How much does it cost to run a washing machine?
About $1.71 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.
The machine itself only uses ~350–1,000W; the real cost is the hot water you wash with.
Running a washing machine at 0.5 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week costs about
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A washing machine's motor is surprisingly cheap to run — a few hundred watts for the wash and spin. The cost people don't see is the hot water: if you wash warm or hot, most of the energy is your water heater heating that water, not the machine itself.
That's why 'wash cold' is the single biggest laundry-saving tip — it sidesteps the water-heating cost almost entirely.
What drives the cost of running a washing machine
- Water temperature dominates — hot washes pull from your (often electric) water heater.
- The machine's own motor draw is small by comparison.
- High-efficiency front-loaders use less water, and so less water heating.
How to cut it
- Wash in cold water — modern detergents are built for it and it cuts most of the cost.
- Run full loads and use the high-spin option to wring out more water before drying.
- Skip 'sanitize'/extra-hot cycles unless you truly need them.
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 washing machine, 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 — 0.5 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 washing machine per month?
On the assumption shown above — 0.5 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week — a washing machine costs about $1.71 a month, or $20.53 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 0.5 kWh a cycle, 4 cycles a week that is 0.31 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.06 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a washing machine?
Wash in cold water — modern detergents are built for it and it cuts most of the cost. As a worked example: running 3.2 cycles a week instead of 4 takes it from $20.53 to $16.74 a year, about $3.79 less.