The average electric bill in Texas was about $163.72 a month as of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That runs higher than the national average, but the reason surprises most people. It is not the rate. Texas electricity is cheaper per unit than the U.S. average. Bills run high because Texas homes use a lot of it.
Short answer: The average Texas household paid roughly $163.72 a month for electricity in 2024 (EIA), compared with $144 nationally. The Texas rate, 14.94 cents per kWh in 2024 (EIA), is actually below the U.S. average of 16.5 cents. Bills are higher because the typical Texas home used about 1,096 kWh a month in 2024 (EIA), roughly 27% more than the national 865 kWh, mostly to run air conditioning through long, hot summers.
That gap between a low rate and a high bill is the whole story, and it changes what you should do about it. Below is the sourced breakdown, plus the honest version of what actually moves a Texas bill.
What the average Texas electric bill actually is
The figure to anchor on is $163.72 a month, the average residential bill in Texas as of 2024 (EIA). For comparison, the national average that year was $144. So a typical Texas home paid about 14% more than the typical U.S. home.
Treat that number as a midpoint, not a target. An average flattens enormous variation. A one-bedroom apartment in a mild month and a four-bedroom house in August can both be "Texas," and their bills are nowhere near each other. Your own bill depends on your home size, your insulation, how you set the thermostat, and which retail plan you signed. The average is useful as a benchmark, not a prediction.
One more note on vintage. EIA data lags by a year or more, so 2024 is the most recent full-year figure available. Rates and bills shift, but the structural story below has held for years.
Why Texas bills run high: usage, not rate
Here is the part most electricity sites get backwards. The average Texas rate was 14.94 cents per kWh in 2024 (EIA). The national average was 16.5 cents. Texans pay less per unit of electricity than most of the country.
What drives the higher bill is volume. The average Texas home used about 1,096 kWh a month in 2024 (EIA), against a national average of 865 kWh. That is roughly 27% more electricity. The cause is climate and housing: long, hot summers mean months of heavy air conditioning, and Texas homes trend larger than the national average, with more space to cool.
So when a Texas bill spikes, the usual culprit is kilowatt-hours, not the price per kilowatt-hour. We break down the seasonal version of this in why your electric bill is so high, and the air-conditioning math is the core of how to lower your bill in summer. It matters because the fix for a usage problem is different from the fix for a rate problem.
How your bill breaks down by home size and season
Two factors swing a Texas bill the most: the size of your home and the time of year. EIA does not publish a Texas average split by apartment versus house, so the figures below are illustrative estimates, not measured averages. They simply apply the state's roughly 15 cents per kWh rate to typical usage bands.
- Apartment or small home (about 600 to 900 kWh/month): roughly $90 to $135 a month as an illustration. Our average apartment electric bill guide goes deeper on small-space usage.
- Mid-size to large home (about 1,200 to 1,600 kWh/month): roughly $180 to $240 a month as an illustration.
Again, those are illustrative ranges to show how usage drives the bill, not official segment averages. The seasonal swing is just as large. A bill in a mild April can be a fraction of the same home's August bill, because air conditioning is the single biggest load in a Texas summer. The annual average of $163.72 hides months that run well above it and months that run well below.
What you can actually do about a high Texas bill
A Texas bill has two levers, and an honest answer pulls both. The first is usage, which is where most of the savings live for a high-bill home. Tightening up cooling, thermostat habits, and insulation works on the 1,096-kWh side of the equation. The bridge guides above walk through the specifics.
The second lever is your plan. Because Texas is deregulated in most of the state, you choose your retail provider, and the rate you pay can sit well below the 14.94-cent state average. The competitive clean fixed-rate plans we track in Texas have run around 11.70 cents per kWh. That is our tracked figure from current plan data, not an EIA average, and it reflects honest fixed plans with no bill-credit gimmicks.
Switching to a lower rate is real money, but be clear about what it does. It lowers the price per kWh. It does not change the kWh themselves. A cheaper plan on a 1,500-kWh summer home still produces a large bill, just a smaller one than the same usage on a pricier plan. So the honest play is both: trim usage and shop the rate. To see what your address qualifies for, start at the Texas electricity hub or compare ranked picks on our best electricity plans in Texas page. If you are setting up service with no credit history, the no-deposit and prepaid options page covers the tradeoffs. And if you want to confirm you can even shop, deregulated cities in Texas maps who has a choice. City-level rates for places like Houston, Dallas, and Corpus Christi are on their own pages.
How Texas compares to the national average
Putting the three numbers side by side makes the pattern obvious. As of 2024 (EIA), Texas averaged $163.72 a month against the U.S. $144, used 1,096 kWh against the national 865, and paid 14.94 cents per kWh against 16.5 nationally.
In one line: Texas is a cheap-rate, high-usage state. The price of electricity is lower than average, but the amount used is high enough to push the bill above average anyway. That is why a rate comparison alone, the thing most shopping sites lead with, only tells half the story for a Texan. The other half is on your thermostat.
FAQ
What is the average electric bill in Texas?
The average residential electric bill in Texas was about $163.72 a month as of 2024, according to the EIA. That is higher than the U.S. average of $144 for the same year. Keep in mind it is a statewide average that masks wide variation by home size, season, and plan, so your own bill can land well above or below it.
Why is my Texas electric bill so high?
Usually because of how much electricity you use, not the price you pay for it. The average Texas home used about 1,096 kWh a month in 2024 (EIA), roughly 27% more than the national average, mainly to run air conditioning through long summers. Texas's rate, 14.94 cents per kWh in 2024 (EIA), is actually below the national average, so a high bill is typically a usage story, not a rate one.
What's the average electric bill for an apartment in Texas?
EIA does not publish a Texas average broken out by apartment versus house, so any precise apartment figure is an estimate, not a measured average. As an illustration, a smaller home or apartment using roughly 600 to 900 kWh a month at the state's roughly 15-cent rate would land around $90 to $135. Your actual cost depends on square footage, how much you run the AC, and your plan.
Is electricity cheaper in Texas than other states?
By rate, yes. Texas averaged 14.94 cents per kWh in 2024 (EIA), below the U.S. average of 16.5 cents. By total bill, no. The average Texas bill of $163.72 a month ran above the national $144 in 2024, because Texas homes use more electricity than the national average. So Texas is cheaper per unit but more expensive per month.