Best Electricity Plan for High and Low Usage Texas Homes

A 900-square-foot apartment and a 3,500-square-foot house should not be on the same electricity plan. Yet most Texans pick a plan based on a single advertised rate without considering how plan economics shift at different usage levels. Here is what changes and why it matters.

What does a kWh cost in Texas?

About 13.4¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh a month, delivery charges included, before taxes. That is the median (half cost less, half cost more) of 720 plain fixed-rate plan listings on Power to Choose for Texas's competitive utility areas on October 18, 2026, leaving out plans with usage credits, minimum-usage fees or time-of-use pricing. The middle half were between 12.2¢ and 14.5¢. At 13.4¢, a 1,000 kWh month comes to about $134 before taxes.

Each figure is the median of the average price per kWh that providers list for each plan on Power to Choose, which should match the plan's Electricity Facts Label: energy, delivery and monthly fees divided by usage, with sales tax and gross-receipts-tax charges left out. The facts label is the authority for any one plan. Plans Power to Choose flags for usage credits or minimum-usage fees are left out of these medians because their price per kWh jumps around with usage (more on each below), and so are time-of-use, prepaid and variable-rate plans and terms under 3 months.

Why the price per kWh drops as usage rises: the fixed monthly parts of a bill, such as a provider's base charge and the utility's monthly customer charge, are spread over more kWh. Oncor customers should note that Oncor's delivery charge went up by about 0.84¢ per kWh on October 4, and some Oncor-area prices listed on October 18 still used the old rate. See what Oncor's October 4 increase could add to your bill.

How Plan Pricing Actually Works at Different Usage Levels

Texas electricity plans are not simple per-kWh rates. Most plans have a structure that includes:

• Base charges: A flat monthly fee charged regardless of usage. This hits low-usage homes harder as a percentage of the total bill.
• Tiered energy rates: The per-kWh rate often changes at usage thresholds. Some plans get cheaper above 1,000 kWh; others get more expensive.
• TDU delivery charges: Your local utility (Oncor, CenterPoint, etc.) charges a combination of flat fees and per-kWh delivery rates. These are the same regardless of your electricity provider.
• Bill credits: Some plans give you a credit (up to $125 in the facts labels we read on October 18, 2026) when you hit a usage threshold like 1,000 or 2,000 kWh. Miss the threshold by 1 kWh and you lose the credit entirely.

Is a plan with a high base charge but a lower price per kWh cheaper?

Only above a break-even usage. For plans with one base charge and one energy charge, you can work it out from two numbers. Divide the difference in monthly base charges by the difference in energy charge per kWh. For example, take two made-up plans, one with a $9.95 base charge and 12¢ per kWh and one with no base charge and 14¢ per kWh: $9.95 ÷ $0.02 is about 500 kWh. In a month under about 500 kWh, the plan with no base charge costs less; above it, the one with the base charge does. If both facts labels list delivery as a separate pass-through charge, delivery doesn't move the line, because your utility's delivery rates are the same whichever plan you pick.

Three things to check before trusting the line:

• Compare like with like. If one facts label lists delivery separately and the other folds it into its price per kWh, compare the labels' average prices at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh instead, which include energy, delivery and monthly charges at those levels but not taxes or one-time fees. If either label is dated before your utility's latest delivery-rate change, its prices may still use the old rate.
• Look for anything else that changes with usage: a usage credit, a minimum-usage fee, or an energy or base charge that changes at a usage level. Any of them moves the break-even.
• Run it month by month, not on your average. A home that uses 400 kWh in April and 1,800 in August can land on both sides of the line in the same year.

Why do most usage credits start at 1,000 kWh, not 999?

Because the credit is all or nothing at a line, and 1,000 kWh is one of the three usage levels every plan's price is shown at. A usage credit (also called a bill credit) is a fixed dollar amount taken off your bill in a month when your usage reaches a set level. Every Texas Electricity Facts Label shows the plan's average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, so a credit that starts at exactly 1,000 kWh is counted in the 1,000 kWh price. At 999 kWh you get none of it.

Of the 562 plan listings whose facts label we had read on October 18, 2026, 56 had a credit tied to usage. 50 of them set the line at 1,000 kWh and the other 6 at 2,000 kWh. Read the exact words on your label: “more than 999 kWh” and “1,000 kWh or more” are the same line, while “more than 1,000 kWh” is one kWh higher. If the wording and the label's 1,000 kWh price don't agree, ask the provider in writing which applies before you count on the credit.

Worked example. One plan listed in the Oncor area on October 18 charges 17¢ per kWh for energy and takes $125 off a month's bill when you use 1,000 kWh or more. Its facts label uses Oncor's delivery charge from October 4: $4.06 a month plus 6.8673¢ per kWh.

Our arithmetic from the plan's facts label; the 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh prices match the label's own.

