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Cost to run a window air conditioner in Texas (June 2026 rates)
At 15.94¢ per kilowatt-hour — Texas's average residential price in June 2026 — running a window air conditioner costs $110 a year. That is 13% less than the national average of $127. Texas's residential rate is up 4.5% from June 2025, which moves this appliance from $105 to $110 a year.
- Per hour
- 11.5¢
- Per day of use
- 91.8¢
- Per month
- $9.18
- Per year
- $110
Assumption: 900 W at a 80% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year — 691 kWh a year. Typical of a 10,000 BTU window unit. Small 5,000 BTU units draw closer to 500 W; 15,000 BTU units closer to 1,400 W. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
How Texas compares
Texas pays 15.94¢/kWh, the 24th cheapest residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $16.59 less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same window air conditioner costs $90.62 a year in Nevada and $364 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $274 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas | 15.71¢ | $9.05 | $109 |
| Iowa | 15.93¢ | $9.18 | $110 |
| Texas | 15.94¢ | $9.18 | $110 |
| Missouri | 16.22¢ | $9.34 | $112 |
| Oregon | 16.32¢ | $9.40 | $113 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for a window air conditioner.
What else costs about the same in Texas
Cutting the number down
- Sealing the gaps around the sleeve with foam matters more than the unit's efficiency rating. Warm air leaking back in is load you pay to remove twice.
- An inverter model modulates instead of slamming on and off, which shows up as a lower effective duty cycle rather than a lower nameplate watt.
- Shading the outdoor half of the unit lowers the temperature it rejects heat into, which lowers the work it has to do.
Questions
- How much does a window air conditioner cost per month in Texas?
- About $9.18 a month, assuming 900 W at a 80% duty cycle, 8 hours a day, 120 days a year at 15.94¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does a window air conditioner use?
- Roughly 691 kWh a year under these assumptions, or 0.72 kWh for every hour it runs.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- Texas has the 24th cheapest average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $127 a year.