How Much Does It Cost to Run a Hair Dryer per Day and Month?

Source: Planning watts of 1,800 and 0.15 hours a day, hours of use a day, equal to about nine minutes. Price: 17.23 cents per kWh, the 2025 US residential average from EIA Form EIA-861.

The monthly cost is 1% 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 $1 a month and the highest $4. Use the calculator above to match your own.

The same hair dryer 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 8 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 hair dryer is a heating element and a fan. The heat setting is what draws the power, and the heat and speed settings together can reach about 1,800 watts, the most a standard outlet circuit comfortably supplies for a handheld appliance.

The time you spend drying and the heat setting set the cost. Using the low heat or the cool setting, and towel-drying first, uses less. Because the dryer runs only minutes each day, its monthly cost is small.

The range for this kind of appliance runs from about 1,000 to 1,875 watts. At 0.15 hours a day that is $1 to $1 a month, which is why checking the label on yours is worth the minute.

• Towel dry first, so you spend less time under the heater.
• Use a lower heat setting when your hair allows it.
• Do not run it on the same circuit as other large heaters.

Next step: Space heater costs. For general ideas, read how to lower your electric bill.

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

The cost is watts divided by 1,000, times hours, times your price per kWh. The 1,800 watts is a planning figure for this kind of appliance, set from typical product ratings, and the 0.15 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.