How much does it cost to run a microwave?
About $1.59 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.
Microwaves pull ~700–1,500W but for minutes, so they're a cheap way to heat food.
Running a microwave at 0.08 kWh a cycle, 21 cycles a week costs about
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A microwave is one of the cheapest things in your kitchen to run, and the reason is timing, not wattage. It pulls a real 700–1,500 watts while it's on — as much as a space heater — but it's only ever on for a couple of minutes at a stretch, so a full year of reheating leftovers and popping popcorn can cost less than a single evening with a space heater running.
Where people get surprised is comparing it to the oven: a microwave heats the food directly instead of heating a box of air around it, so it does the same reheating job in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the energy. The only way to spend real money on a microwave is to run it stacked back-to-back for long cook times — think a whole holiday's worth of dishes — or to leave a clock-display model plugged in and drawing standby power for years on end.
What drives the cost of running a microwave
- Run time, not power level, is what actually costs money — a microwave draws its full 700-1,500W the whole time it's on, but that's usually just minutes a day.
- Bigger and more powerful microwaves (1,200W+ commercial-style units) cook faster, which often cancels out most of the higher wattage in total energy used.
- Standby power for the clock and display runs 24/7 in the background and, over a year, can add up to more than the actual cooking does.
How to cut it
- Match the power level to the job — 50-70% power for defrosting or reheating dense food uses less energy than blasting full power and reheating unevenly.
- Stop opening the door to check food early; each restart pulls the same startup draw as beginning a fresh cook.
- Unplug it (or use a switched power strip) if it has an always-on clock or display — standby draw adds a few dollars a year for basically nothing.
- Use it instead of the oven for small reheats: a microwave finishing in 2 minutes beats a 350°F oven preheating for 10.
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 microwave, 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 — 0.08 kWh a cycle, 21 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 microwave per month?
On the assumption shown above — 0.08 kWh a cycle, 21 cycles a week — a microwave costs about $1.59 a month, or $19.09 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 0.08 kWh a cycle, 21 cycles a week that is 0.29 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.05 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a microwave?
Match the power level to the job — 50-70% power for defrosting or reheating dense food uses less energy than blasting full power and reheating unevenly. As a worked example: running 16.8 cycles a week instead of 21 takes it from $19.09 to $15.91 a year, about $3.18 less.
Does a bigger, more powerful microwave cost more to run?
Not by much in practice. A 1,200W microwave draws more power than a 700W one, but it also finishes cooking faster, so the total energy used per reheat ends up close to the same. The wattage number on the door matters less than how many minutes a day you actually run it.
Is the microwave cheaper than using my oven or stovetop?
For small portions and reheating, yes, usually by a wide margin. A microwave heats the food directly for a couple of minutes; an oven has to heat its whole interior first, often for 10+ minutes, before the food even starts cooking. For anything you'd reheat in under 5 minutes, the microwave almost always wins on cost.