How much does it cost to run a game console?
About $2.49 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.
This is the cost of the electricity to run a console, not the price of buying one — a current console retails around $300–$500.
A current console pulls ~90–220W while playing — and a few watts in 'rest'/standby mode.
Running a game console at 150W for 3 h a day costs about
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How much a game console costs to run depends almost entirely on which one you own. A Nintendo Switch sips only about 10–18W; an Xbox Series S sits near 50–60W; a PS5 or Xbox Series X pulls 150–200W in a demanding title. This page starts from the big-console figure, so if you're on a Switch, drag the wattage right down — your real cost is a fraction of a PS5's.
By itself an evening of play is modest, but there's a sting people miss: rest/instant-on standby can quietly pull 10–15W every hour of every day, all year — so on the bigger consoles the round-the-clock idling often costs as much as the gaming does.
What drives the cost of running a game console
- Which console you own — a PS5 or Xbox Series X draws roughly 10× a Nintendo Switch for the same hour of play.
- Hours of active play, and whether you're running graphics-heavy titles that push the hardware.
- Rest/instant-on mode keeps it sipping power 24/7 for fast resume — cheap per hour, but it never stops.
How to cut it
- Switch off instant-on/rest mode if you don't need quick resume — it runs all day otherwise.
- Fully power down after a session rather than leaving it idling on a menu.
- Use a cheap streaming stick for video instead of firing up the whole console.
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 game console, 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
- Steady load — 150W for 3 h a day
- 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 game console per month?
On the assumption shown above — 150W for 3 h a day — a game console costs about $2.49 a month, or $29.83 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?
Power drawn while running x hours run per day. At 150W for 3 h a day that is 0.45 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.08 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a game console?
Switch off instant-on/rest mode if you don't need quick resume — it runs all day otherwise. As a worked example: running it 2.4 h a day instead of 3 h takes it from $29.83 to $23.86 a year, about $5.97 less.
Does a PS5 or Xbox Series X cost more to run than a Nintendo Switch?
Yes, and it's not close. A PS5 or Xbox Series X pulls roughly 150–200W in a demanding game, while a Nintendo Switch draws about 10–18W — so the same hour of play can cost close to ten times as much on the bigger consoles. Set the wattage to match your own console for a real figure.