What is the average electricity rate in the US?

18.16 cents per kWh for residential customers in August 2026, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier. The average monthly bill was $209.23 on 1,152 kWh of use. The cheapest state is Nevada at 12.72 cents and the most expensive is Hawaii at 47.18 cents.

How do I find my own electricity rate?

Divide the total on your bill by the kilowatt-hours used. That is the effective rate, including fixed charges and taxes. A bill of $209.23 for 1,152 kWh is 18.16 cents. A bill of $150 for 600 kWh is 25 cents, because the fixed charge is spread over fewer kilowatt-hours.

Does the EIA average include fixed charges?

Yes. The EIA's Table 5.6.A average is total residential revenue divided by total kilowatt-hours sold, so the monthly customer charge is spread across the kilowatt-hours. A household that uses very little electricity pays more per kilowatt-hour than the published number, not less.

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The current ledger · Table No. 47

How Much Does Electricity Cost per kWh?

The average American household paid 18.16 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2026, on a $209.23 average bill, but no state pays the average: Nevada pays 12.72 cents and Hawaii 47.18. This article states the number, the spread, and how to read your own bill.

Filed November 4, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

The short answer

The average American household paid 18.16 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity in August 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, which is the most recent month the EIA has published. That is up 3.4 percent from August 2025, when the average was about 17.56 cents, and the average monthly bill was $209.23 on 1,152 kilowatt-hours of use. The rate is the price of one kilowatt-hour, which is the energy a 1,000-watt appliance uses in one hour, and the bill is the rate times the kilowatt-hours, plus the fixed charges, and the average household's 1,152 kilowatt-hours at 18.16 cents is $209.20, which is three cents short of the $209.23 average bill, because the EIA's average bill is revenue divided by the number of customer accounts, not use times price, and the two figures are computed differently, which is the first of several ways the published average can confuse a reader who multiplies it against their own use and expects their own bill.

The average is also only a starting point, because no state pays it. The cheapest residential electricity in the country is in Nevada, at 12.72 cents, followed by Louisiana at 12.87, North Dakota and Utah at 13.31, Idaho at 13.37, and Tennessee at 13.42, and the most expensive is in Hawaii, at 47.18 cents, followed by Maine at 32.11, Massachusetts at 30.48, California at 29.75, Alaska at 29.41, and New York at 28.65. The spread between Nevada and Hawaii is 3.71 times, which means the same 1,500-watt space heater running 8 hours a day costs $46.30 a month in Nevada and $171.74 in Hawaii, for the identical heater and the identical hours, and the same air conditioner, the same dryer, and the same refrigerator all cost 3.71 times more in Honolulu than in Las Vegas, because the rate is the price, and the rate is set by the state, not by the appliance. The household that wants to know what electricity costs should look up its own state's rate first, and its own bill's rate second, because the state average is the ranking, and the bill is the price.

State	Rate, ¢/kWh	Heater, $/month	vs. US average
Nevada	12.72	$46.30	30% below
Louisiana	12.87	$46.85	29% below
North Dakota	13.31	$48.45	27% below
Texas	15.91	$57.91	12% below
United States	18.16	$66.10	—
New York	28.65	$104.29	58% above
California	29.75	$108.29	64% above
Maine	32.11	$116.88	77% above
Hawaii	47.18	$171.74	160% above

The heater column prices the same appliance in each state, a 1,500-watt heater, 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, 364 kilowatt-hours a month, so the differences are the differences in the rates, not in the use. The table is the reason the calculator on this site carries a state picker: the national average is the wrong rate for nearly everyone, and the state average is the right starting point, and the bill's own rate is the right rate, because the bill is the price the household actually pays, and the state average is the price the state's households pay on average, which is not the same number.

What the EIA number actually measures

The EIA's Table 5.6.A is the most quoted electricity price in the country, and the most misread, because it is not a tariff. It is an average computed from money and volume that utilities already reported: total residential revenue divided by total residential kilowatt-hours sold, for the state and the month. That means the fixed charges are in it, because the monthly customer charge is revenue, and it is spread across the kilowatt-hours sold, so a household that uses very little electricity pays more per kilowatt-hour than the published number, not less, because the fixed charge is divided by fewer kilowatt-hours, and a household that uses a great deal pays less per kilowatt-hour, because the fixed charge is divided by more. It also means the average bill is not a typical bill, because it is revenue divided by the number of customer accounts, so a state with many small apartments and a state with many large houses can share a price and differ sharply in bills, and usage, not rates, drives most of that gap. Alabama's average bill in August 2026 was $253.96 on 1,555 kilowatt-hours, at 16.33 cents, while Alaska's was $139.22 on 473 kilowatt-hours, at 29.41 cents, which is the point in one comparison: Alaska's rate is 80 percent higher, and Alaska's bill is 45 percent lower, because Alaskans use a third of the electricity Alabamians use, and the bill is the rate times the use.

The EIA releases the Electric Power Monthly around the 25th of each month, reporting a month that closed about two months before, because utilities file Form EIA-861M after their own billing cycles have closed, so the August 2026 figures, released in late October 2026, are the most recent the EIA has published, and no official U.S. source carries a current-month national average. The figures are also revised, because the EIA restates earlier months as late filings arrive, so a number quoted from an old release may not match the current one. July 2026 was 18.31 cents, up 4.9 percent from July 2025, and May 2026 was 18.44 cents, and April 2026 was 18.9 cents, and the month-to-month moves mostly measure the weather, because electricity use is seasonal and summer is the peak, which is why the year-earlier comparison is the one that matters: August 2026 against August 2025 is 3.4 percent, and the states that moved most were Hawaii, up 22.5 percent, Maine, up 14.1 percent, New Hampshire, up 13.1 percent, and the District of Columbia, up 12.1 percent, while Connecticut fell 18.8 percent, California fell 3.8 percent, and Florida fell 2.2 percent, which are the moves of local fuel costs, local regulation, and local weather, not of a national trend.

