Guides to electricity bills and rates

Where to start

Most questions about electricity come back to one sum: the kilowatt-hours a home uses, times the price of each one, plus fixed charges and taxes. In 2025 the average US home used 874 kWh a month and paid $150.68¹. The guides below take that sum apart, one piece per guide, grouped by the question that usually brings people here.

Reading your bill

• What a kilowatt-hour is explains the unit every bill is charged in and how much one kWh costs from state to state.
• How to calculate electricity cost works through the arithmetic with EIA's own figures, and explains which price per kWh to use.
• Delivery vs supply charges separates the two halves of a bill: the wires that carry power to your meter and the electricity itself.
• Fixed charges and the customer charge explains the flat monthly amount billed even at zero use, and why it raises your price per kWh in mild months.
• Demand charges covers the kW line on business bills, which explains why two shops with the same kWh can pay very different amounts.

A bill that seems too high

• Why is my electric bill so high sorts the causes into more use, a higher price, fixed charges and the season, with steps to check your own bill.
• What uses the most electricity in a home shows how cooling, heating and water heating split a home's use, from EIA's 2020 household survey.
• Help paying your electric bill lists LIHEAP, utility discount programs and payment plans, and how much federal aid reaches each state.

Comparing prices between places

• Electricity costs when moving to another state explains why the bill, not the price per kWh, is the number to compare before a move.
• The cheapest electricity by state and average electric bill by state rankings, and the comparison tool, put the figures side by side.

Retail choice and suppliers

In 2025, 15.1%² of US residential customers bought their electricity from a supplier rather than from their utility.

• Regulated vs deregulated electricity explains who sells you power in each kind of state, and whether choice states pay less.
• Price to Compare explains the default supply price an offer has to beat, what it includes and how often it resets.
• The retail choice overview lists the states where households can choose and links to each state's official shopping site.

Solar, net metering and time of use

• Net metering explained covers how exports from rooftop solar are credited, how net billing differs, and where net-metered homes are most common.
• Time-of-use rates explains peak hours and peak rebates; 11.3%³ of US residential customers were on some form of time-varying pricing in 2025.

Rate increases

• Electric rate increases explains rate cases, fuel clauses and riders, and who approves each. Over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026, the average US residential price was 6.5%⁴ above the 12 months before.
• For the regional story behind the largest recent increases, read the insight on PJM capacity prices and electric bills; for the long view, electricity prices against inflation.

How the guides are written

Each guide answers one question people search, using EIA, Census and state utility commission data for its examples, with the period of every figure stated. The prices are averages: what customers paid in total divided by the kWh they used, so they include fixed charges and riders and are not a tariff line. None of the guides recommends a supplier or plan; where a decision depends on a current offer or tariff, the guide points to the official source. The methodology explains how each figure is built.