Average electric bill in Texas: how many kWh a home uses and what it costs

The average Texas home used 1,096 kWh of electricity a month in 2024 and paid $163.72 for it, an average of 14.94¢ per kWh, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is 27% more electricity than the average American home, bought at a price 9% below the national average, for a bill 15% higher. Texas bills are high because Texas homes use a lot of electricity, not because the electricity is expensive. Most of the difference is air conditioning.

Texas against the rest of the country

Among the states, Texas ranks sixth highest for usage, behind Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida, and sixth highest for the monthly bill, behind Hawaii, Connecticut, Alabama, Massachusetts and Maryland. On price per kWh it ranks 24th, in the middle of the country. The pattern holds in the latest monthly figures: in August 2026 Texas homes paid a preliminary 15.91¢ per kWh against 18.16¢ nationally, up from 15.40¢ and 17.57¢ a year earlier.

The EIA price is what Texans actually paid, every plan and every utility together, divided by every kWh sold. It includes homes sitting on expired-contract holdover rates, and it includes the municipal utilities, co-ops and regulated utilities that serve the roughly 15% of Texans who cannot choose a provider. It is a yardstick for your own average price, not an offer you can sign up for. For comparison, the Public Utility Commission’s survey of 12-month fixed offers in September 2024 found averages of 13.86¢ to 15.88¢ depending on the delivery area.

Why the bill is high and the price isn’t

Cooling. Texas homes run air conditioning from late spring into autumn, and in the hottest weeks it runs most of the day. The whole grid shows it: ERCOT’s monthly energy rises about 35% from April to August, and demand hit an all-time record of 91,134 MW on July 22, 2026. January is the highest month outside summer, the mark of electric heat in part of the housing stock. Everything else in the house, the lights, the refrigerator, the television, the laundry, is roughly what it would be anywhere else.

So a Texas bill is an ordinary price multiplied by an unusual number of kilowatt-hours. That has a practical consequence: a cheaper plan saves you on every one of those kWh, and the saving is biggest in the months the bill hurts most.

How many kWh a Texas house uses each month

The statewide average hides the shape of the year. The EIA’s monthly series puts the average Texas home at 826 kWh in April and 1,508 kWh in August: about 1.8 times as much, and nearly twice November’s 807 kWh. In 2024 the swing was wider, 762 kWh in March to 1,570 in August.

June through September account for about 42% of the year’s electricity. That is why a plan priced at a steady 1,000 kWh tells you so little: no month looks like that, and the four that matter most are all well above it. The high-bill guide goes through what a summer bill does to credits, tiers and minimum-usage fees.

One oddity worth knowing: the price per kWh Texans paid in 2025 was lowest in January, 14.63¢, and highest in October, 16.03¢. The price is highest in low-usage months because monthly charges are spread over fewer kWh. It says nothing about which month is a good one to sign a contract in.

What different homes use

Every Electricity Facts Label quotes an average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month, and those three levels are a fair map of Texas housing. The statewide average of 1,096 kWh sits just above the middle one.

These are averages for the year. On the statewide shape, a house that averages 1,000 kWh sees about 1,359 kWh on its August bill and about 744 in April. Your own twelve numbers beat any table; here is where to find them.

What a year costs on this month’s cheapest plans

The plans we track, priced month by month on a real seasonal year in Dallas–Fort Worth with Oncor’s delivery charges included, come out like this for the three sizes of home as of November 2026:

Estimates for the Oncor delivery area only, before sales tax. The other five delivery utilities charge different amounts, so the same plan costs more or less in Houston or Corpus Christi; the rates pages have each area, and the current delivery charges are on one page.

For the typical home, the cheapest plan this month is True Value 12 from True Power, at an all-in 12.0¢ per kWh, below the 14.94¢ the average Texan paid in 2024. The most expensive full-year plan we track would cost the same home $2,143 a year more. That gap is the plan, not the house. If you are in Dallas–Fort Worth, the Dallas guide looks at that area alone.

Check your own bill against the averages

• Find your kWh for the last 12 months: on the bill, in your provider’s app, or at Smart Meter Texas.
• Compare your August with your April. A swing of about 1.8 times is normal; a much bigger one points at the air conditioner or the house, not the plan.
• Divide a bill’s total by its kWh. If your price is well above 14.94¢, and above the all-in price in the table for your size of home, the plan is the problem.
• Check the plan name and contract end date on the bill. An expired contract on a holdover rate is the most common reason a Texas bill is far above average.

Or let the numbers do it: upload a bill or type in your 12 monthly kWh figures, and WattaWatt prices every plan sold where you live on your own year.