How to Compare Texas Electricity Rates by Usage (3 Ways, 2026)

To compare Texas electricity rates by usage, price every plan against your own 12-month kWh usage, not the advertised 1,000 kWh benchmark. Calculating each plan’s true monthly bill requires factoring in all charges from the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) including base charges, energy rates, bill credits, and TDU delivery fees to find what you’ll actually pay.

You can compare plans using three methods:

1. Use PowertoChoose plus a spreadsheet to calculate every plan for your usage.
2. Use ElectricityPlans’ free BillSmart™ Low Bill Finder; it runs the math on all your options to find the cheapest plan based on your usage.
3. Or hand over your personal information to a paid concierge like Energy Ogre ($130/year) and have them pick a plan for you.

Why the Advertised Electricity Rate is Misleading

The advertised rate combines kWh charges, base charges and bill credits into a single average based on exactly 1,000 kWh usage per month. Move 50 kWh in either direction and tyour effective rate changes.

Plan	EFL Details	500 kWh Price	1,000 kWh Price	2,000 kWh Price
Bill Credit Plan	12.7629¢/kWh energy $125 credit at 1000+ +Plus delivery	20.3¢	7.3¢	13.3¢
Fixed Rate Plan	7.0¢/kWh energy No credits/fees +Plus delivery	14.5¢	14.0¢	13.8¢

^{Source: ElectricityPlans.com, CenterPoint pricing for 2 select plans on 10/5/2026}

Sorted at 1,000 kWh, the bill credit plan looks like it’s half the price of the Fixed Rate Plan. Whether it actually is depends entirely on how many months you hit 1,000 kWh.

“The plans that look cheapest at 1,000 kWh are often designed to win that one number, not to give most households the lowest bill,” explains Shannon Bedrich, CPA, co-founder of ElectricityPlans.com. “Unless your home uses exactly 500, 1,000 or 2,000 kWh, you have to look at what you use each month and the EFL bill math to know what you’ll actually pay.”

Pro Tip: A bill credit plan is not automatically bad. You just have to calculate what they cost vs. your actual usage. (Hint: that’s what BillSmart Low Bill Finder will do for you, for free.)

Method 1: Compare by usage on Power to Choose (manual + free)

Power to Choose lists plans from every electricity provider in your ZIP code, but it only shows prices at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh. To compare at your usage, you take the EFL apart and rebuild the bill yourself. Plan on 2+ hours for this excel spreadsheet project.

1. Get 12 months of kWh. Pull the “kWh used” line from 12 bills, your provider’s online account, or a usage download from Smart Meter Texas
2. Enter your ZIP on PowerToChoose.org
3. Pick the usage level closest to your average. Compare plans initially based on 500, 1,000 or 2,000, whichever is closest to your average usage.
4. Shortlist 5 to 8 plans. Use the 500/1000/2000 selection to narrow down your options. Pick several bill credit plans and several fixed rate plans that you think might fit your usage.
5. Open each plan’s EFL. Using the Electricity Facts Label, write down the base charge, the energy charge per kWh, every bill credit and its per kWh trigger, any minimum usage or base charges and the TDU charges.
6. Build each month’s bill. For each of your 12 months, calculate: base charge + (kWh x energy charge) + TDU fixed fee + (kWh x TDU rate) − bill credits.
7. Rank plans. Add up the 12 monthly bills for each plan. Pick the cheapest plan by total annual cost.

According to our 2026 Texas Electricity Consumer Confidence Survey, 52.2% of Texans picked a provider based on price or the lowest rate. But 30% of Texans don’t understand that the advertised rate is not what they’ll actually pay. And 44% say complex math keeps them from shopping and switching.

Method 2: Compare by usage with BillSmart Low Bill Finder (automatic + free)

The ElectricityPlans’ BillSmart Low Bill Finder does the math for you in under 5 minutes.

1. Enter your ZIP code. The tool loads every plan for your service area.
2. Choose how to shop. Shop on your own or use the BillSmart Low Bill Finder tool to calculate your real cost for every plan.
3. Add your usage. Enter usage from one or more bills, your average usage, or tell us the square footage of your home (perfect for new movers). The tool projects your month-by-month consumption using our data model and ERCOT residential usage data.
4. Review your plans. We’ll surface the top 3 cheapest plans based on your effective rate, and sort all other plans in order of cheapest to most expensive.
5. Check the details. The Plan Details shows your month by month usge, which months a bill credit may or may not apply, your total annual cost with each plan and all the math that goes into the ranking order.
6. Enroll. Complete the enrollment on your selected plan.
7. Optional: Sign up for free contract expiration reminders.

