Commercial vs residential vs industrial electricity rates

Residential, commercial and industrial prices in the U.S., 2010 to 2025

Between 2015 and 2025 the average U.S. residential price rose 36%, the commercial price rose 26% and the industrial price rose 23%.

What the average customer of each class uses and pays

EIA publishes, for each class, the number of customers, the average use a month, the average price and the average bill. A business pays a lower price per kWh than a home but uses many times more, so its bill is larger.

By state

Commercial customers paid less per kWh than homes in all 51 markets. The widest gap was in Texas, where commercial was 44% below residential; the narrowest in Tennessee, at 2.6% below.

Download every state and year as CSV (residential, commercial and industrial, 2010 to 2025). Free to use with credit to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and this site. Industrial prices by state are ranked on industrial electricity rates by state.

How to read these prices

• Averages over a whole class. Each figure is a class’s revenue divided by its kWh across a state. A small business on a small-business schedule can pay more per kWh than the commercial average.
• The utility draws the lines. Whether an account is commercial or industrial depends on its utility’s rules, by size, voltage or activity, so the classes do not mean exactly the same thing in two states.
• All-in prices. Energy, delivery, demand, fixed charges and surcharges are all in the figure. Where customers buy energy from a supplier, EIA adds the supplier’s revenue to the utility’s delivery revenue.
• Final annual data. Rates by state carries the commercial price over the latest 12 months, which EIA still treats as preliminary.

Common questions

Is commercial electricity cheaper than residential?

On average, yes. In 2025 the U.S. commercial average was 13.37¢ per kWh against 17.23¢ for homes (EIA), and commercial was the lower of the two in every one of the 51 markets. It is an average: a small shop on a small-business schedule can pay as much per kWh as a home, or more once demand charges are counted.

Why do businesses pay less per kWh than homes?

Mostly because they cost less to serve per kWh. A larger customer takes more power through the same connection, often at a higher voltage and more steadily through the day, so fixed costs are spread over more kWh. Businesses also pay demand charges on their peak draw, which homes usually do not, so part of their cost shows up in a different line of the bill.

What is the difference between commercial and industrial electricity rates?

Industrial customers are the largest users, such as factories and mines, and they averaged 8.51¢ per kWh in 2025, against 13.37¢ for commercial customers (EIA). Which class an account falls in is set by its utility, by size, voltage or business type, and the line is drawn differently from one utility to the next.

How much is the average commercial electric bill compared with a home?

About $856 a month for the average U.S. commercial customer in 2025, against $151 for the average home, because the average commercial customer used 6,406 kWh a month and the average home 874 (EIA). Most businesses use less than the commercial average, which a few very large accounts pull up.