Texas Electricity Rates per kWh: Plan Prices, Delivery Charges and the Cost of a Real Year

On 6 November 2026, the cheapest 12-month plan on the state’s shopping site for the Dallas area was listed at 6.8¢ per kWh. At 500 kWh the same plan was listed at 19.7¢. We read the facts labels behind those numbers, then priced the plans across a full Texas year.

How a 6.8¢ plan becomes 19.7¢

The Public Utility Commission of Texas makes every provider publish a plan’s average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, and Power to Choose lists plans by those prices. We downloaded its full list on 6 November: 946 listings from 42 providers across six delivery areas.

Most listings can be taken at face value. The ones at the top of a 1,000 kWh sort usually cannot. Chariot Energy’s GridPlus 12 charges 12.07¢ for energy, about two and a half times the 4.67¢ on True Power’s True Value 12, then takes $125 off any month that reaches 1,000 kWh. One extra kWh at the line is worth $125.

Only 9 of the 43 standard 12-month plans in the Oncor area carried a usage credit or minimum-use term, but they filled most of the top of the list. The ten cheapest at 1,000 kWh averaged 10.0¢ there, then 18.8¢ at 500 kWh and 14.1¢ at 2,000 kWh. Only three of those ten were also among the cheapest ten at 500 kWh.

A real Texas year: plain plans won by $150 to $240

A label shows three moments. A household lives through twelve. So we took the average Texas home from federal data for September 2025 to August 2026, 13,358 kWh in all, and billed each month on each label, using today’s Oncor delivery charges.

At average use, the plain plan beat Sure Saver 12 by $151 and GridPlus 12 by $238. A small home is punished hardest: at 8,000 kWh a year it never reaches the line, and pays $449 to $592 more.

Bill credits do have a sweet spot. Against True Value 12, they came out ahead for homes averaging roughly 1,210 to 1,700 kWh a month, where most or all months clear the line, and at 16,700 kWh the gain was about $260. Above that range the high energy charge overtakes the $125, and the plain plan wins again. A home with solar, a mild-weather month or a week away can miss the credit, so a real home should be tested month by month.

Test any plan against your own twelve months

Put in your own use and a label’s charges, and the calculator prices each month separately, as your bill would. Your usage history is on your bill, and a full download is free from Smart Meter Texas, where you sign up with the meter number (ESIID) printed on your bill.

The energy charge, base charge and any credit are in the provider’s section of the facts label, and the label also lists delivery. Choosing your area in the calculator fills in that company’s 2025 average instead, which is lower than this autumn’s charges, so type in the label’s figures when you can.

Your address sets the delivery charge

Whichever provider you pick, the poles and wires belong to one regulated company, and its charge is passed through on every plan. The address decides it. A home in TNMP’s area pays $26.28 more per 1,000 kWh than one in AEP Texas North’s area before buying any power.

Over all of 2025, these charges averaged between 5.41¢ per kWh (CenterPoint) and 7.09¢ (TNMP), monthly charge included. That federal table shows the longer record, and the top table shows where bills stand now.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

Delivery now costs more than the power

On a 12¢ plan in the Oncor area, the energy itself is about 5¢. Oncor’s charges come to 7.3¢ at 1,000 kWh, up from 4.5¢ in January 2022. No provider can discount that part, which is why the cheapest plain plans in an area sit so close together.

Two things moved it this year. Regulators approved about $560 million a year in new Oncor revenue in April 2026, under Docket 58306. Then on 4 October Oncor put new transmission and grid charges on bills on a temporary basis, under Docket 59249, and that case is not finished. In Houston, CenterPoint’s $2.9 billion resiliency plan was reported to add about $1 a month at first and about $4 by 2028.

Check this before you lock in. “Fixed” on a Texas plan does not always cover delivery. True Value 12 is sold as fixed, and its label still answers yes to whether the price can change, because delivery charges pass through. Read that line on the label before you compare two fixed plans.

Why a below-average price still means big bills

In 2010 Texas homes paid an average of 11.60¢ per kWh. Over the latest 12 months they paid 15.98¢, 38% more. Texas has been below the US average in every full year since 2011, yet its summer bills have a fearsome reputation. The cause is volume: the average Texas home ranks 5th of 51 for electricity used.

Six credit months out of twelve

Air conditioning sets the shape of the year, and it decides which credits you collect. The average home’s bill was highest in August 2026 ($266) and lowest in November 2025 ($129). Over the year we priced, it reached 1,000 kWh in September, October, January, June, July and August. May fell short by 5 kWh, at 995 kWh, and a $125 plan would have paid nothing that month.

Why homes pay more than today’s plan prices

The state’s average of 15.98¢ sits well above what new 12-month plans list at. Part of that gap is the mix: the average also covers city utilities, co-ops, older contracts and homes on renewal rates. We cannot split those out. Brand is part of it too. In the Oncor area on 6 November, Reliant’s Power On 12 listed at 15.3¢ at 1,000 kWh, Direct Energy’s Autopay Texas 12 at 15.2¢ and Green Mountain’s Pollution Free e-Plus 12 at 15.5¢, while Gexa’s Eco Choice 12 listed at 12.3¢. On the average home’s year, the Reliant plan comes to about $440 more than True Value 12 by our straight-line estimate.

