Average electric bill in Illinois
A typical Illinois household pays
$132a month · $1589 a year
That is 11% below the national average of $149, the 35th highest bill of the 51 states we track. It covers 719 kilowatt hours a month at 23.85¢ each.
Nobody pays the average
Dearest — July 2025
$184
Cheapest — November 2025
$105
The dearest month costs $79 more than the cheapest — 75% higher and it is air conditioning that does it. Illinois runs about 1,100 cooling degree days a year, so the summer bill is where any efficiency gain shows up.
Why the bill is what it is
A bill is a rate multiplied by a quantity, and in Illinois the amount of electricity used is doing most of the work. Comparing your own bill to this figure only tells you something once you know which of the two you could actually change — the rate is largely fixed, the quantity is not.
Heating and cooling are usually the largest movable part. Whether that means a heat pump, a more efficient air conditioner, or neither depends on Illinois's prices rather than on general advice.
Figures are twelve-month averages across 5,410,276 residential accounts in Illinois, from the US Energy Information Administration. They describe the state, not your house — square footage, insulation and what you keep the thermostat at move an individual bill a long way. See the Illinois rate page for the underlying prices.