Free Nights or Free Weekends Electricity Plans in Texas

A free nights plan charges nothing for energy during set night hours. A free weekends plan does the same on Saturday and Sunday. The other hours have their own rate, and it can be higher than a plain fixed-rate plan’s.

Whether that works for you comes down to one number: how much of your electricity you use in the free hours. This guide shows which Texas plans have free hours, what those hours are, and how to check one against your own usage.

Prices as of October 24, 2026, for a home that uses 1,000 kWh every month: by our estimate, each free nights and free weekends plan in our Dallas and Houston plan list costs more over a year than the lowest-priced fixed-rate plan of the same length without a bill credit. Chariot’s Bright Nights plans cost about 7% to 11% more. Champion’s Free Weekends plan costs about 18% more. TXU’s Free Nights & Cool Summer plan costs about 63% more, even at the share of night use its own label assumes.

To break even, about 37% to 49% of your electricity would have to fall in the free hours. ERCOT’s average residential load profile puts about 23% of use between 11 PM and 6 AM, for a home that hasn’t moved any use to the night.

What Each Plan Costs in a Year

Estimates for 1,000 kWh a month, using each plan’s Electricity Facts Label and its utility’s delivery charges. The comparison is the lowest-priced fixed-rate plan of the same contract length in our October 24, 2026 plan list, leaving out plans whose price per kWh jumps when usage drops, such as plans with bill credits.

* TXU’s figures use its label’s own assumption that 41% of your use falls in the free hours. By our estimate from the same ERCOT profile, about 29% of use falls between 9 PM and 5 AM. At that share, the plan would cost about $2,640 to $2,670 a year.

How we estimated

• Each plan’s energy charge, base charge and free hours come from its Electricity Facts Label, dated October 12 to 24, 2026. Delivery charges are the utility’s, as printed on those labels. TXU’s label passes delivery charges through, so we used the same utility charges printed on the other labels.
• We spread 1,000 kWh a month across the day using ERCOT’s residential load profile. That pattern is an average home that hasn’t moved any use to the night: about 23% of its use falls between 11 PM and 6 AM, 29% between 9 PM and 5 AM, and 2 of every 7 days are weekends.
• We left out plans whose price per kWh jumps when usage drops, such as plans with bill credits. At exactly 1,000 kWh every month they look cheaper than they are, and a month just under the credit’s threshold costs much more.
• Your cost depends on how much power you use and when. These are estimates before taxes, not quotes, and prices change. Check a plan’s label against your own usage before you switch.

A 2024 study by EnergyBot, another Texas plan-comparison site, found the same direction with real meter data. Using a year of usage from 501 Dallas and Houston homes and prices from June 2024, the three free nights plans it tested cost 5% to 31% more a year than the lowest-cost plan in its comparison.

The Short Version

• In our October 18, 2026 plan list, three providers sell plans with free nights or free weekends: Chariot Energy, TXU Energy and Champion Energy.
• No plan in that list has both free nights and free weekends.
• None of them is prepaid. None of the 24 prepaid plans in the list has free hours.
• Delivery charges from your utility still apply during free hours.
• Each plan’s label price assumes 30% to 43% of your use falls in its free hours. If yours is lower, you pay more per kWh than the label shows.

How Free Nights Plans Work

• The energy charge is zero in the free hours. On TXU’s plan this shows up as a 100% credit on the energy charge for those hours.
• Delivery charges still apply, every hour of every day. Your utility charges for delivering every kWh, and your provider passes that charge on. On the October 2026 labels we checked, delivery was about 5.7¢ to 7.8¢ per kWh, depending on the utility, plus a monthly delivery charge in most areas. “Free” covers the energy part of your bill only. Oncor’s delivery charges also went up on October 4, 2026.
• Check the rate for the other hours. It is set separately and can be higher than a fixed-rate plan’s energy charge.
• Some plans add a monthly base charge. Both free nights plans below charge $9.95 a month.
• Your smart meter decides what counts as free. The provider uses your meter’s 15-minute readings to see when you used power.

