachel called 3,000 pubs across all 32 counties to talk on the phone to pub owners and ask the cost of a pint of Guinness. The Guinndex was covered by Fortune, Vice, the BBC, and some of the world's largest AI newsletters and influencers.
But something kept coming up. Pub owners frequently cited oil prices and the rising cost of fuel as reasons a pint is so expensive. Every radio interview they did, the segment before his was about the price of gas.
“We thought, what's the thing that get Americans as passionate as Irish people are about Guinness?” said Cortland. “And gas was just the obvious answer. Especially right now.”
Along the way, the team found that Google Maps has fuel prices for only about 50% of US gas stations. The stations being missed are overwhelmingly smaller, independent operators, not mega-corporations. The kind of stations that would benefit most from more business. In addition, station owners have no way to add their own fuel prices through Google.
“That's nearly 85,000 stations invisible to the platform most Americans use to find gas,” said Fleming.
The Midwest turned out to be the friendliest region for The Hills. In Minnesota, 80% of stations gave Bobby the price. Kansas: 73%. Missouri: 70%. These are states with more independently owned stations, where people just answer when the phone rings.
New Jersey was the least helpful at 20%, mostly due to Wawa's apparent company-wide no-price-over-phone policy.
“Of course it's New Jersey,” said Cortland, who is from New Jersey. “You call a gas station in Jersey and they pick up immediately, but then they tell you it's against policy. That's the most New Jersey thing I've ever heard. I kind of love it, but really I think these corporate policies should be changed so that people can have access to that information.”
Almost everyone just answered the question. Only 1 in 700 people told the agent to fuck off.
Matt Cortland is an American AI engineer from New Jersey. A former US-Ireland Alliance Scholar (the George Mitchell Scholarship) and Henry Luce Scholar, he built the Guinndex, Ireland's viral pint price index. The Guinndex was for John's country. The Gas Index is for Matt's.
mattcortland.comLinkedIn@mattcortland
John Fleming is an Irish AI and neurotech researcher. His PhD research is in computer modeling for neurological disorders and its treatment through closed loop deep brain stimulation. He is now applying what he knows about how the brain works to AI safety research. He sees projects like the Gas Index as a testing ground for responsible AI deployment: how voice agents should identify themselves, how to build AI systems that interact with real people transparently.
johnfleming.ioLinkedIn@johnflemingai
The AI engineering husbands live in London and built America's gas price tracker from their basement flat. They don't yet own a car, but when they buy one it will be electric.
Media contact: [email protected] | gasindex.ai/press
Matt Cortland and John Fleming are available for interview. Transcripts, live stats, and the full regional analysis are at gasindex.ai/press and by state/city at gasindex.ai/press/states.
All AI agents disclose that they are AI in the first sentence of every call.
The Gas Index is a real-time consumer price index covering 125,000+ gas stations across all 50 states plus DC. Built by husbands Matt Cortland (AI engineer) and John Fleming (AI researcher), it combines Google Places API station-level prices, AI voice agents that call stations to verify prices, EIA survey data, and crowdsourced submissions. The AI engineering husbands live in London and built America's gas price tracker from their basement flat. They don't yet own a car, but when they buy one it will be electric.
Out of 12,786 completed calls, fewer than 1 in 700 were hostile. Bobby's response to every hostile reaction: “No worries, thanks anyway.”
Out of 12,786 completed calls, 18 contained profanity directed at Bobby. That's 0.14%, or roughly 1 in 700.
1-in-5 calls included a follow-up: “Who do customers blame when prices go up?” Most attendants did not engage. Those who did:
17 chains appear to have company-wide or location-level policies against giving gas prices over the phone. All refusals were polite.
| Chain | Sample refusal |
|---|---|
| Wawa | “I'm not allowed to tell you over the phone.” |
| H-E-B Fuel | “We're actually not allowed to give gas prices over the phone, sir.” |
| Murphy USA | “I cannot tell you that, you must go to the online app or come in person. The app is Murphy Drive.” |
| Kwik Star | “We can't give that over the phone.” |
| Circle K | “We don't give prices over the phone.” |
| OnCue | “We can't give out gas prices over the phone.” |
| Giant | “We can't actually do that because it can change at any second. We are exactly the same as Wawa, though, if you're wondering.” |
| Roadrunner Markets | “I am not allowed to do prices over the phone on the gas because of our rules and regulations with work.” |
Other chains with same policy: Weigel's, J&H Family Stores (Marathon), Go Mart, E-Z STOP, Tom Thumb, Petro Serve USA, Cook's Corner, Food 4 Less (Kroger), Woodman's, Safeway Fuel.
Employee names have been removed.
All states ranked by average regular unleaded price, with Google coverage percentage.
| # | State | Avg Price | Stations | Min | Max | Coverage |
|---|
| Brand | Stations | Avg Price |
|---|
Matt Cortland is an American AI engineer from New Jersey. A former US-Ireland Alliance Scholar (the George Mitchell Scholarship) and Henry Luce Scholar, he built the Guinndex, Ireland's viral pint price index. The Guinndex was for John's country. The Gas Index is for Matt's.
John Fleming is an Irish AI and neurotech researcher. His PhD research is in computer modeling for neurological disorders and its treatment through closed loop deep brain stimulation. He is now applying what he knows about how the brain works to AI safety research. He sees projects like the Gas Index as a testing ground for responsible AI deployment: how voice agents should identify themselves, how to build AI systems that interact with real people transparently.
The AI engineering husbands live in London and built America's gas price tracker from their flat. They don't yet own a car, but when they buy one it will be electric.
Station-level prices are sourced from the Google Places API fuelOptions field, which is supplied by OPIS (Oil Price Information Service), a Dow Jones/News Corp subsidiary. AI-verified prices are collected by ElevenLabs voice agents calling stations directly. All AI calls identify the caller as an AI at the start of the conversation.
Google coverage gap analysis: 1,098 stations without Google prices were individually queried via the Place Details API. Only 6 (0.5%) returned fuel data, confirming the gap is structural.
© 2026 Prime Directive AI Ltd. All stats auto-update from live database.