Fuelio: gas log & gas prices

Review by eFreeware

Fuelio is a car management app from Sygic, free to install, sitting in the Auto & Vehicles category with more than five million installs and a 4.2 average from over 135,000 ratings. Its purpose is straightforward: keep a record of what your car consumes and what it costs you, from fuel stops to service visits, and turn that record into numbers you can look at.

The main reason to consider it is that it covers several jobs that drivers often handle separately. Fill-ups, fuel economy, mileage, other running costs and GPS trips all live in the same log, and the app can hold more than one vehicle. Rather than a single-purpose fuel diary, it is closer to a running file on your car.

It has been on Google Play since August 2011, which is a long stretch for any app of this sort, and the developer has kept adding to it. It is free with in-app purchases available, and the developer notes that features previously sold as Pro are now free and the app carries no ads.

A fuel log built around the fill-up

The core loop is the fill-up. You enter how much fuel you bought and the odometer reading at the time, and the app works out your fuel economy from there. It uses what the developer calls a full tank algorithm, meaning consumption is calculated from the distance covered between fill-ups and the amount of fuel used in that stretch. Partial fill-ups are supported too, which matters if you do not always fill the tank.

From those entries the app builds a history of purchases and turns it into statistics: total and average fill-ups, fuel costs and mileage, presented as charts as well as figures. If you like seeing a trend line rather than a pile of receipts, that is the appeal here. The numbers accumulate as you keep logging, so the value grows with use rather than arriving on day one.

The app handles different fuel types and bi-fuel vehicles with two tanks, such as gasoline plus LPG, and it supports flex vehicles. You can set distance in kilometers or miles and fuel in liters, US gallons or imperial gallons, so the units can match whatever your pump and dashboard use. Your fill-ups can also be shown on Google Maps.

Costs beyond the pump

Fuel is only part of what a car takes out of your pocket, and Fuelio has a costs module for the rest. You can define your own categories for things like service, maintenance, insurance, washing or parking, and record expenses against them. Each category gets its own statistics, and there is a summary view across the whole picture.

The charts compare fuel against other costs, break down categories and show total monthly spending. That combination is what makes the app more useful than a simple mileage log, because it can answer the broader question of what the car costs to run, not just what it costs to fuel.

You can export your car's records as a shareable text file. For anyone who keeps records for tax, reimbursement or a company vehicle, that is a practical addition rather than a novelty.

Trips, prices and where the numbers come from

A GPS tracker can record your trips, either manually or automatically, and each trip can be shown with a summary of its real cost and a map preview. Routes can be saved in GPX format, which is a standard file type for track data. Recent updates have added a smart bubble for the trip log, an automatic prompt to enter the odometer after each trip, and weather integration as a Pro feature.

Fuel prices come from crowdsourcing, and the app shows prices along with the nearest gas stations. Because that information depends on other people contributing, it is worth treating as a helpful extra rather than a guaranteed price list for every station near you.

Your data is stored locally on the device. If you want protection against losing or replacing a phone, you can connect the app to Dropbox or Google Drive and back it up there, with automatic backup while you add fill-ups or costs. Import and export to CSV on SD card is supported as well, so the log is not locked away from other tools.

What it asks of you

The trade-off with any log like this is discipline. Fuelio needs your fill-up amounts and odometer readings to produce consumption figures, and the statistics are only as complete as the entries behind them. Skip a few fill-ups and the charts will show it. That is not a flaw in the app so much as the nature of tracking, but it is the main thing to weigh before committing.

The automatic trip tracking relies on GPS being available, and the crowdsourced price data relies on other users. The app is free with in-app purchases, and the developer says the Pro features are now free and that there are no ads, which removes one common annoyance from the equation.

Recent updates have added a currency conversion tool, a light theme, receipt scanning and a set of widgets covering quick actions, trip controls, a dashboard, weekly trips and fuel consumption. Some widgets are free and others are Pro. Between the widgets and the shortcut for adding fill-ups, the app is clearly designed to make logging quick enough that you keep doing it.

Who gets the most from a log like this

This suits drivers who want a factual record of their car rather than a rough sense of what it costs. If you own more than one vehicle, or run a bi-fuel car with two tanks, the multi-vehicle and dual-tank support is where the app stands out. It is also a natural fit for anyone who needs to justify vehicle expenses, since the costs module and the reporting tool cover that ground.

It is equally reasonable for a single driver with one car who simply wants to know whether fuel economy is drifting and when the next service is due. Reminders can be set by date or by odometer, which ties the maintenance side to the mileage you are already recording.

Where it asks more of you is in consistency. The app rewards regular entries and gives back charts, averages and cost breakdowns in return. If you are happy to log at the pump and at the garage, the picture it builds is genuinely useful. If you prefer to enter your fill-ups yourself and keep a close eye on the numbers, this is the kind of tool built for you.

A dependable log for drivers who keep records

Fuelio does one broad job well: it turns the everyday business of fueling and maintaining a car into a set of numbers you can actually use. Fill-ups, consumption, other costs, trips and reminders sit in one place, with charts and reports to make sense of them, and the option to back everything up to Dropbox or Google Drive. For a free app with a long history behind it, that is a lot of ground covered.

The caveats are the ones that come with tracking of any kind. It needs your input to work, the GPS trip logging needs location available, and the fuel price side depends on crowdsourced contributions. None of that undermines the core log, but it does mean the app is a tool you use rather than one that works in the background on your behalf.

I would suggest it to drivers who already keep some kind of record, or who have been meaning to, and who want fuel, mileage and running costs in a single place across one or more vehicles.

What's new in version 10.6.3

💵 New: Currency Converstion Tool 🔴 Smart Bubble for Trip Log 📌 Quick Actions Widget (FREE) 📌 Trip Controls Widget (FREE) 📌 Dashboard Widget (PRO) 📌 Trip Log (Weekly) Widget (PRO) 📌 Fuel Consumption Widget (PRO) 🏞️ New Light Theme ☁️☀️ Weather Integration (PRO) ⛅️ 🔴 Trip Log: Added automatic odometer entry screen prompt after each trip for seamless mileage tracking 🎬 https://youtube.com/shorts/L3zZKOPDYIE 🚀 Fuel Receipt Scanning 🎬 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WCEcM_u63cM