How Much Does It Cost to Run a Game Console?
Short answer: about $0.093 a day and $2.80 a month, or $0.031 for each hour it runs at full power, at the 2025 US average electricity rate. That is for a 180 W game console running 3 hours a day with a 100% duty cycle. Change the state and hours below for your own number.
Updated Nov 8, 2026
Quick answer
Quick answer, US average (17.3 c/kWh)
About $2.80 a month
The same use costs $1.91 a month in North Dakota and $6.58 in Hawaii.
- Per hour
- $0.031
- at 180 W
- Per day
- $0.093
- 3 h, 0.54 kWh
- Per month
- $2.80
- 30 days
- Per year
- $34.10
- 365 days at the same use
Your state, your hours
Per hour
$0.031
Per day
$0.093
Per month
$2.80
Per year
$34.10
Game Console at 180 W, 3 h a day, 30 days a month, 100% duty cycle: 16.2 kWh a month. Using the 2025 US average of 17.3 cents/kWh.
Want to change the watts or duty cycle too? Open the full calculator.
What decides the cost of running a game console
Current home consoles draw somewhere between a laptop and a gaming PC. A PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X typically pulls about 150 to 220 W while playing a demanding game, the Xbox Series S closer to 70 to 90 W, and Nintendo's Switch models well under 40 W docked. The default on this page is 180 W for 3 hours a day, which is 0.54 kWh a day and about $2.80 a month at the national average rate. Menus, indie games and older titles draw less than a big new release.
The part people forget is what the console does when it is not in use. Rest or instant-on modes keep the network connection alive so the console can download updates and wake quickly, and depending on the model and settings that can mean around 10 W or more for every hour the console sits idle. Over the 21 hours a day it is not being played, 10 W adds up to about 77 kWh a year, roughly $13. Switching to the energy saving or full shutdown setting cuts that to a watt or two, at the cost of a slower start and updates that wait until you turn it on.
Streaming video is the other hidden cost. Using a console as a Netflix or YouTube box draws many times what a streaming stick or the TV's built-in apps use, often 10 to 20 times as much, because the whole system stays powered to decode video. If the console is mainly a streaming device in your house, a cheap stick will pay for itself in electricity over a few years.
Remember that the console is only part of the setup. A 65 inch TV at 150 W plus a 180 W console is 330 W, so an evening of gaming costs closer to 6 cents an hour once the screen is included.
How to cut it
- Switch rest or instant-on mode to the energy saving setting if you do not need background downloads.
- Use the TV's own apps or a streaming stick for video instead of the console.
- Set the console to power off after an hour or two of inactivity.
- Turn off USB charging in rest mode unless you charge controllers that way.
Game Console cost by state
Monthly cost for 180 W, 3 h a day, 100% duty cycle, 30 days, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Pick your state above to highlight it.
| Rank | State | Cents/kWh | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 11.81 | $1.91 |
| 2 | Idaho | 11.82 | $1.91 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.34 | $2.00 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12.57 | $2.04 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 12.84 | $2.08 |
| 6 | Montana | 12.98 | $2.10 |
| 7 | Utah | 13.07 | $2.12 |
| 8 | Washington | 13.11 | $2.12 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 13.12 | $2.13 |
| 10 | Nevada | 13.15 | $2.13 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 13.18 | $2.14 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 13.24 | $2.14 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 13.38 | $2.17 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 13.38 | $2.17 |
| 15 | Missouri | 13.49 | $2.19 |
| 16 | Iowa | 13.72 | $2.22 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 14.02 | $2.27 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 14.03 | $2.27 |
| 19 | Kansas | 14.56 | $2.36 |
| 20 | Georgia | 14.73 | $2.39 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 14.96 | $2.42 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 15.08 | $2.44 |
| 23 | Florida | 15.24 | $2.47 |
| 24 | Virginia | 15.28 | $2.48 |
| 25 | Arizona | 15.32 | $2.48 |
| 26 | Oregon | 15.37 | $2.49 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 15.41 | $2.50 |
| 28 | Texas | 15.47 | $2.51 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 15.82 | $2.56 |
| 30 | Colorado | 15.85 | $2.57 |
| 31 | Alabama | 16.10 | $2.61 |
| 32 | Indiana | 16.23 | $2.63 |
| 33 | Ohio | 16.96 | $2.75 |
| 34 | Delaware | 17.13 | $2.78 |
| 35 | Illinois | 17.69 | $2.87 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 18.16 | $2.94 |
| 37 | Pennsylvania | 19.30 | $3.13 |
| 38 | Maryland | 19.48 | $3.16 |
| 39 | Michigan | 20.01 | $3.24 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 21.94 | $3.55 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 22.63 | $3.67 |
| 42 | Vermont | 22.92 | $3.71 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 24.56 | $3.98 |
| 44 | Alaska | 26.09 | $4.23 |
| 45 | New York | 26.39 | $4.28 |
| 46 | Maine | 27.78 | $4.50 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 29.38 | $4.76 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 29.46 | $4.77 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 30.48 | $4.94 |
| 50 | California | 32.54 | $5.27 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 40.59 | $6.58 |
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual average residential price, 2025 (eia.gov). Full list on the electricity rates by state page.
