How much does it cost to run a clothes dryer?
About $9.61 a month on the typical usage below, at the U.S. average $0.1816/kWh. Set your own rate and usage and the figure updates instantly.
An electric dryer's heating element pulls 3,000–5,000W and a load runs ~45–60 minutes.
Running a clothes dryer at 3 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week costs about
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An electric clothes dryer is one of the biggest single loads in a home — its heating element pulls several thousand watts, and a load runs the better part of an hour. That makes each load cost real money, and a few loads a week is a meaningful chunk of the laundry bill.
Almost all of that energy goes into making heat to evaporate water, so anything that means less water to remove, or less heat needed, directly cuts the cost.
What drives the cost of running a clothes dryer
- The heating element is the whole story — high heat for a full hour is the expensive case.
- Number of loads per week is the multiplier; back-to-back loads also reheat from cold each time.
- A clogged lint filter or vent makes every load run longer to finish drying.
How to cut it
- Run a high-spin wash cycle first — wetter clothes mean a much longer, costlier dry.
- Clean the lint trap every load and keep the vent clear so loads finish faster.
- Dry full loads back-to-back to reuse the residual heat, and use auto-moisture sensing over timed dry.
- A clothesline or rack is free; even drying half your loads that way halves this cost.
Data basis
- Electricity price
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B, June 2026 year to date, released 2026-08-26. Retrieved 2026-09-11. Average residential revenue per kWh. A benchmark average, not a utility tariff — it excludes the fixed charges, tiers, time-of-use windows, taxes and fuel adjustments on a real bill.
- Appliance energy
- A representative running power for a clothes dryer, compiled from published manufacturer specifications and public appliance-energy guidance, and presented as a typical figure with the usual range shown above. It is not a measurement of your unit, and we do not claim a single primary source for it — the nameplate on your appliance, or an hour with a plug-in energy meter, beats any typical figure we can publish.
- Usage model
- Per cycle — 3 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week
- International prices
- rounded typical household tariffs for each market, in that market's own currency unless the row says US$ equivalent. These are planning benchmarks with no single primary source; enter the per-kWh price from your own bill for an accurate figure.
- Last reviewed
- 20 August 2026. Next scheduled review 20 February 2027.
- Corrections
- Think a figure is wrong? Tell us at corrections@watt-dollar.com and see our corrections policy.
Common questions
How much does it cost to run a clothes dryer per month?
On the assumption shown above — 3 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week — a clothes dryer costs about $9.61 a month, or $115 a year, at $0.1816/kWh. That price is the U.S. average; set your own rate and usage above and the figure updates.
How is that worked out?
Energy per cycle x cycles per week, plus any standby draw between cycles. At 3 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week that is 1.74 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.32 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a clothes dryer?
Run a high-spin wash cycle first — wetter clothes mean a much longer, costlier dry. As a worked example: running 3.2 cycles a week instead of 4 takes it from $115 to $92.49 a year, about $22.73 less.