How Much Does It Cost to Run a Toaster? (2026 Data)

A single toast cycle takes about three minutes. At 850 watts, that's 0.0425 kWh, or 0.8 cents per use at the US average rate from the EIA Electric Power Monthly. Under a penny. A 1,500-watt unit costs 1.4 cents. A 1,800-watt Breville four-slice costs 1.6 cents. None of them crack two cents.

Stretched across a year of daily use at six minutes per day, the numbers stay small. An 850-watt two-slice: 31 kWh, $5.60. A 1,500-watt four-slice: 54.75 kWh, $9.88. The biggest consumer-grade toaster at 1,800 watts: 65.7 kWh, $11.86 a year.

For perspective, a 15-watt wifi router running 24/7 costs $23.72 a year. The router runs 8,760 hours; the toaster runs about 36.5. That's a 240x runtime gap. A device that draws 57 times more watts costs a quarter of the price because it barely runs.

Brand differences are driven by wattage, which tracks slot count. Two-slice units cluster around 800 to 900 watts. Four-slice models jump to 1,400 to 1,800 watts because they heat twice the surface area.

At daily use (6 min/day), ranked by annual running cost: Hamilton Beach 22633 (800W): 29.2 kWh, $5.27 a year. Cuisinart CPT-122 (900W): 32.85 kWh, $5.93. Breville BTA840XL 4-Slice (1,800W): 65.7 kWh, $11.86.

The Breville costs $6.59 more per year than the Hamilton Beach. That's 55 cents a month, less than the price of a single slice of bread. If you need four slots, the extra electricity is negligible. If you only toast two slices, a two-slice unit halves the wattage for the same task.

A toaster and a toaster oven sit in the same wattage class (850 to 1,800 watts), but their running costs aren't close. The difference is runtime, not power draw.

Toast takes three minutes. A toaster oven session for reheating runs 15 to 30 minutes. That runtime gap multiplies the cost per session: Toaster (850W, 3 min): 0.8¢. Toaster oven toasting (1,400W at 0.7 duty cycle, 5 min): 1.5¢, about 1.9x. Toaster oven reheating (15 min):4.4¢, about 5.8x. Toaster oven baking (30 min):8.8¢, about 11.5x.

Used daily at 15 minutes, a toaster oven costs $16.14 a year. At 30 minutes, $32.28. The toaster at six minutes: $5.60. The toaster oven isn't expensive in absolute terms, but it's three to six times the toaster for the same household.

The lesson applies to any short-duty kitchen appliance. Runtime, not wattage, drives the bill. A microwave and a coffee maker follow the same pattern: high watts, short runs, low annual cost.

An 850-watt toaster at six minutes per day uses 31 kWh a year everywhere. The cost varies entirely by local rate:

Louisiana (12.44¢/kWh): $3.86. Texas (14.80¢/kWh): $4.59. US average (18.05¢/kWh): $5.60. New York (24.40¢/kWh): $7.57. California (31.01¢/kWh): $9.62. Hawaii (39.79¢/kWh): $12.34.

Hawaii costs 3.2 times Louisiana for the identical toaster and identical usage. Even in the most expensive state, a daily toaster habit costs about a dollar a month. The state rates guide has the full 2026 breakdown.

Preheating a full oven to toast two slices of bread uses roughly three times the energy of a toaster doing the same job. At one toast session per day, swapping the oven for the toaster saves $10 to $15 a year depending on oven wattage and preheat time. The electric kettle follows the same logic against the stovetop.

Two other levers worth knowing: 1. Match the slot count to the bread count. A two-slice 800-watt unit uses less than half the energy of a four-slice 1,800-watt unit for the same two slices. 2. Don't re-toast. Running the cycle twice doubles the per-slice cost. Getting the browning level right the first time is the cheapest setting there is.

The toaster calculator lets you plug in your model's wattage, daily usage, and state rate to see your own number. For context on where a toaster lands against every other kitchen and household appliance, the most expensive appliances roundup covers the full range.