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The average utility bill, broken down

"The utility bill" is really three or four separate bills wearing one name. This page separates them, prices the parts EIA publishes an official average for, and is explicit about the parts it doesn't — because a total built from mixed verified and invented parts would be worse than no total.

Part 1: electricity — the part with a true average

Electricity is the one utility where EIA publishes a genuine average household bill for every state: $142.26 a month nationally in 2024, from $92.88 in New Mexico to $212.12 in Hawaii. The full ranking:

Source: EIA, Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861).

Part 2: natural gas — a price, applied to your usage

For a gas-heated home, gas is the largest winter cost — but it has no honest "average bill" on this site, because EIA's annual state table publishes the delivered price (U.S. average $14.50/Mcf, about $1.40 per therm) without a matching household consumption figure. Price your own: a gas-heated home's January can run several times its July, and only your meter knows your number. The calculator multiplies your therms by your state's price; the gas guide ranks all 50 states.

Part 3: delivered fuels — priced by the tank, not the month

Heating oil and propane homes don't get a monthly bill at all; they get deliveries. The comparable unit is the fill: a 275-gallon oil fill at the October 19, 2026 U.S. average price costs $1,702.25, and a 500-gallon propane fill $1,344.50. How many fills a winter takes is a property of your house and your climate, not of any table — see the heating oil and propane guides for your state's surveyed price, where one exists.

Part 4: the non-energy utilities

Water, sewer, and trash collection complete most households' true "utility bill," but they are municipal and hyper-local — priced by your city or district, with no federal state-average series behind them. They are outside this site's energy scope and we publish no figures for them.

The seasonal warning every average carries

Every average on this page is an annual average month, and no household lives in an average month. Cooling states peak in August, heating states in January, and a single extreme month can double the annual-average figure. Budget on the annual total — the average month times twelve — and treat the monthly swings as timing, not surprise.

Sources: EIA — Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861) · EIA — Natural Gas Annual 2024, Table 23 (Form EIA-176) · EIA — Heating Oil and Propane Update (week of October 19, 2026). Researched October 2026 — energy prices move with seasons and markets; confirm the current rate on your own bill.