BillAverage

Methodology

Every price on BillAverage comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and every page names the months or week it covers. Some figures, like average bills and bills by home size, are our own calculations from EIA data. We label those as BillAverage estimates and explain each one below. EIA does not endorse BillAverage.

Electric bills and prices

EIA publishes, for every state and each month, residential electricity sales (kWh), revenue (dollars) and number of customers, from its monthly survey of utilities (Form EIA-861M, benchmarked to the annual Form EIA-861). It also publishes the average price per kWh, which is revenue divided by sales. The latest month loaded is July 2026. EIA publishes each month about two months after it ends.

From those figures we calculate, for the latest 12 months:

  • Average monthly use: total residential sales over 12 months, divided by the average number of customers, divided by 12.
  • Average price: total revenue divided by total sales over the 12 months, so heavy summer or winter months count for more, as they do on a bill.
  • Average monthly bill: average use times average price, which equals total revenue per customer per month. It includes everything customers paid their utility or supplier for electricity, including fixed monthly charges, but not taxes that aren't part of revenue.

We use 12 months rather than the latest month because bills swing with the seasons: in Texas, the average bill ran from about $130 in November 2025 to about $251 in July 2026. Where EIA withheld a month for a state, that state uses the latest 12 consecutive months with every value published, and its page says which months. We never fill in a missing month.

“Price per kWh” in state lists on the home page is EIA's published average for the latest month. “Price vs. a year ago” on the bill cards compares the average price over the latest three months with the same three months a year earlier (revenue divided by sales in each span). Comparing the same months keeps seasonal price swings out of it, and a short span shows a recent jump, like this year's, that a 12-month average would dilute. Gas pages make the same comparison for gas prices.

Natural gas bills

EIA publishes each state's monthly residential natural gas consumption and the average price delivered to homes, in dollars per thousand cubic feet (Natural Gas Monthly), and each year's number of residential gas customers (Natural Gas Annual). Gas data run about two to three months behind; the latest customer count is for 2024.

The average monthly gas bill is the total spent over 12 months (each month's use times that month's price) divided by the number of residential customers, divided by 12. It covers homes with gas service only: homes heated and cooking with electricity have no gas bill. The winter bill averages December through February; the summer bill averages June through August. Where EIA withheld a price for a month, the state uses its latest complete 12 months, shown on its page.

We show gas in therms, the unit on most bills, using EIA's average heat content of about 1,036 Btu per cubic foot: 10.36 therms per thousand cubic feet. One hundred cubic feet (Ccf) is about 1.04 therms.

Bills by home size (estimates)

EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) measures the energy use of about 18,500 homes. Using its 2020 public-use data, we calculate how much electricity and gas each home type uses compared with the average home that pays its own bill, in each of the four Census regions. Nationally:

  • Studio or 1-bedroom apartment: 47% of the average home's electricity, 41% of its gas.
  • 2-bedroom apartment: 65% of the average home's electricity, 53% of its gas.
  • 3-bedroom house: 108% of the average home's electricity, 104% of its gas.
  • Large house, 2,500+ sq ft: 135% of the average home's electricity, 140% of its gas.

A home type's bill in a state is the state's current average use per home times its region's ratio, at the state's 12-month average price. Anchoring to each state's actual use, rather than RECS's 2020 figures, keeps the estimates current. These are estimates for a typical home of each type, labeled “BillAverage estimate based on EIA data” wherever they appear. Heating fuel, insulation, climate and household size move a real bill a long way from the average.

RECS also gives the share of homes in each state that heat mainly with electricity, use natural gas at all, or heat with oil, which we quote on state pages, and the gallons of heating oil a typical oil-heated home uses in a year.

Heating oil prices

EIA's State Heating Oil and Propane Program surveys heating oil dealers every Monday from October through March and publishes average residential prices for each surveyed state on Wednesday. We show the weekly average as EIA publishes it. The latest survey loaded is for the week of March 30, 2026, the final survey of the 2025–26 season. The survey resumes in October.

We also track EIA's New York Harbor wholesale (spot) price for No. 2 heating oil, which EIA publishes once a week with daily values; the latest is for Sep 22, 2026. Retail prices tend to follow it with a lag. Delivery costs (100, 150 and 200 gallons) are the weekly average times the gallons, a BillAverage estimate; real dealers vary and often charge less per gallon for bigger deliveries.

How often we update

A scheduled job checks EIA every week and rebuilds the site when anything changes: new heating oil prices every Wednesday in season, and new electricity and gas months as EIA publishes them. We keep a copy of every value we use, so pages stay up if EIA's service is down. Electricity data were last updated September 29, 2026, gas September 29, 2026, heating oil September 29, 2026.

Sources

Found something that looks wrong? Tell us and we'll check it against the source.