Electric Oven Cost to Run: Per Hour, Month and Year

An average U.S. home that cooks with electricity used 290 kWh a year on its range, cooktop and oven in 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). At the U.S. average residential price of 18.16 cents per kWh for August 2026, that is about $52.66 a year, or $4.39 a month. An hour of baking costs at most about 47 cents for a typical 2,600-watt bake element, and usually less. Household size and your electric rate change the answer most.

Cooking is one of the smaller electric loads in a home. It is far less than the electric water heater (about 2,706 kWh a year in EIA’s 2020 data) and less than half of an electric dryer’s 680 kWh. This guide shows the math per hour, month and year. To plug in your own price, see our electricity rates by state page.

The Formula

Cost = kWh used × your price per kWh

Watts tell you how fast an element uses energy; kilowatt-hours (kWh) are what you pay for. A 2,600-watt element running for one hour uses 2.6 kWh. Our kW vs kWh explainer covers the difference.

The wattages below come from the specification sheet for one 30-inch, 5.3-cubic-foot electric range, Frigidaire’s CFEF3054U. Other models differ, so check yours.

These are maximums. An oven element runs steadily while preheating, then switches on and off to hold the set temperature, and a burner on medium cycles too. A real hour of baking or simmering therefore uses less than the rating times the time. That is why the monthly and yearly figures below start from EIA’s measured household use instead.

What an Average Home Pays

Assumptions: EIA Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020, Table CE5.3b, average electricity used for cooking per household that cooks with electricity (“ranges (units with both a cooktop and an oven), separate cooktops, and separate ovens”); U.S. average residential price of 18.16 cents per kWh for August 2026 (EIA Electric Power Monthly, released Oct. 23, 2026; preliminary).

By region, EIA’s averages are close: 287 kWh a year in the Northeast, 289 in the Midwest, 301 in the South and 270 in the West.

By Household Size and Home Type

More people means more meals. Same price, 18.16 cents per kWh:

Single-family detached homes averaged 327 kWh a year (about $59.38), and apartments in buildings with five or more units 203 kWh (about $36.86).

By Electric Rate

Average home (290 kWh a year), using EIA’s August 2026 state averages:

State averages include all charges divided by kWh sold and hide differences between utilities and plans. On a time-of-use rate, dinner often falls in the peak window, so the same roast can cost more at 6 p.m. than at 2 p.m.

Oven, Cooktop, Induction or Microwave?

Induction. ENERGY STAR says induction cooktops transfer “about 85% of heating energy” to what is in the cookware, and that they are “about 5-10% more efficient than conventional electric resistance units” (which it puts at 75% to 80%) and about three times as efficient as gas. In dollars the gain is small: even 10% of all 290 kWh would be about 29 kWh, or about $5 a year at 18.16 cents, and the real figure is lower because the oven is not induction. People usually choose induction for speed and control, not the bill.

ENERGY STAR ranges. ENERGY STAR says its certified electric cooking products are “18% more efficient, on average, compared to standard models.” Its program covers cooktops and ranges, not standalone ovens.

Microwave. EIA’s 2020 average for microwaves is 107 kWh a year, about $19.43 at 18.16 cents, counted separately from the 290 kWh above. For reheating or small portions, a microwave avoids heating an oven cavity of five cubic feet or more.

Ways to cut the cost. The Maryland Energy Administration’s cooking tips include:

• “Try to avoid opening the oven door a lot as you cook.”
• With a conventional oven, “keep your preheating time to a minimum”; it may not be needed except for pastries and breads.
• If you bake more than one pan at a time, stagger them on upper and lower racks; cook double portions and save half.
• “Match the pan size to the element size.” The agency says “a 6” pan on an 8" burner will waste over 40% of the heat produced by the burner."
• Lower the oven temperature by about 25 degrees when using glass or ceramic pans.

Each saves a little; none will change your bill much, because cooking is a small share of it.

Cooking and Solar

If you are sizing solar panels, cooking barely moves the total. EIA’s 290 kWh is about 2.8% of the 10,356 kWh a year the average U.S. home bought in 2024 (863 kWh a month; see how much electricity a house uses). At about 1,375 kWh of yearly output per kW of panels (our calculator’s national figure), 290 kWh is about 0.2 kW of panels.

Timing matters more than the total. A range with two large elements and the oven on can draw several kilowatts at once, often at dinnertime after solar output has dropped. Where exported solar earns less than the retail rate, cooking in daylight uses more of your own output; a home battery is the other way to shift it.

Sources and verification

Limitations

EIA’s figures are 2020 averages for homes that cook with electricity; the 2024 survey’s consumption data are due in spring 2027, according to EIA. EIA does not split ovens from cooktops, so we cannot give a separate yearly oven figure. Per-hour costs assume an element is fully on and are upper bounds. Prices are state averages, not any utility’s tariff, and may not include sales taxes added to your bill. Gas and propane ranges are not covered.