Illinois (IL) electricity and natural gas rates
Electricity
19.22¢
per kWh
Natural gas
$2.03
per therm
Gas and electricity in the same unit
A therm is 29.3 kilowatt hours of energy, so Illinois's gas works out at 6.92¢ per kWh against 19.22¢ for electricity.
That compares the energy you buy, not the heat you get. A furnace throws away a fifth of every therm up the flue, while a heat pump delivers two to three times the heat in a kilowatt hour — so the cheaper unit here is not automatically the cheaper way to heat a house.
Residential sector, US Energy Information Administration, 2026-07. Updated monthly.
How Illinois compares
At 19.22¢ per kWh, Illinois is below the national average of 19.26¢, making it the 35th cheapest of the 51 states we track.
What a typical Illinois household uses
Electricity a month
700 kWh
Bill a month
$132
Households in Illinois use 19% less electricity than the national average and pay 13% less than average. Light use and a below-average rate together, which is the cheapest position a state can be in. The climate is fairly balanced — 5,900 heating degree days against 1,100 cooling ones — so neither season dominates the bill.
More on this: the average electric bill in Illinois, including how far it swings between seasons.
Averaged over twelve months across 5,418,916 residential accounts in Illinois. Source: EIA.
What this means for heating
Illinois sees around 130 freezing nights a year. Whether a heat pump beats a furnace here depends on the gap between those two prices above — not on the equipment.
Run the numbers for your ZIPOther states
More for Illinois
Everything in Illinois
All five figures at once
Average electric bill in Illinois
What households pay
Cost to run AC in Illinois
Per hour and per year
Cost to heat a home in Illinois
Gas vs heat pump
Heat pump cost in Illinois
To install, and vs a furnace
Furnace replacement cost in Illinois
What a new one costs
Solar payback in Illinois
Whether panels pay off