The table below shows what each provider’s customers actually paid in a year, delivery included, from federal reports. It mixes all of a provider’s plans across every area it serves, so treat it as a guide to the gaps between providers, not a quote.

EIA-861 for 2025: each provider’s revenue from homes divided by its kWh sold. An average over all its plans and areas, not a price you can sign up for today.

Three lines on a facts label to read first

Since 2002, homes in the competitive parts of Texas have bought power from a retail provider of their choice, while the wires stay with Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas, Texas-New Mexico Power or, since 2024, Lubbock Power & Light.

EIA-861 for 2025, Sales to Ultimate Customers (residential): every utility, supplier and retail provider’s own report.

Before you compare prices, look for these. Any line about a usage credit or minimum use: if it exists, price your own months. Whether the 500 kWh price is far above the 1,000 kWh price: all nine credit plans in the Oncor list showed a gap above 2¢, and no other 12-month plan there did. The cancellation fee: True Value 12 charges $300, which can undo a year of small savings if you move plans early. Then check who the offer is for, because 805 of the 946 listings were open to new customers only, so your current provider may not give you its listed price.

The notices you must get before a contract ends

Commission rules require at least three written notices during the last third of a fixed contract. On a contract longer than four months, the last must arrive at least 30 days before the end date. Your contract must also name the plan you roll onto if you do nothing, so look that up now and not in the final week.

That default is often month-to-month, a term of 31 days or less, and a month-to-month contract cannot carry a termination fee. Moving house does not trigger a fee either, if you give a forwarding address and any proof the provider asks for. In the Oncor area, the 13 month-to-month and variable listings ran from 9.9¢ to 18.4¢ at 1,000 kWh, so the label decides whether this is a safe place to wait. If your provider fails to give proper notice, it must keep serving you on the old fixed price until it does.

Austin, San Antonio and homes with no choice

City utilities and most co-ops stay outside the market, and their homes pay that utility’s rate. Austin Energy’s rate from 1 October 2026 comes to $140.32 at 1,000 kWh inside the city, or 14.0¢, and it climbs with use: the base energy charge runs from 4.87¢ for the first 300 kWh to 11.43¢ above 2,000 kWh. That rewards small homes in a way Texas credit plans do not. At 500 kWh, an Austin bill comes to $76.80.

CPS Energy in San Antonio puts its own 12-month average at 13.1¢ per kWh through November 2026. Its rate sheet adds 2.15¢ on use above 600 kWh from June to September.

Homes around El Paso, Beaumont, Amarillo and parts of East Texas sit outside the ERCOT grid and have one regulated utility. Power to Choose does not cover those areas, and your bill follows that utility’s approved rate.

Dearer than Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma

Texas ranks 25th of 51 on price over the last 12 months. Its neighbours in the West South Central region all sit lower, even though Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma have no retail market for homes to shop in.

Across the border: Louisiana 13.01¢, Arkansas 13.57¢, Oklahoma 13.81¢, New Mexico 15.31¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

If a Texas bill is hard to pay

The state’s Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program helps low-income households through local agencies, listed on its Help for Texans page. Austin Energy customers enrolled in its assistance program get 10% off kWh-based charges and pay no monthly customer charge.

Providers cannot have your power cut for non-payment in a county under an extreme weather emergency. That means a day after a high of 32°F or lower with freezing weather forecast, or a National Weather Service heat advisory that day or in the two days before. Ask for a deferred payment plan for bills due then. A household that relies on electric medical equipment can apply for Critical Care status, which gives extra protection from disconnection.

How we priced these plans, and what we left out

“Standard 12-month plans” means fixed price, not prepaid and not time-of-use. “Typical” is the median of those at 1,000 kWh, and “plain” means no usage credit or minimum-use term. We used English listings only, because each plan also appears in Spanish.

The yearly table holds delivery at today’s Oncor charges, leaves out sales tax and city fees, and assumes every month is billed in full. It uses the statewide average home, which includes city and co-op customers, and scales it for other sizes, so your own months will differ. Prices move daily: Just Energy’s listing showed 11.8¢ while its label dated the same day showed 10.3¢, and we relied on labels wherever we could open them. We could not open labels for Express Energy, Octopus Energy or Veteran Energy, and left those plans out of the priced tables. San Antonio’s rate sheet is the latest one CPS links, dated February 2024.

The federal figures cover every home in the state, and the steepest monthly rise came in February 2021, the month of the winter storm, when the statewide average rose by about 12%.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• Texas, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 2.0 (6 November 2026): rebuilt from the Power to Choose plan list and facts labels: plan prices by area, a full-year cost test, current delivery charges, contract rules, Austin and San Antonio rates, and help with bills.
• 1.0.1 (November 2026): wording and page heading tidied; no figures changed.
• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.