Can You Use a Walmart Gift Card for Gas? Where It Works and Where It Won't in 2026
Yes, but only at pumps Walmart itself runs. A Walmart gift card pays for fuel at the 455 Walmart-operated fuel stations and the 559 Sam's Club fuel centers in our database. It is declined at the 1,094 Murphy USA stations sitting in Walmart parking lots, at every standalone Murphy USA and Murphy Express, and at Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and every other brand. eGift cards add one more wrinkle: pumps can't read a barcode, so you pay inside.
Walmart-run pumps
Yes
455 stations, 35 states. Physical card at the pump, eGift inside.
Sam's Club fuel
Yes
559 fuel centers, 44 states. Magnetic-stripe cards only; membership usually required.
Murphy USA
No
Acceptance ended December 31, 2022. Applies to the kiosk in the Walmart lot too.
Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP
No
Walmart+ discounts work at Exxon and Mobil. Walmart gift cards never have.
“Walmart gift card for gas” is the single most-searched payment question about Walmart fuel, and the top results contradict each other. Some say the card works at Murphy USA, some say it doesn't, and several still promise a 3-cent-per-gallon discount that was switched off in 2022. The confusion has one root cause: two different companies sell gasoline in Walmart parking lots, and only one of them is Walmart. This guide settles each case using Walmart's current gift card terms (last updated August 24, 2026), Walmart's own Walmart+ fuel instructions, Murphy USA's regulatory filings and public statements, Sam's Club's fuel center policy, and our own station database of every Walmart, Murphy USA and Sam's Club fuel site in the country.
1. Where a Walmart Gift Card Buys Gas, Station by Station
Station counts are from the Mart Gas Price database as of September 2026. “Physical” means a plastic card with a magnetic stripe. “eGift” means the digital card delivered by email or text, which has a barcode and a PIN but no stripe.
| Where you are pumping | Who runs it | Sites | Physical card | eGift card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart Fuel & Convenience (blue Walmart canopy) | Walmart | 455 | Yes at the pump or inside | Pay inside or Walmart Pay |
| Sam's Club Fuel Center | Walmart (Sam's Club) | 559 | Yes at the pump, PIN card | No barcode can't be scanned |
| Murphy USA kiosk in a Walmart parking lot | Murphy USA Inc. | 1,094 | No | No |
| Standalone Murphy USA / Murphy Express | Murphy USA Inc. | 556 | No | No |
| Exxon and Mobil (Walmart+ partners) | ExxonMobil dealers | ~12,000 | No | No |
| Shell, BP, Chevron, Speedway, 7-Eleven, Costco, Kroger, etc. | Unrelated | — | No | No |
| Any station, with a Walmart Visa Gift Card | Green Dot Bank (Visa) | Any | Pay inside pump blocked by issuer | n/a |
2. Murphy USA Stopped Taking Walmart Gift Cards at the End of 2022
This is the question behind roughly a third of all searches in this cluster, and it is where most published answers are out of date. Murphy USA did accept Walmart gift cards for about a decade, and for most of that time it paid you to use one. The timeline matters because each step left behind a wave of articles that are still ranking:
The 3-cent era
Murphy USA took Walmart gift cards at the pump and knocked 3 cents per gallon off for paying with one (5 cents for a Walmart MoneyCard or Walmart credit card). Murphy Express stations and Alabama were excluded. This is the promotion that thousands of “walmart gift card gas discount” pages still describe as current.
The discount ends
Murphy USA's official account told a customer on X: “Walmart is ending the gift card fuel discount for Walmart and Murphy USA stores.” Customers reported the last discounted fill-ups at the end of January. From February 2022 a Walmart gift card was still accepted at Murphy, but it bought gas at the posted price like any other card.
Acceptance ends
Stickers appeared on Murphy pumps in late 2022 reading “We will no longer be accepting Walmart gift cards effective December 31, 2022.” Customer videos and forum posts from the first week of January 2023 confirm the cutoff. Since then a Walmart gift card is declined at Murphy USA pumps and at the walk-up kiosk window, whether the station is in a Walmart lot or on its own corner.
