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Texas electricity cost: a below-average price, an above-average bill
Texas is the mirror image of New York. Residential electricity averaged 14.94¢ per kWh in 2024 — about 9% below the 16.48¢ U.S. average — and the July 2026 snapshot, at 15.88¢, stayed below the national monthly figure as well. Yet the average Texas monthly bill was $163.72, about 15% above the U.S. average of $142.26, because the average Texas home used 1,096 kWh a month, 27% more than the national average. In Texas the bill is a usage story, not a price story: air conditioning across a long, hot season, in large homes, overwhelms a modest per-unit discount.
| Texas at a glance | Figure (with source period) |
|---|---|
| Average electricity price (2024) | 14.94¢ per kWh — U.S. average 16.48¢ |
| Latest monthly snapshot (July 2026, preliminary) | 15.88¢ per kWh |
| Average electricity use (2024) | 1,096 kWh per month — U.S. average 863 kWh |
| Average monthly electric bill (2024) | $163.72 — U.S. average $142.26 |
| West South Central division price (July 2026) | 15.21¢ per kWh (TX, OK, AR, LA blended) |
| Natural gas, residential delivered (2024) | $17.98 per Mcf (about $1.73 per therm) — U.S. average $14.50 |
| Propane (week of Oct 19, 2026) | $3.137 per gallon — U.S. average $2.689; heating oil not surveyed for Texas |
Enter your own monthly kWh and price them at the Texas average — then try the U.S. average usage to see how much of the Texas bill is air conditioning, not price.
Open the energy cost calculatorUsage is the bill: cooling, size, and the summer peak
EIA's own summer analysis explains the shape of the Texas number: air conditioning accounts for about 18% of annual household electricity use nationally, nearly nine in ten U.S. homes are air-conditioned, and monthly consumption typically peaks in July and August. Texas sits at the extreme of every one of those drivers — a cooling season that runs far beyond two months, large detached homes, and widespread electric cooling — which is why its 1,096 kWh average keeps company with Louisiana (1,202), Mississippi (1,156) and Florida (1,104) at the top of the usage table rather than with the low-use coastal states. RECS adds the household context: West South Central homes used 69.0 MMBtu of site energy a year and spent $1,799 — below the national use average, because Texas winters ask little of heating fuels, even as the electric meter runs hard all summer. The practical reading of the Table 5A row is therefore inverted from the Northeast's: a Texas household hunting savings gains more from usage — insulation, cooling efficiency, thermostat discipline — than from chasing a fractionally cheaper per-kWh plan, because at 1,096 kWh a month each cent per kWh is worth about $10.96 a month (arithmetic on the published usage).
What the Texas price does to electric decisions
At 14.94¢, the kilowatt-hour-priced decisions land close to national norms. Home EV charging, from this site's EV guide: a 60 kWh full charge costs $8.96 in Texas against $9.89 at the U.S. average, and 1,000 miles at the labeled 3.0 miles-per-kWh assumption costs $49.80 against $54.93. Electric heat is the winter mirror: a million Btu of electricity costs about $43.78 before efficiency (arithmetic on EIA's 3,412 Btu per kWh), and with a heat pump's efficiency multiplier that undercuts delivered gas — which, counterintuitively, cost $17.98 per Mcf in Texas in 2024, about $17.34 per million Btu before furnace efficiency, as our Texas natural gas deep-dive examines. EIA's Winter Fuels Outlook forecasts South-region households to spend $511 this winter heating with gas, $1,079 with electricity and $1,164 with propane (November through March) — modest winter numbers that confirm the Texas energy year is won or lost in summer, not winter.
The surrounding fuels, and one honest gap
Texas propane, at $3.137 a gallon in EIA's October 19, 2026 survey week, priced 17% above the U.S. average — a reminder that delivered fuels do not follow the state's producing-state reputation either. Heating oil is the gap: Texas is not among the 21 states in EIA's heating-oil survey, so no state average exists and this site publishes none; oil heat is rare enough in Texas that the survey's absence is itself information. The state-level starting point remains our Texas state guide; this page is the electricity deep-dive behind it, paired with the Texas natural gas deep-dive for the other half of the Texas bill.
Sources: EIA — Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861) · EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (July 2026) · EIA — Natural Gas Annual 2024, Table 23 (Form EIA-176) · EIA — Heating Oil and Propane Update (week of October 19, 2026) · EIA — Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2026 · EIA — Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020, Table CE1.1 · EIA — Today in Energy, summer residential electricity use (RECS-based). Last verified: October 2026 — energy prices move with seasons and markets; confirm the current rate on your own bill.
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Texas energy costs (state guide) · Texas natural gas cost in depth · Summer cooling costs · EV home charging cost by state · Electricity prices & average bills by state