Cost to run a laptop in Alabama (July 2026 rates)
At 16.40¢ per kilowatt-hour — Alabama's average residential price in July 2026 — running a laptop costs $19.68 a year. That is 10% less than the national average of $21.97. Alabama's residential rate is up 3.0% from July 2025, which moves this appliance from $19.12 to $19.68 a year.
- Per hour
- 1.0¢
- Per day of use
- 7.9¢
- Per month
- $1.64
- Per year
- $19.68
Assumption: 60 W, 8 hours a day, 250 days a year — 120 kWh a year. Charging and working. Once the battery is full, draw drops toward 20 to 30 W for light work. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
How Alabama compares
Alabama pays 16.40¢/kWh, the 24th most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $2.29 less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same laptop costs $15.26 a year in Louisiana and $57.60 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $42.34 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | 16.09¢ | $1.61 | $19.31 |
| Georgia | 16.27¢ | $1.63 | $19.52 |
| Alabama | 16.40¢ | $1.64 | $19.68 |
| Indiana | 16.73¢ | $1.67 | $20.08 |
| Colorado | 17.00¢ | $1.70 | $20.40 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a laptop.
What else costs about the same in Alabama
Cutting the number down
- A laptop typically uses a fifth to a tenth of what a comparable desktop does for ordinary work.
- The charger left plugged in with no laptop attached draws almost nothing on modern units.
Questions
- How much does a laptop cost per month in Alabama?
- About $1.64 a month, assuming 60 W, 8 hours a day, 250 days a year at 16.40¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does a laptop use?
- Roughly 120 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.06 kWh for every hour it runs.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- Alabama has the 24th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $21.97 a year.