Average commercial electricity bill by state

By state

Ranked from the highest average monthly bill per commercial account to the lowest. Ranked this way the middle state is Louisiana, at $742. The columns are EIA’s three figures for each state, combined: how many accounts there are, how much electricity they used and what it cost per kWh.

Download this table as CSV. Free to use with credit to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and this site. Rates by state has the price alone, with the trend since 2010 and the trailing 12 months.

How the average is worked out

kWh per account a year = sales to commercial customers (MWh) x 1,000 / commercial customers
average bill a month   = kWh per account a year x average price (cents per kWh) / 100 / 12

EIA reports the sales, the customer count and the price for every state; this combines them and rounds the result. The price is EIA’s average revenue per kWh, which includes energy, delivery, customer charges, surcharges and fuel adjustments, so the bill is a whole-bill figure and not a supply price.

Why a state’s average can mislead

• One number for every size of account. A corner shop and a campus are both one commercial account. A few very large accounts, such as big campuses or data centers, can lift a state’s average well above what a small business pays.
• Few accounts, large ones. The District of Columbia has 27,607 commercial accounts, and the average one uses 21,822 kWh a month, 3.4 times the national average. Its average reflects large accounts more than small ones.
• A high bill is not always a high price. Virginia has a price of 9.95¢, below the national 13.37¢, but its average account uses 16,170 kWh a month, 2.5 times the national average, which puts its average bill at $1,609. The bill is use times price, so read both columns.
• Final data, not the latest month. This is the final 2025 annual record. Prices may have moved since; rates by state carries the trailing 12 months, which EIA still treats as preliminary.

A better yardstick for one building

A building’s bill depends on what it is and how big it is far more than on the state’s average. The cost estimator gives a range by building type, size and state, cost per square foot shows the same survey by type, and the bill benchmark compares one bill with those ranges.

Common questions

What is the average commercial electricity bill?

About $857 a month per commercial account in the United States in 2025, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's final annual state data: the average account used about 6,406 kWh a month at 13.37¢ per kWh. It averages every commercial account from the smallest to the largest, so it is not a typical business's bill.

Which state has the highest average commercial electricity bill?

The District of Columbia, at about $4,458 a month per account in 2025. Its average account used 21,822 kWh a month, 3.4 times the national average, at 20.43¢ per kWh. Montana is lowest at about $357. A high average bill can come from heavy use per account as much as from a high price.

Is this what my business should be paying?

No. It is the average of every commercial account in the state, large and small. What one business pays depends on how much it uses, when it uses it, its rate class and its contract. A building-based estimate or a review of the bill itself is a better yardstick than a state average.

Where do these figures come from?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Form EIA-861 for 2025, final data: commercial-sector sales in MWh, the number of commercial customers and the average price (revenue per kWh) in each state. Sales divided by customers is the average use per account, and use times price is the average bill. Nothing is modelled.