Riverside, CA to Phoenix, AZ: distance, drive time and fuel cost
It is about 357 miles from Riverside, CA to Phoenix, AZ, which is roughly 5 hr 57 min behind the wheel. Everything below is an estimate — see how it is worked out at the bottom of the page.
Estimated road distance
357miles
575 km
- Drive time
- 5 hr 57 min
- Average speed
- 60 mph
- Fuel cost
- $44
- Fuel used
- 14.1 gal
Cities along the way
Places within about 25 miles of the route from Riverside, CA to Phoenix, AZ, in the order you would reach them.
- Menifee, CA19 mi
- Indio, CA80 mi
- Blythe, CA189 mi
- Surprise, AZ338 mi
What the drive from Riverside to Phoenix is like
The route runs from Riverside, CA to Phoenix, AZ, crossing a single state line — California and Arizona. Speed limits and everyday driving rules are set state by state, so what is posted can change as you cross. At roughly 5 hr 57 min of driving this is a full day and worth planning as one. Two stops rather than one, and an early start, make the difference between arriving usable and arriving wrecked.
There are 4 towns of any size close to the line between the two cities, the first being Menifee, CA at about 19 miles in. That matters mostly for where you can stop: on a 5 hr 57 min drive the useful question is not how far it is but where the fuel, food and daylight run out.
Flying this route saves about 2 hr 50 min door to door once airport time is counted, so the drive is a choice rather than the obvious option — worth it if you want the car at the other end, or if you would rather see the 357 miles than sit them out.
What the fuel works out at, and what that figure assumes
357 miles at 25.4 miles per gallon is about 14.1 gallons, which comes to roughly $44 at $3.15 a gallon. Split between four people that is about $11.07 each, which is the comparison worth making before you look at a flight price rather than after. Two figures in that sentence are assumptions rather than facts about your trip: the price per gallon, reviewed 2026-08, and the consumption, which is a US fleet average. Both are published with the rest of the method under fuel cost assumptions.
The size of that assumption is easy to see on this route. A fifty-cent move in the pump price either way changes the total by about $7.03 — so read $44 as the middle of a range from roughly $37 to $51, not as a quote. A car that does noticeably better or worse than 25.4 mpg shifts it further, and neither figure includes tolls, which are charged on a good deal of the interstate network in the northeast and on individual bridges and tunnels elsewhere. Nothing on this page knows which tolls apply to a particular route, so none are counted.
For the same reason the 125 kg of CO₂ this drive implies is arithmetic on the fuel rather than a measurement: 14.1 gallons of gasoline at the EPA's figure of 8.89 kg per gallon. It is useful for comparing this route against flying it, or against a longer way round, and not useful as an absolute number.