Average electric bill in New York
A typical New York household pays
$164a month · $1964 a year
That is 10% above the national average of $149, the 16th highest bill of the 51 states we track. It covers 590 kilowatt hours a month at 29.93¢ each.
Nobody pays the average
Dearest — July 2025
$219
Cheapest — November 2025
$126
The dearest month costs $93 more than the cheapest — 74% higher and it is air conditioning that does it. New York runs about 800 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 New York the price per kilowatt hour 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 New York's prices rather than on general advice.
Figures are twelve-month averages across 7,477,735 residential accounts in New York, 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 New York rate page for the underlying prices.