Measure it instead of estimating
Kasa KP125M Matter Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring (2-pack)
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P3 Kill A Watt P4400 Electricity Usage Monitor
Plugs in between the wall and any 120 V appliance and shows watts and accumulated kWh. The cheapest way to replace the estimate on this page with your own number.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a game console per hour?+
About 3 cents an hour. At 180 W a console uses 0.18 kWh an hour, and 0.18 x $0.173 is $0.031 at the national average rate. With a 150 W TV included it is about 5.7 cents an hour.
How much does it cost to run a game console per month?+
About $2.80 a month. 180 W for 3 hours a day is 0.54 kWh, or 16.2 kWh over 30 days, and 16.2 x $0.173 is about $2.80.
How much does it cost to run a game console per year?+
About $34 a year of gameplay. 0.54 kWh a day for 365 days is 197.1 kWh, and 197.1 x $0.173 is about $34.10. A console left in a 10 W rest mode the rest of the day adds about $13 more.
How many watts does a PS5 or Xbox use?+
About 150 to 220 W while gaming for a PS5 or Xbox Series X, and about 70 to 90 W for an Xbox Series S. Nintendo Switch models draw well under 40 W docked. Rest and instant-on modes can draw around 10 W, and full energy saving mode a watt or two.
How much does rest mode or instant-on cost?+
About $13 a year at 10 W. Idling 21 hours a day at 10 W is 0.21 kWh, or 76.65 kWh a year, and 76.65 x $0.173 is about $13.26. Energy saving or shutdown mode cuts that to a dollar or two.
How much does it cost to game for 24 hours?+
About 75 cents for the console alone. 0.18 kW x 24 hours = 4.32 kWh, and 4.32 x $0.173 is $0.75. With a 150 W TV it is about $1.37.
Does a game console use a lot of electricity?+
Not much. At about 0.54 kWh a day on this page's defaults, it uses less than half of what a full-size refrigerator does (1.26 kWh a day). Rest mode and video streaming are the parts that quietly add to it.
Is a console cheaper to run than a gaming PC?+
Yes, usually by more than half per hour. A 180 W console costs about 3.1 cents an hour against about 6.9 cents for a 400 W gaming PC. On this site's defaults that is about $2.80 a month for the console versus $8.30 for the PC at 4 hours a day.
How long will a power station run a game console and TV?+
About 2.6 hours from a 1,000 Wh station for a 180 W console and a 150 W TV together, after about 15 percent inverter loss (850 Wh / 330 W). The console alone runs about 4.7 hours.
How can I lower the cost of running a game console?+
Turn off instant-on or rest mode, set auto power off, and watch streaming video on the TV's apps or a streaming stick instead of the console. Those changes cut the idle and streaming hours, which often cost more over a year than the gaming itself.
Marcus Reed
Founder and Editor, CrunchYourDollars
Marcus Reed builds the sizing tools on CrunchYourDollars. He is a software engineer with a long-running PC hardware and power supply habit, which is where the watts, watt-hours and surge math on this site comes from. Product specs are pulled from manufacturer data sheets, electricity rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and water chemistry rules from the Water Quality Association. He is not a licensed electrician or plumber: the tools show the math and the matching models so you can make the call, and anything involving your electrical panel should be checked by a licensed pro.
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