How much does it cost to run a monitor?
About $1.00 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.
A typical monitor pulls ~15–60W; big or ultrawide screens sit at the top of that.
Running a monitor at 30W for 6 h a day costs about
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A monitor is one of the cheapest things running in your house, and it's not close. Most monitors pull just 15 to 60 watts — a fraction of what a space heater or hair dryer uses — because the panel itself is the only thing drawing real power; there's no motor, no compressor, no element making heat.
Run a 30-watt monitor eight hours a day and you're looking at roughly a dollar a month, which is why upgrading your monitor almost never shows up as a savings tip worth chasing. The one place wattage actually swings is screen size and type: a big ultrawide or a high-brightness gaming panel can push toward 60W and above, while a small basic LED display can sit under 20W.
What drives the cost of running a monitor
- Screen size and panel type — ultrawide and large gaming monitors draw meaningfully more than a standard 24-inch LED panel
- Brightness setting — running the backlight near maximum brightness pulls more watts than a dimmer, eco, or auto-brightness setting
- Hours actually on and awake — a monitor left on (not asleep) all workday adds up differently than one that sleeps between uses
How to cut it
- Turn on sleep/standby after a few minutes of inactivity instead of leaving the screen on and idle
- Lower brightness — most people run monitors brighter than they need to, especially indoors
- If you run multiple monitors, only power on the ones you're actively using
- When shopping, an ultrawide or higher-refresh gaming monitor will cost more to run than a smaller standard panel — worth knowing going in, even if the difference is small
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 monitor, 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 — 30W for 6 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 monitor per month?
On the assumption shown above — 30W for 6 h a day — a monitor costs about $1.00 a month, or $11.93 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 30W for 6 h a day that is 0.18 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.03 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a monitor?
Turn on sleep/standby after a few minutes of inactivity instead of leaving the screen on and idle As a worked example: running it 4.8 h a day instead of 6 h takes it from $11.93 to $9.54 a year, about $2.39 less.
Does leaving a monitor on standby still cost money?
Yes, but very little — standby/sleep mode typically draws only 1-2 watts, a small fraction of the 15-60W it uses while displaying an image, so sleeping it between uses barely moves your bill compared to fully shutting it off.
Is it cheaper to run one big monitor or two small ones?
It depends on total wattage, not the number of screens — two small 20W monitors can use less power combined than one large 60W ultrawide, so check each monitor's actual wattage rather than assuming fewer screens means lower cost.