A business in the part of Texas that chooses its electricity provider shops the way a home does: same wires, same meter on the wall, same right to pick any provider that serves the address. Almost everything else is different. The plans on offer are a separate lineup, the utility charges a different delivery rate, the state taxes the bill, the label prices different amounts, and most of what is for sale is never listed anywhere. This guide walks through each difference and ends with how to compare a quote with a published plan.
Who counts as a small business
Two lines matter, and different people draw them. The Public Utility Commission calls any non-residential account with a peak demand under 50 kilowatts a small commercial customer and gives it the protections a home gets: an Electricity Facts Label for every plan, a Terms of Service document, the right to cancel a new contract within three federal business days, a written notice at least 14 days before a fixed-rate contract ends (a home gets at least 30), and the same 14 days at the end during which no termination fee applies. The delivery utility draws a lower line for its own charges: Oncor and AEP Texas at 10 kW, CenterPoint at 10 kVA (near enough the same thing), TNMP at 5 kW. At or below that line a business pays a monthly charge plus a charge per kWh, like a home. Above it the utility adds a charge per kW of peak demand, which changes how a plan has to be priced. This site prices the class below the line, which covers most offices, shops, salons, small churches and the like; the demand-charge guide explains how to tell which side of the line your account is on.
The plans are a separate lineup
Providers sell business plans apart from their home plans, and a home plan can’t be put on a business meter or the other way round: the utility records each meter as residential or commercial, and the provider enrolls it as one or the other. The business lineup tends to be plainer. Most plans are flat-rate, bill-credit designs are rare, terms run from 12 to 60 months, and a sign-up credit on a long term is common. A few time-of-use and month-to-month variable plans exist; this site lists them without ranking them, for the same reasons as at home. As of November 2026, 118 small-business plans with a label are published online across the six utility areas, and the small-business rates page prices every one of them.
The label prices different amounts
A small-commercial Electricity Facts Label looks like a home one and follows the same rules, but its average-price table is set at 1,500, 2,500 and 3,500 kWh a month instead of 500, 1,000 and 2,000. Some labels print two rows of averages, one for non-demand meters and one for meters with a demand charge; the non-demand row is the one for the class priced here. The same caution applies as at home: the average price at a usage level you don’t match tells you little, and the cheapest-looking label is not reliably the cheapest plan on your months. How to read a label covers the rest.
The delivery charge is different
Each utility bills business meters under its own rate class, and the numbers differ from a home’s: a different monthly charge and a different charge per kWh. Every price on this site’s business pages and results includes the small-commercial charge of the right utility, so the totals are what the bill would show before tax. Like a home’s, these charges change a few times a year, on every plan alike, and a fixed-rate plan does not fix them.
Sales tax
Home electricity is exempt from state sales tax in Texas. Business electricity is not: the whole bill is taxed at the state rate plus the local rate, up to 8.25 percent, unless the business holds an exemption certificate. Nonprofits, churches, schools and manufacturers can usually get one; everyone else pays. Because the tax is the same share of every plan’s bill, it never changes which plan is cheapest, which is why this site shows business prices before tax. The sales-tax guide has the rates, the exemptions and the form.
Deposits, guarantees and credit
A provider may check the business’s credit, and for a new business with no history it often asks for a deposit or for the owner to guarantee the account. That is ordinary and negotiable, and a year of on-time payments usually gets a deposit refunded with interest. Have the business’s legal name, its tax ID and the ESI ID from the current bill ready when you enroll.
Listed plans and quoted plans
Here is the biggest difference. Nearly every home plan in Texas is published with a label anyone can read. Most business electricity is sold by quote: you call, or a broker calls you, and a price is made for your account. Brokers are paid by the provider, usually as a fraction of a cent on every kWh for the life of the contract, and that is built into the price you are quoted. None of this is wrong, but it means the published plans are the only prices you can check without asking, and they are the yardstick a quote should be measured against.
When you get a quote, ask for five things in writing: the Electricity Facts Label or price sheet for the exact product, the term, the base charge, whether the utility’s delivery charges are included in the price or passed through on top, and the early termination fee. Business fees are often written as a charge per remaining month or per kWh left on the contract rather than a flat amount, and can run to hundreds of dollars on a long term. Ask too whether the contract has a usage bandwidth: a clause that reprices kWh above or below a band around your expected usage. Published small-business plans don’t have one; some quoted contracts do.
Comparing a quote with the ranking
Price the quote the way this site prices a plan: for each of your last 12 months, the energy charge times that month’s kWh, plus the base charge, plus the utility’s monthly charge and per-kWh delivery charge if they are not already in the price. Add up the 12 months. Then run the business’s bill through this site and look at the cheapest full-year plan in the ranking. A quote that beats it on the same months is a good quote; one that doesn’t is a reason to take the published plan, or to ask the broker again.
Nonprofits, churches and schools
For the utility and the provider, a nonprofit is a business: a commercial meter, business plans, business delivery charges. The difference is the tax. An organization with a Comptroller exemption gives the provider an exemption certificate and pays no sales tax, which makes the before-tax prices on this site its actual prices. A 501(c)(3) letter from the IRS is not enough on its own; the state exemption is a separate, free application.
What to do
- Find 12 months of kWh. Business bills print a usage history as home bills do, and Smart Meter Texas works for a business meter too.
- Check the delivery section of the bill for a demand or kW line. None means the small class, and this site’s prices apply.
- Upload the bill or type the 12 months, pick “A small business” when asked (a business bill picks it for you), and read the ranking.
- Get a quote or two and price them on the same months.
- Enroll on the provider’s site; nobody needs to visit. If the business is tax-exempt, send the new provider the exemption certificate too.