Why would the gas station in Walmart's own parking lot refuse Walmart's card? Because it isn't Walmart's gas station. Murphy USA was spun off from Murphy Oil in 2013 and is an independent, publicly traded company. Its FY2025 annual report describes a network of 1,800 stores in 27 states, of which 1,649 carry the Murphy USA or Murphy Express name and 151 are QuickChek stores in the Northeast. Most of those Murphy sites sit “in close proximity to Walmart Supercenter stores,” on land Murphy either bought from Walmart or rents under a master lease. Walmart's point-of-sale system does not run those pumps, so Walmart's closed-loop gift card, which is really just a balance in Walmart's own ledger, has no way to be redeemed there.
The one financial link that survives is Walmart+. Murphy USA's filing says the company “participate[s] in the Walmart+ program,” and Walmart's help pages spell out the mechanics: a Walmart+ member opens the app, reads a six-digit discount ID, presses Walmart+ on the Murphy pump keypad and types it in. That gets the member price. It does not let you pay with a Walmart gift card, and Walmart Pay is not offered on Murphy pumps at all.
Standalone Murphy is the same answer
Our database tracks 556 Murphy stations that are not at a Walmart: 377 branded Murphy Express, 178 Murphy USA and one Murphy USA Fuel. Murphy is folding the Express name into Murphy USA, so the signage is changing, but the payment terminal is the same and the answer is the same. See live prices at standalone Murphy USA stations.
3. Which Pump Are You Actually At? Two Operators, One Parking Lot
Of the 1,549 Walmart Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets with fuel in our database, Murphy USA runs 1,094 and Walmart runs 455. The split is heavily regional, which is why the “does it work at Walmart gas?” question gets a confident yes in Utah and a confident no in Tennessee.
Walmart Fuel & Convenience
- Blue canopy with the Walmart spark; newer sites say “Fuel & Convenience.”
- A small Walmart-staffed convenience store, not a kiosk window.
- Walmart Pay QR code on the pump screen (new Nexus pumps put it on the right side of the display).
- Most common in Texas (101), Florida (32), Georgia (25), Arkansas, Louisiana and Utah (23 each).
- The only operator in 14 states: AZ, CA, ID, ME, MT, NH, NM, NV, NY, PA, UT, WA, WV, WY.
Murphy USA at Walmart
- Red-and-white Murphy USA canopy, usually at the edge of the lot near the road.
- A walk-up kiosk with a service window, or a compact 1,400 sq ft store on rebuilt sites.
- Pump keypad offers “Walmart+” for a six-digit code; there is no Walmart Pay QR.
- Dominant across the South: Texas (249), Florida (93), Tennessee (74), Georgia (72), Louisiana (61), Alabama (60).
- Iowa's Walmart fuel is Murphy-only; every other Murphy state also has some Walmart-run pumps.
Every station page on this site says which company sells the fuel. If the page reads “Fuel by Murphy USA,” leave the gift card in your wallet. Browse by state at Walmart gas prices by state, or read our companion explainer on who actually runs the pumps at Walmart.
4. Using a Physical Walmart Gift Card at a Walmart-Run Pump
A plastic Walmart gift card has a magnetic stripe, so at a Walmart Fuel & Convenience station it behaves like a prepaid debit card. Insert it (stripe down, toward the reader), choose Credit if the pump asks for a card type, pick your grade and pump. There is no minimum purchase and no separate fuel PIN. Three things trip people up:
The pre-authorization hold
Because the pump doesn't know how much fuel you'll take, it asks the card network to reserve a preset amount before the nozzle unlocks. Gift cards can't go negative, so a card holding less than the hold amount may be declined outright or capped at its remaining balance. If you are down to your last $20 or $30 of balance, skip the pump and prepay a fixed dollar amount inside. That request charges exactly what you ask for and nothing is held.
Split payments happen inside, not at the pump
Pumps take one card per transaction. If the card won't cover a full tank, the associate at the register can drain the gift card balance and take the rest on another card or cash, then authorize your pump number. Check the balance first at walmart.com/account/giftcards/balance or by calling 1-888-537-5503; Walmart's terms note the figure is an estimate and can lag a recent purchase.