Why the rate differs by state

The rate differs because the cost of making and delivering a kilowatt-hour differs, and the differences are physical before they are political. Hawaii is the most expensive because it is an island system that burns imported oil for much of its generation, and oil is the most expensive fuel for a power plant, and the fuel has to be shipped across an ocean, and the grid is small, so there is no neighbour to buy cheap power from, which is why Hawaii's rate is 47.18 cents and its average use is only 570 kilowatt-hours a month, the lowest in the country, because Hawaiians use less, partly because the rate teaches them to. Maine is second at 32.11 cents, and Massachusetts third at 30.48, and the New England states cluster at the top, because they import their fuel, they have constrained transmission, and they retire old plants faster than they build new ones, while Idaho is cheap at 13.37 cents and Washington at 14.63, because they have hydroelectric dams that were built decades ago and now generate at close to the cost of the water, and Louisiana is cheap at 12.87 because it has abundant natural gas and a warm climate that keeps heating demand low, and Nevada is cheapest at 12.72 because it has cheap gas, cheap solar, and a regulatory structure that passes the savings through.

The generation mix is the largest driver, and it is visible in the ranking: the hydro states are cheap, the oil states are expensive, and the gas states sit in the middle, and the states with the most renewables are not yet the cheapest, because the transmission and the backup still cost money, though the direction is clear, and the states that build cheap generation faster than they retire expensive generation will fall in the ranking, and the states that do the reverse will rise. Regulation is the second driver: some states let customers shop for their supply rate, and some do not, and the deregulated states, Texas among them at 15.91 cents, show a spread within the state that the average hides, because the average is the average of the plans, not the price of any one plan, and a household in a deregulated market can pay materially more or less than the state average by choosing a plan, which is the reason the bill's own rate matters more than the state's.

The new insight

The rate is not the bill, and the bill is not the rate, and the confusion between the two is the most expensive misunderstanding in household energy. The rate is the price of one kilowatt-hour, 18.16 cents on average, and the bill is the rate times the use, $209.23 on average, and the use is 1,152 kilowatt-hours, and the use is the part the household controls, while the rate is the part the state controls, and the household that wants a smaller bill should look at the use first, because the use is 1,152 kilowatt-hours and the rate is 18.16 cents, and cutting the use by 10 percent saves $20.92 a month, while cutting the rate by 10 percent saves the same $20.92, except the household cannot cut its own rate, and it can cut its own use, by running the heater 4 hours instead of 8, which saves $33.05 a month, and by drying 5 loads a week instead of 10 at 5,000 watts, which saves $177.06 a year, and the rate is the context, and the use is the lever, and the bill is the product of the two.

How to find your real rate

The real rate is on the bill, and the way to find it is to divide the total by the kilowatt-hours used: the total, including the fixed charges and the taxes, divided by the kilowatt-hours, is the effective rate, and it is the rate to enter in the calculator on this site, because it is the rate the household actually pays per kilowatt-hour, including everything. A bill of $209.23 for 1,152 kilowatt-hours is 18.16 cents, which is the national average, and a bill of $150 for 600 kilowatt-hours is 25 cents, which is higher than the average, because the fixed charge is spread over fewer kilowatt-hours, and a bill of $300 for 2,000 kilowatt-hours is 15 cents, which is lower, because the fixed charge is spread over more. The bill also separates the supply charge from the delivery charge, and the two together are the rate, and the supply is the cost of the electricity and the delivery is the cost of the wires, and in a deregulated market the household can shop the supply and not the delivery, which is the reason the supply line is the one to compare across plans, and the total is the one to compare across months.

The practical use of the rate is to price the appliances, and the formula is short: watts times hours divided by 1,000 is kilowatt-hours, and kilowatt-hours times the rate is the cost. A 1,500-watt heater, 8 hours a day, is 12 kilowatt-hours a day, and at 18.16 cents that is $2.18 a day, $15.25 a week, $66.10 a month, and $793.23 a year, and at the Nevada rate of 12.72 cents it is $1.53 a day and $46.30 a month, and at the Hawaii rate of 47.18 cents it is $5.66 a day and $171.74 a month, and the three are the same heater, which is the point: the rate is the price, and the price is the state, and the household that knows its rate knows its bill, and the household that does not is guessing, and the guess is usually wrong by the fixed charges, which are the part the rate hides.

Sources

U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, August 2026 (released October 2026): U.S. residential average 18.16 cents per kWh, up 3.4 percent from August 2025; average monthly bill $209.23 on 1,152 kWh of use; state rates from 12.72 cents (Nevada) to 47.18 cents (Hawaii); year-earlier changes Hawaii +22.5 percent, Maine +14.1 percent, New Hampshire +13.1 percent, District of Columbia +12.1 percent, Connecticut -18.8 percent, California -3.8 percent, Florida -2.2 percent. EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, July 2026: U.S. average 18.31 cents, up 4.9 percent from 17.45 cents in July 2025; Hawaii 48.00 cents, Louisiana 12.72 cents. EIA methodology: the average price is total revenue divided by total kilowatt-hours sold, so it includes fixed charges and is a statewide average, not a single tariff; the average bill is revenue divided by the number of customer accounts; the report is published around the 25th of each month, reporting a month that closed about two months before. State bill and use figures: Alabama $253.96 on 1,555 kWh at 16.33 cents; Alaska $139.22 on 473 kWh at 29.41 cents; Hawaii $269.05 on 570 kWh; Texas $265.58 on 1,670 kWh at 15.91 cents. All calculator figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model.