Your utility probably offers more than one rate
Many households stay on whatever tariff they were given when they moved in, and never find out that the same utility, delivering the same electricity over the same wires, also offers other rates — one of which might cost less.
How much choice there is
Of 169 utilities with current residential tariffs open to every customer, 104 offer more than one. The typical utility among them has three: a standard rate, often a time-of-use rate, and sometimes a tiered or seasonal alternative.
What choosing well is worth
We priced every one of those options for a household using 1,000 kWh a month and compared the cheapest option at each utility with the middle of its menu:
- The cheapest option beat the middle one by a median $71 a year.
- At 43 of the 104 utilities, the gap was more than $100.
- At 21, it was more than $250.
The comparison is with the middle of each utility's menu, not necessarily the tariff you are on. If you happen to be on the most expensive option, the gap is larger: a median $182 a year between each utility's cheapest and priciest open tariff.
The cheapest depends on how much you use
At 19 of the 104 utilities, the cheapest tariff for a household using 500 kWh a month is a different one from the cheapest at 2,000.
The trade-off is usually between the fixed charge and the energy rate. A tariff with a higher fixed charge and a lower price per kWh wins for heavy users and loses for light ones — your electricity rate is not what you think it is works through why. The right choice for a neighbor with a different house is not necessarily the right one for you.
Before you switch
- Check eligibility. Some tariffs are limited to customers with particular equipment or in particular programs. We set aside the ones whose names say so, but the filing is the final word.
- Check the switching rules. Some utilities limit how often you can change tariffs, so a switch that goes badly may take a while to undo.
- Time-of-use depends on when you use power, not just how much. The figures here assume a typical daily pattern; how to read a time-of-use tariff covers what changes if yours is different.
How we measured this
- Current tariffs: filed since 2020, priceable from usage alone, and not flagged as a likely data error — the same set this site ranks. Every figure is a modeled annual total with fixed charges included; the methodology sets out how.
- Open to everyone: tariffs whose names restrict them to electric vehicles, heat pumps, solar or net metering, storage, farms, pilots, controlled loads or off-peak-only service are set aside, as are low-income, senior, medical and employee rates. This is done by name, so it is imperfect.
- Whole-home prices only: filings that price only part of a bill — delivery without the electricity itself, or a single appliance — are set aside, as they are everywhere on this site. Where a utility files the same tariff with and without the electricity, comparing the two would overstate what switching saves.
What to do with this
Open the calculator, choose your state and your utility, and enter your typical monthly usage — it is on your bill. It ranks every current tariff your utility files that any household can take, cheapest first, with fixed charges included, and lists partial prices and restricted rates separately beneath. Then check eligibility with the utility before you switch.