How Much Does It Cost to Run a Gaming PC per Day and Month?

Source: Planning watts of 400 and 4 hours a day, hours of gaming a day. Price: 17.23 cents per kWh, the 2025 US residential average from EIA Form EIA-861.

The monthly cost is 6% of the $150.68 average US electric bill. It runs all year, so the yearly cost is twelve times the monthly figure.

One figure cannot fit every home. These three cases show how much the answer moves with the equipment and the hours.

The lowest case costs $2 a month and the highest $29. Use the calculator above to match your own.

The same gaming pc costs different amounts depending on the state, because the price per kWh differs. Here are the three cheapest states, the US average and the three costliest, for the same 49 kWh a month.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data). Price is residential revenue divided by sales and includes fixed charges.

See electricity rates in every state to find your own.

A gaming PC draws most of its power through the graphics card and the processor under load. The draw at the desktop is a small fraction of the draw in a demanding game, and the monitor adds its own load.

The graphics card sets most of the draw, and it varies with the game and settings. Idle draw is far lower, around 60 to 120 watts. A monitor adds to the total.

The range for this kind of appliance runs from about 150 to 700 watts. At 4 hours a day that is $3 to $15 a month, which is why checking the label on yours is worth the minute.

• Cap the frame rate and enable power saving settings.
• Set the PC to sleep when idle.
• Check the monitor brightness and refresh rate settings.

Next step: Electricity usage calculator. For general ideas, read how to lower your electric bill.

Other appliances in the electronics and lighting group: LED Light Bulb, Television, Computer, Crypto Miner, Hair Dryer.

The cost is watts divided by 1,000, times hours, times your price per kWh. The 400 watts is a planning figure for this kind of appliance, set from typical product ratings, and the 4 hours is an assumed day of use. Neither is copied from a federal table. Federal guidance describes the method and warns that real wattage varies, so we publish our own typical ranges and label them as such. Prices come from EIA Form EIA-861 for 2025.

The calculation is the standard one used in the U.S. Department of Energy's consumer guidance on estimating appliance energy use. Wattage varies by product age and features, so the label on your own appliance beats any average. Read more in our methodology.