How much does a kilowatt-hour of electricity cost?

A kilowatt-hour of electricity costs about 19.6¢ on average in U.S. cities as of August 2026, the latest month published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Is the price of electricity going up or down?

Up over the past year. The average was 19.0¢ in August 2025 and 19.6¢ in August 2026, a change of +3.2%.

What is a normal price for a kilowatt-hour of electricity?

Over the past 31 months the price has usually been between 17.7¢ and 19.0¢ per kWh, with a median of 18.1¢.

What were the highest and lowest prices of electricity recently?

In the past 31 months the highest monthly average was 19.8¢ in June 2026 and the lowest was 17.3¢ in April 2024.

Typical Cost of a Kilowatt-Hour of Electricity

On this page

The answer
How the price has moved
Month by month
What this figure is
Common questions
Source

About 19.6¢ per kWh in August 2026, the latest month published. This is the U.S. city average.

Latest price

19.6¢

per kWh, August 2026

From the month before

−0.1¢

−0.5%19.7¢ in Jul 2026

From a year earlier

+0.6¢

+3.2%19.0¢ in Aug 2025

How the price has moved

Monthly averages from January 2024 to August 2026. The lowest was 17.3¢ in April 2024 and the highest 19.8¢ in June 2026.

Where August 2026 sits among those months

Each tick is one month. The highlighted band holds the middle half of them, and the dark line is the median.

Month by month

Month	Average price	From the month before
August 2026	19.6¢	−0.5%
July 2026	19.7¢	−0.5%
June 2026	19.8¢	+1.0%
May 2026	19.6¢	+1.0%
April 2026	19.4¢	+2.1%
March 2026	19.0¢	+0.5%
February 2026	18.9¢	−1.6%
January 2026	19.2¢	+1.6%
December 2025	18.9¢	0.0%
November 2025	18.9¢	Month before not published
September 2025	18.8¢	−1.1%
August 2025	19.0¢	+0.5%
July 2025	18.9¢	−0.5%
June 2025	19.0¢	+4.4%
May 2025	18.2¢	+0.6%
April 2025	18.1¢	0.0%
March 2025	18.1¢	+1.1%
February 2025	17.9¢	0.0%
January 2025	17.9¢	+1.7%
December 2024	17.6¢	0.0%
November 2024	17.6¢	−0.6%
October 2024	17.7¢	−0.6%
September 2024	17.8¢	+0.6%
August 2024	17.7¢	−0.6%
July 2024	17.8¢	0.0%
June 2024	17.8¢	+1.7%
May 2024	17.5¢	+1.2%
April 2024	17.3¢	−0.6%
March 2024	17.4¢	+0.6%
February 2024	17.3¢	0.0%
January 2024	17.3¢	Month before not published

What this figure is

This is the average price the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes for the item it describes as “Electricity per KWH”. It is an average across U.S. cities and is not adjusted for the season, so it can rise and fall with the time of year. Prices at your own store can be higher or lower.

When a month is missing from the table, BLS did not publish a figure for it. Nothing is filled in or estimated.

Common questions

How much does a kilowatt-hour of electricity cost?: A kilowatt-hour of electricity costs about 19.6¢ on average in U.S. cities as of August 2026, the latest month published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Is the price of electricity going up or down?: Up over the past year. The average was 19.0¢ in August 2025 and 19.6¢ in August 2026, a change of +3.2%.
What is a normal price for a kilowatt-hour of electricity?: Over the past 31 months the price has usually been between 17.7¢ and 19.0¢ per kWh, with a median of 18.1¢.
What were the highest and lowest prices of electricity recently?: In the past 31 months the highest monthly average was 19.8¢ in June 2026 and the lowest was 17.3¢ in April 2024.

Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data

Covers January 2024 to August 2026. Retrieved on October 6, 2026.

See this series at BLS

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, retrieved through the BLS Public Data API. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.