How much does it cost to boil a kettle?
Work out what any appliance costs to run per use, per month and per year on your own electricity rate — including what it draws on standby. Rates for all 50 states.
Using the US average of 18.44¢/kWh — the U.S. Energy Information Administration, May 2026.
Common cases
What drives the cost
A kettle draws a lot of power for a very short time, which makes each boil cheap and the annual total surprising. The figure that matters is not the wattage but how many times a day it runs and how full it is — filling a 1.7 litre kettle to make one mug wastes most of the energy on water you pour away or reboil later.
Limescale is the other quiet cost. A furred-up element has to heat through a layer of insulating scale, which lengthens every boil. In hard water areas, descaling a few times a year is the closest thing to free money on this page.
How this is worked out
Electricity is billed per kilowatt hour. An appliance's kilowatt hours are its power in kilowatts multiplied by the hours it runs — so a 2,000 W appliance running for 30 minutes uses 1 kWh. Multiply that by your rate and you have the cost. The fixed monthly customer charge your utility adds is not included, because you pay it whether or not you switch anything on.
What this assumes
- The appliance draws its rated power for the whole time it is on. Anything thermostatically controlled — ovens, heaters, refrigerators, air conditioners — cycles on and off, so the real figure is lower.
- Your rate is flat all day. On a time-of-use plan the same appliance costs materially different amounts depending on when you run it, and peak rates can be several times the off-peak rate.
- State averages come from the EIA and blend every utility in that state. Your own utility may be meaningfully above or below it, so use your bill where you can.
- A year is 52 weeks of identical use, which overstates seasonal appliances and understates ones you use in bursts.
- The rate filled in for you is an average that spreads fixed charges across a year's usage, so it sits above what one extra unit really costs. Entering the unit rate from your own bill gives a closer answer.
Questions
Does boiling only what I need really save anything?
Per boil it is pennies, but a kettle used five or six times a day is running well over 2,000 times a year. Halving the water halves the energy, and it is one of the few savings that costs nothing and changes nothing.
Is a kettle cheaper than boiling water on the hob?
An electric kettle is more efficient than an electric hob, because nearly all the heat goes into the water rather than the air around the pan. Against a gas hob it depends on your relative gas and electricity prices, but the kettle is usually quicker either way.
Does this include the monthly service charge?
No, deliberately. The fixed customer charge is billed for being connected at all, so it does not change when you run an appliance more or less. Including it would make every appliance look more expensive than it is.
Why is the default rate different from what I pay?
The figure filled in is the EIA state average across all utilities in your state. Rates inside a single state can vary widely between a municipal utility and an investor-owned one, so your bill is always the better number.
Where do I find the wattage?
On the nameplate — usually a label on the back, base or inside the door — or in the manual. It is written as W or kW. If it only lists amps, multiply amps by 120 for a standard outlet, or 240 for a large appliance circuit.
Sources
- U.S. EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A — checked 2026-08-21
- U.S. EIA — Frequently asked questions, electricity — checked 2026-08-21
Rates from U.S. EIA for May 2026. Last reviewed September 3, 2026.