How much does it cost to run a refrigerator?
About $6.57 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 about the electricity cost of running a fridge, not the price of buying one — a new refrigerator typically retails for $500–$2,000.
A fridge pulls ~100–250W, but its compressor only runs about a third of the time — roughly 1–2 kWh/day.
Running a refrigerator at 150W running 33% of 24 h costs about
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A refrigerator never turns off, which makes people assume it's a huge cost — but it's actually modest, because the compressor only kicks on about a third of the time to hold temperature. That's why this estimate uses a part-day run time rather than a full 24 hours: a typical fridge uses somewhere around 1 to 2 kWh a day.
It's a steady background cost rather than a spike, but because it runs every single day of the year, an old, inefficient unit can quietly cost real money over twelve months.
What drives the cost of running a refrigerator
- Age is the big one — a fridge from the 2000s can use two to three times a modern Energy Star model.
- A second fridge or chest freezer in a hot garage runs much harder than one in a cool kitchen.
- Worn door seals, packed-in airflow and a warm room all push the compressor to run longer.
How to cut it
- Keep it set to ~37°F (fridge) and 0°F (freezer) — colder than that just wastes power.
- Vacuum the coils and check the door seal so it isn't working against itself.
- Retire the spare garage beer-fridge if you don't really need it — it's often a top hidden cost.
- When you replace it, the Energy Star number on the label is real annual money.
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 refrigerator, 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
- Cycling load — 150W running 33% of 24 h
- 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 refrigerator per month?
On the assumption shown above — 150W running 33% of 24 h — a refrigerator costs about $6.57 a month, or $78.75 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?
Running power x hours connected x the share of that time the motor actually runs. At 150W running 33% of 24 h that is 1.19 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.22 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a refrigerator?
Keep it set to ~37°F (fridge) and 0°F (freezer) — colder than that just wastes power. As a worked example: getting the run share down from 33% to 26.4% takes it from $78.75 to $63.00 a year, about $15.75 less.
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