How Much Does a TV Cost to Run? LED vs OLED vs QLED (2026)

A TV draws its rated wattage the whole time the screen is on. Unlike a refrigerator or an air conditioner, there is no compressor cycling on and off, so the math is direct: watts times hours, times the rate, divided by a thousand. A 65-inch LED pulling 115 watts for four hours a day uses 0.46 kWh, about 8 cents at the US average rate of 18.05¢/kWh from the EIA Electric Power Monthly. Over a year that's 167.9 kWh and $30.31.

The reason a TV stays cheap is that the watts are modest and the hours are bounded. Even a household watching eight hours a day on a large OLED tops out under $90 a year. That is a fraction of what the most expensive appliances to run cost, where central air, electric heat, and water heating each climb into the hundreds. The television is rarely the line item driving a high bill.

All figures assume four hours of daily viewing at 18.05¢/kWh. Wattages are the typical on-mode draw for current models, drawn from manufacturer spec sheets and the ENERGY STAR televisions product page.

LED 55-inch (80W): 116.8 kWh a year, $21.08, or $1.76 a month. LED 65-inch (115W): 167.9 kWh, $30.31, $2.53 a month. OLED 55-inch (130W): 189.8 kWh, $34.26, $2.85 a month. OLED 65-inch (170W): 248.2 kWh, $44.80, $3.73 a month.

An OLED lights each pixel individually, so a bright full-screen image draws more power than an LED, where a single backlight stays lit behind the whole panel. At the same 65-inch size, an OLED averages 170 watts against the LED's 115. QLED is an LED panel with a quantum-dot color layer, so it draws like an LED, usually at the higher end because QLED backlights run brighter to hit their peak color. A 65-inch QLED lands around 140 watts. Panel type matters more than brand here: a 55-inch OLED uses more than a 65-inch LED despite the smaller screen.

Plug a power meter into a 65-inch OLED during a bright sports broadcast and it pulls close to 180 watts. Switch the same set to a dim, cinematic movie and the draw drops under 100, because the dark pixels are simply off. An LED barely changes with content, since the backlight runs flat regardless of what is on screen. This is why OLED owners who watch a lot of dark, film-style content often pay less than the nameplate suggests, while bright-room sports viewers pay more.

If you still run a plasma set from the early 2010s, it is the one television worth retiring on cost alone. A 55-inch plasma drew 280 to 400 watts, roughly four times a modern LED of the same size. At four hours a day that's about $92 a year against $21. The efficiency gain from plasma to modern LED is the largest single jump in the category.

On a 65-inch LED, streaming four hours a day costs $30.31 a year. The same set running six hours, closer to a household that leaves it on through dinner and the evening news, costs $45.46. Push it to eight hours of always-on background viewing and you reach $60.61. Doubling the hours doubles the cost, and on most sets that swing is larger than the entire gap between LED and OLED.

The same logic applies to gaming. A console drives the screen at full brightness for long sessions, and the console itself draws more than the TV. A PS5 costs more to run than the OLED it is plugged into. If the bill is what you care about, watch-time and play-time are the bigger levers than which panel you buy.

A modern television draws 1 to 3 watts when it's off but plugged in, waiting for the remote. For the 20 hours a day a typical set sits idle, that comes to $1.32 to $3.95 a year. ENERGY STAR certified models cap both on-mode and standby draw, and the current spec holds standby near or under 2 watts, so a certified set sits at the low end of that range.

It is a small number on the TV alone, but it runs whether or not anyone is watching, and it stacks across the rack. A soundbar, a console, and a receiver on the same wall add their own idle draw. An AV receiver on network standby costs far more in idle power than the TV it feeds. The full picture is in the standby power guide. A switched power strip cuts all of it at once.

A 65-inch LED at 167.9 kWh a year costs very different amounts depending on where it is plugged in:

Louisiana (12.44¢/kWh): $20.89. US average (18.05¢/kWh): $30.31. California (~31¢/kWh): $52.05. Hawaii (39.79¢/kWh): $66.81.

Hawaii is 3.2 times the cost of Louisiana for the identical set drawing identical watts. The state rates guide has the current 2026 rate for every state if you want to run the exact number for your location.

1. Backlight and brightness. Most TVs ship in a showroom-bright "vivid" mode that runs the backlight at full. Dropping it to 60 to 70 percent cuts 20 to 30 percent of the watts with little visible difference in a normally lit room. On a 65-inch LED at $30.31 a year, a 25 percent cut saves about $7.58.

2. Eco mode and content.An OLED draws far less on dark scenes, so watching cinematic content over bright sports, plus an eco or calibrated picture mode, can shave 30 to 40 percent. On a 65-inch OLED at $44.80 a year, that's up to $15.68. The DOE's guidance on home appliances and electronics puts power management and brightness settings at the top of the list for screens.

3. Standby. A smart plug or switched power strip kills the 1 to 3 watt idle draw entirely. It is worth $1.32 to $3.95 a year on the TV by itself, and more once you cut the soundbar and console sharing the same strip.

1. No TV is worth losing sleep over. Even a 65-inch OLED watched eight hours a day costs under $90 a year, and a 55-inch LED at typical use is $21. If your bill is high, the television is almost never the cause. Look at the always-on loads and the heating and cooling first.

2. Panel and size set the floor, hours set the rest. The spread between the cheapest and priciest common set is about $24 a year at four hours a day. Watch twice as long and you add more than that. Watch-time is a bigger lever than which set you buy.

3. State rates multiply everything. The same 65-inch LED costs $20.89 in Louisiana and $66.81 in Hawaii. The watts are identical. The rate is the one variable you cannot change with a settings menu.

The calculators at the 55-inch LED, 65-inch LED, 55-inch OLED, and 65-inch OLED pages run the same formula at your state's actual rate and your set's actual wattage. The appliance wattage chart ranks every household device with the same math applied consistently.