A worn stripe fails at the pump before it fails at a register
Outdoor card readers are less forgiving than the scanners inside. If a card that works at self-checkout keeps getting “card read error” at the pump, walk in. The associate can scan the barcode on the back of the card instead of swiping it.
5. Walmart eGift Cards: Three Ways Around a Pump That Can't Scan
A Walmart eGift card arrives as a 16-digit card number, a PIN and a barcode. It has no magnetic stripe and no chip, and a fuel dispenser has no barcode scanner, so an eGift card physically cannot be redeemed at any pump, including Walmart's. Roughly one in four searches in this cluster is some version of “use walmart egift card for gas,” and the answer is always one of these three routes:
Pay inside, show the barcode
Walk into the Walmart Fuel & Convenience store, tell the associate your pump number and a dollar amount (or “fill it”), and hold the eGift barcode up to the register scanner. Walmart's own pay-inside flow for fuel is built around the associate scanning a barcode from your phone, so this is a standard transaction, not a favor. A printed copy of the email works too.
Load it into Walmart Pay
In the Walmart app open Account, then the settings gear, then Wallet, then “Add new payment method” and choose Gift Card. Enter the card number and the PIN from the email. At a Walmart-run pump scan the QR code on the pump screen; Walmart Pay applies saved gift card balance first by default and lets you tap to change to another card. This is the only way to use an eGift card at the pump itself.
Sam's Club pumps and Murphy USA
Sam's Club fuel centers are unattended, and Sam's Club's help center says plainly that “there is no way to scan barcode only gift cards at the pumps.” Murphy USA does not take Walmart gift cards in any form. If an eGift card is all you have and the nearest Walmart pump is a Murphy kiosk, spend the card on groceries and buy the gas with something else.
6. Sam's Club Gas: Accepted, With a Membership Catch
Sam's Club is a Walmart division, and Walmart's gift card terms cover Walmart and Sam's Club gift cards as one product. Sam's Club's fuel center policy states that Walmart and Sam's Club gift cards can be used at Sam's Club Fuel Centers, and even calls out the gift card as the way to buy more than $100 of fuel in a single transaction, since ordinary card purchases at Sam's pumps are capped. Our database lists 559 Sam's Club fuel centers in 44 states, led by Texas (78), Florida (45), California (28), Ohio (25) and Illinois (23). The conditions:
| Condition | What Sam's Club requires |
|---|---|
| Card type | Physical card with a magnetic stripe and PIN. Barcode-only eGift cards cannot be used at the pump. |
| Membership | Most fuel centers are members only; you scan your membership card before the payment card. Exceptions are fuel centers co-located with a Walmart store and states whose law requires public access. Walmart+ members also get member fuel pricing at Sam's without a Sam's membership. |
| Discount | 5 cents per gallon off for members and Walmart+ users, except in New Jersey, where state rules bar membership-based fuel discounts. Paying with a gift card neither adds to nor removes that discount. |
| Membership fees | Cannot be paid with a Walmart gift card, so the card won't get a non-member through the door. |
| If the pump declines | Sam's tells members to try another pump, then see the fuel attendant or Member Services desk inside the club. |
Live per-station prices for every fuel center are on our Sam's Club gas prices section. In August 2026 Sam's Club averaged the lowest regular unleaded of any Walmart-family brand we track.
7. There Is No Gift Card Gas Discount Anymore, and What Replaced It
Searches for “walmart gift card gas discount” still carry year tags from 2021 through 2025. Every one of them is chasing the promotion Murphy USA and Walmart retired in early 2022. Today a Walmart gift card buys fuel at the posted price. The savings programs that do exist are membership-based, and they stack with a gift card only at Walmart-run pumps:
| Program | Discount | Where | Can you pay with a Walmart gift card? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart+ ($98/yr or $12.95/mo) | 10¢/gal (5¢ in Alabama) | 13,000+ stations: Walmart, Murphy USA, Exxon, Mobil; member pricing at Sam's | At Walmart pumps, yes: scan the QR, pick the gift card in Walmart Pay. At Murphy, Exxon and Mobil, no. |
| Sam's Club membership | 5¢/gal (not in NJ) | Sam's Club fuel centers | Yes, physical card only. |
| Murphy Drive Rewards | Points and per-gallon offers vary | Murphy USA and Murphy Express | No. |
| Walmart gift card at Murphy (2012 to Jan 2022) | 3¢/gal | Ended | No longer accepted at all. |
One caution from Walmart's own instructions: on the new Nexus pumps at Walmart-run stations, the Walmart+ discount is applied only when you start the sale by scanning the QR code in the app. Inserting or tapping a card first, gift card included, forfeits the 10 cents. Our Walmart+ gas discount guide walks through the redemption flow at each brand and what the membership is worth at real pump prices.