What it does that Power to Choose does not: ElectricityPlans’ Low Bill Finder ranks electricity plans based on what you’ll pay for your usage, not by the advertised price at 1,000 kWh. It rebuilds each month’s bill from the Electricity Facts Label for the plan. It calculates the months you earn a bill credit and the months you don’t, then totals your annualized cost and shows how much you’ll actually pay per kWh.

What it does not do: It does not enroll you automatically, monitor your contract after you sign up or handle renewals. You stay in control of the choice and keep your credit card and other information private.

Method 3: Hand it off to a concierge (automatic + subscription cost)

Services like Energy Ogre automate plan selection and switching for an ongoing subscription fee.

• Cost: $12 a month or $130 annually.
• What you get: It builds a usage profile from your bills or data from your TDU, enrolls you, and manages renewals and switches.
• What you give up: You do not choose the plan yourself and don’t see any of the math they performed. The program adds $130+ to your annual electricity cost. You also must hand over your social security number or drivers license and access to your credit card or bank account.
• Low-usage caveat: Energy Ogre’s own comparison page acknowledges that homes using under about 700 kWh a month may not save enough to justify the fee.

Pro Tip: A concierge only pays off if it saves you more than its $130 yearly fee compared with a plan you’d pick yourself. If you often miss renewal dates, it may be worth it. If you can spend just 5 minutes a year with a usage-based tool that offers free renewal reminders, it usually isn’t worth it to pay a concierge.

What’s that Fine Print Say: Savings estimates on Energy Ogre compare your contract rate vs. data from the Energy Information Administration and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). This data can lag by 3 months, which can inflate your potential savings.

Which Method Should You Use?

Use BillSmart Low Bill Finder if you want usage-based pricing without the spreadsheet, Power to Choose if you want to check every number yourself, and a concierge if you don’t want to manage renewals.

	Power to Choose (manual process)	ElectricityPlans.com BillSmart Low Bill Finder (automated calculator)	Energy Ogre (concierge)
Cost to you	Free	Free	$12/month or $130/year
Prices plans at your usage?	No	Yes	Yes
Time to shop	1-2 hours	10 minutes	10 minutes
Who picks the plan	You	You	Them
Handles renewals	No	No; offers free renewal reminders	Yes
Retains your personal information	No	No	Yes
How it is paid	N/A	Provider commission	Member fees
Best for	DIY shoppers who want to verify everything	Households that want automated tools to find the cheapest plan.	People who don't want to shop and who use over 700 kWh/month

Case study: Electricity Plan Comparison Fixed Rate vs. Bill Credit

Our author has a 1474 square foot home in Houston using 12,096 kWh annually (~1008 kWh/month).

At first glance, the bill credit plan advertised at 7.3¢ at 1,000 looks like the perfect fit for a small home using 1,008 kWh a month.

Plan	EFL Details	500 kWh Price	1,000 kWh Price	2,000 kWh Price
Bill Credit Plan	12.7629¢/kWh energy $125 credit at 1000+ +Plus delivery	20.3¢	7.3¢	13.3¢
Fixed Rate Plan	7.0¢/kWh energy No credits/fees +Plus delivery	14.5¢	14.0¢	13.8¢

But when you do the math, you come to a very different conclusion. Here’s how the monthly usage breaks down and what monthly bills look like under each plan.

We’ll look at the bill credit plan first. Here’s our result from the BillSmart Low Bill Finder. The total annual spend is $1,768, with an average monthly bill of $147 and an effective rate of 14.6¢/kWh. That’s because the monthly usage drops below 1,000 kWh in 7 our of 12 months and misses the kWh credit threshold most of the year.

And now the fixed rate plan, with our Low Bill Finder result below. The total annual spend is $1,697 with an average monthly bill of $141 and an effective rate of 14¢/kWh. The fixed rate plan saves $71 per year compared to the bill credit plan, despite it having a higher advertised price at 1,000 kWh.

FAQs – Electricity Rates by Usage

Photo Credit: ©Mirsad Sarajilic from Getty Images via Canva.com