Average Electric Bill by State: What Homes Actually Paid in the Last 12 Months

Is your bill high? Check it against your state

Pick your state and the month your bill covers, and type the total. You get the average bill for that state in that month, how far off you are, and roughly how many kWh your bill buys at the state's average price.

Monthly averages are August 2025 to July 2026, from EIA-861M1. Your kWh is an estimate: your utility's price can be above or below the state average, and the kWh line on your bill is the real number.

Why every "average electric bill" number disagrees

Search this and you get $142, $158 and more, all quoting the same agency. Many sites take one month's price per kWh and multiply it by an old year's usage. EIA's own official figure, $142.26 a month for 20242, is the most solid but is close to two years old by now.

We went to the monthly file EIA collects from utilities and retail suppliers: residential revenue, kWh sold and customers, state by state, through July 20261. Twelve months of revenue divided by the average number of customers, divided by 12, is what the typical home actually paid, with summer and winter both counted once.

July costs two-thirds more than November

Air conditioning drives the year. The US average bill in Jul 2026 was $212, 69% more than in Nov 2025. Winter brings a second, smaller peak from electric heat.

The most expensive states

Average monthly bill over the last 12 months:

The cheapest

A high price per kWh does not mean a high bill

California has one of the highest electricity prices in the country, 33.0 cents a kWh, and its average bill is still $160.84, close to the middle. The typical home there uses only 488 kWh a month. Tennessee pays less than half the price, 13.6 cents, but the typical home uses 1,198 kWh, so its bill is $162.481.

Southern states with cheap power and long summers (Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Florida) land near the top of the bill ranking. New England and New York pay some of the highest prices and use among the least power. Hawaii's price, 43.5 cents, is so high that even modest use gives it the biggest bill in the country.

Worked example: a Riverside County home in July

Summer is when Inland Empire bills hurt. The average California home paid $192 in Jul 20261. A house running central air that used 1,200 kWh that month, at the state's 12-month average price of 33.0 cents, would see:

Your utility's tiers and time-of-use rates move the real number. The state average blends every utility and plan.

Where bills rose fastest

Bills went up in 46 of 51 places (the states and DC) over the past year. The US price rose from 16.9 to 18.0 cents a kWh1. The biggest jumps in the 12-month average bill:

Where the bill swings most through the year

Gap between the cheapest and the most expensive month for the average home in the last 12 months. Budget for the high month, not the average:

How to bring the number down

• Read the kWh, not the dollars. Compare this month's kWh with the same month last year on your bill. If use is flat and the bill rose, it is the rate; if use rose, it is the house.
• Ask about budget billing. Many utilities will spread the year into equal payments, which takes the sting out of a $212 Jul.
• Check your rate plan. If your utility offers time-of-use rates, running the dryer, dishwasher and EV charger after the peak window is the cheapest fix there is.
• Start with cooling and heating. The monthly chart shows where the money goes: an old AC, leaky ducts or electric resistance heat are the usual reasons a home sits far above its state average.

Average electric bill in every state

Average residential bill per month, August 2025 to July 20261, with the kWh used and the price paid per kWh. "Highest month" is the single costliest month in that window; "vs a year earlier" compares with the 12 months before. The last column is EIA's official 2024 figure2. On a phone the highest-month and 2024 columns are hidden.

The calculator above has every state's month-by-month bill. The middle state averages $155.93.

How we got these numbers

EIA's Form EIA-861M collects monthly residential revenue, kWh sales and customer counts from a sample of utilities and retail energy providers and estimates the rest of each state3. We added up August 2025 through July 2026 for each state, divided revenue by the average customer count over those months and by 12, and divided revenue by kWh for the price. These months are still marked preliminary and EIA revises them when the full annual survey comes in. EIA's 2024 Table 5A uses the full annual survey2, so it is the check: the same math on the final 2024 monthly numbers matches its bill for every state to the cent. The US line adds all 50 states and DC. Source files: the EIA electricity sales, revenue and price page.