How much electricity does a gaming PC use? (2026 cost data)

All numbers below use the April 2026 US residential average of 18.05¢/kWh from the EIA Electric Power Monthly. System wattage is the total draw from the wall during active gaming, not the PSU rating on the box.

Mid-range (RTX 4060 class, Ryzen 5 or i5, 350W): 6.3¢ per hour. $7.58 per month at 4 hours a day. $91 per year. This tier covers 1080p and 1440p gaming and accounts for most builds sold today.

High-end (RTX 4080 class, Ryzen 7 or i7, 500W): 9.0¢ per hour. $10.83 per month. $130 per year. The jump from mid-range to high-end adds $3.25 a month in electricity.

Enthusiast (RTX 4090, i9, 650W):11.7¢ per hour. $14.08 per month. $169 per year. An overclocked build pushing 850 watts hits $18.41 per month and $221 per year.

For comparison, a standard desktop PC used for office work draws 100 to 180 watts and costs $47 to $95 a year. The GPU under gaming load is the reason gaming PCs cost two to four times as much to run.

A gaming setup isn't just the tower. The monitor alone adds 40 watts during use and about 2 watts on standby. RGB keyboards, mice, speakers, and a headset stand add another 10 to 15 watts while the desk is active.

For a mid-range gamer who leaves the PC idling when not playing: the tower costs $20.58 a month (gaming at 350W for 4 hours plus idle at 120W for 20 hours). Add the monitor and peripherals and the real number is about $22 a month, or $264 a year.

The same gamer who puts the PC to sleep after each session pays about $9 a month, or $112 a year. Sleep mode draws roughly 3 watts. The difference between idle and sleep is $13 a month, or $156 a year, for changing one power setting in Windows.

The power supply converts AC from the wall to DC for the components. That conversion wastes energy as heat, and the efficiency rating on the box determines how much.

An 80 Plus Bronze PSU runs about 85% efficient at typical gaming loads. Gold hits 90%. On a 350-watt mid-range system, Gold pulls about 389 watts from the wall versus 412 for Bronze. Over a year of 4-hour daily sessions, Gold saves roughly $6 in electricity. On a 500-watt high-end system, the savings climb to about $9 a year.

A Gold PSU typically costs $20 to $40 more than the equivalent Bronze. At $6 to $9 a year in savings, it pays for itself in three to five years on electricity alone and runs cooler because it wastes less energy as heat.

A PS5 draws about 200 watts during gameplay. At 4 hours a day, it costs $4.33 a month. An Xbox Series X draws the same 200 watts for the same $4.33. A Nintendo Switch draws 18 watts and costs 39 cents a month.

A mid-range gaming PC at 350 watts costs 1.75 times what a PS5 costs for the same hours. Step up to a high-end 500-watt build and it costs 2.5 times as much. The monthly difference between a PS5 and a high-end PC is $6.50.

Idle behavior matters more than the GPU. Consoles in Rest Mode draw 1 to 3 watts. A PC left at idle draws 120 watts. The console-vs-PC gap widens dramatically when the PC never sleeps.

A gaming PC converts every watt of electricity into heat. At 400 watts, that's 1,365 BTU per hour dumped into the room, equivalent to a small space heater running in the corner.

In summer, the AC has to remove that heat on top of cooling the room itself. A mid-range PC alongside a window AC in the same bedroom draws about 830 watts sustained: the PC at full load, the monitor at 40 watts, and the AC cycling harder because of the extra heat. That works out to roughly 15 cents per hour.

Over a 90-day summer at 4 hours of daily gaming, the gaming room alone costs about $54 in electricity. That makes it the most expensive room in the house to cool. Moving the tower to a cooler basement room or shifting gaming sessions to evenings after the outdoor temperature drops eliminates the compounding effect entirely.

A high-end 500-watt gaming PC at 4 hours a day draws 60 kWh per month. What that costs depends on the meter.

Louisiana (12.4¢/kWh): $7 a month. $89 a year.

Texas (14.8¢/kWh): $9 a month. $107 a year.

US average (18.05¢/kWh): $11 a month. $130 a year.

New York (24.4¢/kWh): $15 a month. $176 a year.

California (31¢/kWh): $19 a month. $223 a year.

Hawaii (39.8¢/kWh): $24 a month. $286 a year.

Same PC, same games, same hours. Hawaii pays 3.2 times what Louisiana pays. For the full rate table, see electricity rates by state.

The formula is watts times hours divided by 1,000 times your rate. If you don't know your system's actual draw, a Kill A Watt meter reads it from the wall in real time. Most gamers find the number under load is lower than the PSU label, and the idle number is higher than they expected.

To plug in your wattage and your state rate, the gaming PC calculator runs the per-hour, per-month, and per-year math. For the console side of the comparison, see the PS5 electricity cost breakdown.