Going from 999 to 1,000 kWh cuts this bill by $124.76. Its 1,000 kWh price, 11.8¢, is below the 13.5¢ Oncor median in the table above, but at every other usage level shown here it costs more per kWh than any of the Oncor medians. That plan's label also says the credit may not apply in a partial billing cycle, such as your first or last month on the plan. If your usage swings across the line from season to season, add up all 12 months before you compare.

How are minimum-usage fees calculated?

A minimum-usage fee is a charge added to any month your usage comes in under a set line. On the plan above it is a flat $4.99 in any month under 400 kWh, however far under you are: at 399 kWh the bill is $104.28, and at 400 kWh it is $99.53, so one more kWh lowers the bill by $4.75.

A fee that applies only below 500 kWh never shows up in the three prices on the facts label, so read the fee lines if your usage can drop that low: a small apartment, a mild spring, a month away. Another shape works like a minimum bill: one Oncor-area plan listed on October 18 charges $135 a month, which covers your first 1,000 kWh with delivery included, and 14¢ per kWh above that. At 500 kWh you still pay $135 before taxes, which is 27¢ per kWh.

In Power to Choose's plan data, the same “minimum usage” flag marks plans with usage credits as well as plans with fees. On October 18, all 56 listings with a usage credit in our data carried it.

Does any plan waive TDU delivery charges?

A plan can't waive them: delivery charges belong to your utility, not your plan. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP charge them under rates the Public Utility Commission of Texas approves, and Lubbock Power & Light under rates the City of Lubbock sets. They apply to the power you use on any plan in that area. None of the 562 facts labels we had read on October 18 offered to waive or cover them above a usage level.

What plans do differently is how delivery shows up on the bill. Many facts labels list it as a separate pass-through line; some fold it into one monthly charge and price per kWh, like the $135 plan above. Either way, it's in what you pay. A usage credit is a fixed amount off the whole bill: it isn't tied to delivery, even when it is about the same size. And a fixed rate doesn't freeze delivery: if your plan's terms pass delivery changes through, a change in the utility's rate changes your price during the contract.

Time-of-use and off-peak plans, briefly

A time-of-use plan charges a different price depending on when you use power. Some hours are free or cheaper than the rest. On October 18, 2026, 52 of the 930 plan listings in our data were time-of-use, including free-nights, free-daytime (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on several) and free-weekends plans.

Whether one costs less for you depends on how much of your usage falls in the cheap hours. To print its average prices, a time-of-use plan's facts label has to assume how usage splits across the day, and yours may split differently. For the math on free-nights plans, see free nights electricity plans in Texas.

Low-Usage Homes (Under 800 kWh/month)

Short answer: under 800 kWh a month, look for a simple fixed-rate plan with a low or no base charge and no usage credit or minimum-usage fee. On a small bill, a fixed monthly charge adds more to each kWh, and a credit you never reach does nothing for you.

If you consistently use less than 800 kWh per month (small apartments, efficient homes, or households where nobody is home during the day), here is what to watch for:

What Works

• Plans with low or zero base charges. A $10/month base charge on a 500 kWh bill adds 2¢/kWh to your effective rate. On a 2,000 kWh bill, it adds only 0.5¢/kWh.
• Simple fixed-rate plans without usage credits. Credits designed for 1,000+ kWh usage will never benefit you.
• Short-term contracts (6–12 months). Lower usage means lower switching costs if rates improve.

Dense, apartment-heavy ZIPs are where this profile clusters. If you are in one, the plan list you are actually choosing from is on your area page: downtown Dallas (75201), downtown Houston (77002), west Houston (77063), or Addison (75001). Note that 75201 and 75001 are on Oncor while 77002 and 77063 are on CenterPoint — that is a real difference in both the plans offered to you and the delivery charges attached to them.

What to Avoid

• Plans with minimum usage requirements. Some plans charge a minimum bill amount (e.g., $50/month) even if your usage is low.
• Plans that price attractively at 1,000 kWh. These often have higher base rates and use the 1,000 kWh tier as a marketing tool with bill credits you will never trigger.

At 500 kWh, the median Oncor-area plan in the cost table above comes to about $70 a month before taxes. The full spread of what is currently offered on Oncor is on any of the DFW area pages — Arlington (76010) and Mesquite (75150) both show it, and so do Plano, Frisco, Allen and Wylie in Collin County. Oncor homes in North Richland Hills, Euless and Mansfield in Tarrant County, and in DeSoto south of Dallas, see the same list.

Average-Usage Homes (800–1,500 kWh/month)

Short answer: at 800–1,500 kWh, choose a fixed-rate plan that prices well across that whole range, not just at 1,000 kWh, and check what a bill credit does in each of your 12 months, your highest and lowest included, before counting on it.

This is where most Texas families land. You have the most options, but also the most noise to sort through.