8. Walmart Sells Gas Gift Cards Too, but Not for a Walmart Gift Card
A separate slice of this keyword cluster (“does walmart sell gas gift cards,” “shell gas gift card walmart”) is really shopping, not paying. Walmart's gift card racks and walmart.com carry cards for Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Texaco, Speedway and other fuel brands, in physical and eGift form. Those are the cards that work at a Shell or BP pump. Two constraints:
- You cannot buy them with a Walmart gift card. Section 7 of Walmart's terms lists “gift cards” among ineligible purchases, alongside precious metals and financial products, and section 11 bars combining several gift cards into a new one. The register enforces it. Converting a Walmart balance into Shell credit is not an option.
- The Walmart Visa Gift Card is a different product. It is a Visa prepaid card issued by Green Dot Bank, sold with a purchase fee of up to $5.44, and it works anywhere Visa debit is accepted in the 50 states and D.C. Its own FAQ says you can use it at gas stations, “but you must pay inside the Gas Station. You cannot use your Card to pay at the pump.” If your goal is fuel anywhere, this is the card to ask for, and you still walk inside.
9. Balance, Fine Print and the Scam Warning That Belongs in Every Gift Card Article
A few provisions in Walmart's August 2026 gift card terms change how you should handle the card at a fuel station:
- No expiration, no fees. The balance sits on the books of Wal-Mart Stores Arkansas, LLC or Wal-Mart Shopping Card Company indefinitely, so there is no reason to burn it on a bad fill-up price.
- Lost is lost. Walmart does not replace lost or stolen cards and disclaims liability if you share the number and PIN. Treat a card left on the pump island like cash left there.
- Small balances can be cashed out in 14 jurisdictions. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington require cash redemption once the balance drops under a state-set threshold. A register can do it; a pump cannot.
- Balance checks: the app Wallet, walmart.com/account/giftcards/balance, any register, or 1-888-537-5503 (weekdays 7 AM to 9 PM). Walmart's terms forbid using bots to poll balances, which is why the online checker asks for a captcha.
Nobody legitimate takes payment in Walmart gift cards
Walmart gift cards account for roughly 12 percent of all gift card scam reports to the Federal Trade Commission, second only to Apple. A caller who says a utility bill, a tax debt, a towed car or a “prepaid fuel account” can be settled by reading them the numbers off a Walmart gift card is running a scam, every time. The card is spendable at Walmart, Sam's Club and Walmart-run pumps, and nowhere else.
10. The Practical Playbook
Check the operator before you drive
Open the station page for the Walmart you're heading to. If it says “Fuel by Murphy USA,” your gift card is no good there. Our near-me finder lists the closest Walmart-family stations with today's prices.
Physical card and a healthy balance: use the pump
Insert, select Credit, pump. Walmart+ members should scan the pump QR first and choose the gift card inside Walmart Pay so the 10-cent discount and the gift card balance apply together.
eGift card, low balance or split payment: go inside
Give the associate your pump number and an exact amount. The barcode scans, the balance drains cleanly, and there is no hold to fight.
Stuck with a Murphy kiosk: spend the card in the store instead
You can't convert the balance to a fuel brand card, and Murphy won't take it. Use the gift card for the grocery run you were making anyway and pay Murphy with cash or a bank card, entering your Walmart+ discount ID if you have one.
See who runs the pumps at your Walmart, and what they charge today
Live prices for 1,549 Walmart fuel sites, 559 Sam's Club fuel centers and 556 standalone Murphy USA stations. Need help with Apple Pay or cash? See Walmart gas payment methods.