How much does a Wi-Fi router cost per month in Illinois?

About $1.40 a month, assuming 10 W, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at 19.22¢/kWh.

How many kilowatt-hours does a Wi-Fi router use?

Roughly 88 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.

Is that expensive compared with other states?

Illinois has the 17th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $16.04 a year.

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Cost to run a Wi-Fi router in Illinois (July 2026 rates)

At 19.22¢ per kilowatt-hour — Illinois's average residential price in July 2026 — running a Wi-Fi router costs $16.84 a year. That is 5% more than the national average of $16.04. Illinois's residential rate is up 11.6% from July 2025, which moves this appliance from $15.08 to $16.84 a year.

Per hour: 0.2¢
Per day of use: 4.6¢
Per month: $1.40
Per year: $16.84

Assumption: 10 W, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — 88 kWh a year. Router plus modem. Mesh systems multiply this by the number of nodes. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.

How Illinois compares

Illinois pays 19.22¢/kWh, the 17th most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to 79.7¢ more a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same Wi-Fi router costs $11.14 a year in Louisiana and $42.05 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $30.91 a year.

State	Rate	Per month	Per year
Delaware	18.48¢	$1.35	$16.19
Wisconsin	19.06¢	$1.39	$16.70
Illinois	19.22¢	$1.40	$16.84
Ohio	19.45¢	$1.42	$17.04
Maryland	21.41¢	$1.56	$18.76

States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a Wi-Fi router.

What else costs about the same in Illinois

Ceiling fan$16.61 a year in IL Hair dryer$18.16 a year in IL Slow cooker$18.45 a year in IL

Cutting the number down

Small and always-on is the pattern worth understanding: 10 W around the clock is 88 kWh a year, more than a microwave.
Mesh nodes each carry their own around-the-clock draw, so an extra node is an extra annual line item.

Questions

How much does a Wi-Fi router cost per month in Illinois?: About $1.40 a month, assuming 10 W, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at 19.22¢/kWh.
How many kilowatt-hours does a Wi-Fi router use?: Roughly 88 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.01 kWh for every hour it runs.
Is that expensive compared with other states?: Illinois has the 17th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs more here than the U.S. average of $16.04 a year.