If You Have No Usage History Yet

New construction is its own case, and a lot of Texas households are in it — fast-growing suburbs like Katy (77449), Richmond (77407), and Harker Heights (76548) are full of homes with no 12-month bill history to compare against. Without that history you cannot know which bracket you land in, so the safe move is the opposite of chasing a tier: pick a plan that prices sanely across the whole 800–2,000 kWh range rather than one that wins only at 1,000 kWh, and re-shop once you have a summer on record.

What Works

• Competitive fixed-rate plans. At this usage level, a 1¢/kWh rate difference translates to $10–$15/month or $120–$180/year.
• 12–24 month fixed-rate terms to keep the same energy rate for longer, especially if current rates are favorable. Delivery charges and certain regulatory fees can still pass through.
• Plans that price well across the 800–1,500 kWh range, not just at a single tier.

The Bill Credit Trap

Average-usage homes are the primary target for bill-credit plans. A plan might offer a $75 credit at 1,000 kWh, making the advertised 1,000 kWh rate look incredible. But in summer when you use 2,000 kWh, that credit is diluted, and in winter at 700 kWh, you do not even qualify. Run the math across all 12 months.

High-Usage Homes (Over 1,500 kWh/month)

Short answer: above 1,500 kWh, the per-kWh rate matters most. Compare plans at your own usage, not only at the facts label's 2,000 kWh price, since a few plans reach that price only with a credit that starts at 2,000 kWh, and look for a fixed-rate plan with no tier that raises the price above a usage line.

Large homes, pool owners, EV chargers, home offices with heavy computing, or households that keep the thermostat at 72°F all summer. High usage changes the economics significantly.

The large-lot suburbs are where this bracket lives: Flower Mound (75028 and 75022) and McKinney (75070) on Oncor, and Sugar Land (77479) on CenterPoint. Each of those pages lists the plans currently available on that utility, which is the set you are choosing the 2,000 kWh winner from.

Climate matters here too, and it is the one thing that genuinely varies ZIP by ZIP. A home in Corpus Christi (78401) or McAllen (78501) runs its air conditioner over a materially longer cooling season than the same home in North Texas, so it spends more months of the year in the high-usage bracket — and the plan that wins across a year of those months is not necessarily the one that wins on a 1,000 kWh spring bill.

What Works

• Plans with the lowest per-kWh rate above 2,000 kWh. At 2,500 kWh/month, even a 0.5¢/kWh difference is $12.50/month or $150/year.
• Fixed-rate plans with no usage penalties. Some plans increase rates above certain thresholds, which punishes high users.
• Longer fixed-rate terms (18–24 months) to keep a favorable energy rate for longer: high usage means high dollar exposure to rate changes. Delivery charges and certain regulatory fees can still pass through.

What to Avoid

• Variable-rate plans. If you use 2,500 kWh in August and a variable rate rises to 18¢/kWh, for example, the energy charge alone is $450 before delivery charges.
• Plans with escalating tiers. If the rate goes from 10¢ to 14¢ above 2,000 kWh, your summer bills will be painful.
• Free nights plans (usually). High-usage homes often run AC heavily during daytime. The higher daytime rate on free nights plans cancels out the nighttime savings. See our free nights analysis for the math.

The Break-Even Math

Here is a simplified example showing how two plans compare across usage levels:

In this simplified example, Plan B looks better everywhere. But real-world plans are more complex: a credit may stop at an upper usage limit (check yours), rates have different tiers at different levels, TDU passthrough variations apply, and seasonal rate adjustments change the picture. The only reliable way to compare is to use your 12-month usage history.

Your Utility, Not Your ZIP, Decides Which Plans You Can Buy

One thing worth being precise about, because a lot of comparison sites are vague on it: in Texas, plan availability and pricing depend on your utility (the TDU that owns the wires), not on your ZIP code. Every address served by Oncor sees the same plans at the same rates. So Oncor customers in Flower Mound, Tyler, Odessa and Wichita Falls shop from an identical list, while Katy (CenterPoint), Corpus Christi (AEP Texas Central), Abilene (AEP Texas North), League City (TNMP), and Lubbock (Lubbock Power & Light) each shop from a different one.

What your ZIP does decide is which of those lists is yours — and, through climate, what your usage curve looks like against it. Those two things together are the whole answer. Nobody in your ZIP gets a secret cheaper rate than your neighbor two utilities over; they get a different menu and a different summer.

When Fixed Rate Beats Variable (and Vice Versa)

For most Texas homes, a fixed-rate plan provides predictability and protection against summer rate spikes. Variable plans can save money if:

• You are willing to actively monitor wholesale rates
• You can shift heavy usage to off-peak hours
• You are comfortable with summer bills that could be 2–3x your winter bills

For high-usage homes, the risk of variable pricing is amplified. A 5¢/kWh wholesale spike that adds $25 to a low-usage bill adds $100+ to a high-usage bill. Unless you are actively managing your energy consumption, fixed rate is the safer choice. If you already know your usage level, run your own numbers against the current plan list rather than trusting the advertised tier.