Texas Providers With Free Nights or Free Weekends Plans

This list comes from the plan data our site reads each day from Power to Choose, the state’s official plan site. It is as of October 18, 2026. Free hours, base charges and the assumed share come from each plan’s Electricity Facts Label (EFL), read the same day. Plans change often, so read the current EFL before you sign up.

Things to know about each one, from its label or listing:

• Chariot Bright Nights: $9.95 monthly base charge. Requires Auto-Pay and e-bills, including disconnection notices by email. The label lists a $5 fee for any billing period you are not on Auto-Pay.
• TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer 12: $9.95 monthly base charge. In July, August and September you get an extra 25% credit on energy charges in the free hours, capped at your daytime energy charges. The label says customers with electric vehicles, batteries or solar panels are not eligible. The Power to Choose listing says to enroll by phone.
• Champion Free Weekends-24: $0.00 monthly base charge. Weekday hours are charged at the plan’s weekday rate.

Other time-of-use plans in the same list

52 of the 930 plans in our October 18 list are time-of-use plans, from 7 providers. Besides the three above:

• Free days, not nights. Amigo Energy, Just Energy and Tara Energy list 3-month plans with free electricity from 9 AM to 4 PM daily. Their Power to Choose listings say “a one-month GoodBundle setup and carbon offset purchase of $49.99 is required to enroll.”
• Lower night rate, not free. Octopus Energy’s Octopus Flex (12 months) lists lower rates from 10 PM to 6 AM.

Is There a Plan With Free Nights and Free Weekends?

Not in our October 18, 2026 list. Chariot and TXU are free at night only. Their daytime rate applies on Saturdays and Sundays too. Champion is free on weekends only, and weeknights are charged at its weekday rate.

So match the plan to your habits:

• Most of your use is late at night, every night: look at the free nights plans.
• Most of your use is on weekends: look at the free weekends plan.
• Your use is spread out: a plain fixed-rate plan may cost less than either. Only a check with your own usage will tell you.

Is There a Prepaid or No-Deposit Plan With Free Nights?

Many people search for “prepaid lights with free nights and weekends.” In our October 18, 2026 list, that plan does not exist:

• 24 of the 930 plans are prepaid, from two providers: Payless Power and Pronto Power.
• None of those prepaid plans has free nights, free weekends or any other time-of-use pricing.
• The Chariot, TXU and Champion labels each answer “No” to “Is this a pre-pay or pay in advance product?”

People often choose prepaid to avoid a deposit. You may be able to avoid one on a regular plan too. Under the Texas rule on deposits (16 TAC §25.478):

• When you sign up, a provider can ask for a deposit only if you cannot show satisfactory credit.
• If you are 65 or older and not behind on any electric bill, that counts as satisfactory credit.
• A deposit cannot be more than one-fifth of a year’s estimated bills, or two months’ estimated bills if that is more.
• Each provider explains its deposit policy in its Terms of Service. Ask before you enroll.

Free Nights Plans in Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth and the Rest of Texas

Which plans you can buy depends on your utility, not your city. Here is what was listed in each utility area on October 18, 2026.

In Houston, plans from all three providers were listed. In Oncor’s area, which covers most of Dallas–Fort Worth, the free nights plans were listed but the free weekends plan was not.

A few ZIP codes are split between two utilities, such as The Colony (75056), League City (77573) and Pearland (77584), and some include co-op or city-utility areas with no choice of provider. Your bill names your utility.

Time-of-Use Plans: The Basics

“Time-of-use” means your price depends on when you use power. In Texas these plans come in four kinds:

• Free nights: energy is free for a set block of night hours.
• Free weekends: energy is free all day Saturday and Sunday.
• Free days: energy is free for a set block of daytime hours.
• Off-peak discount: energy costs less in certain hours, but is not free.

All of them depend on your smart meter’s 15-minute readings. Off-peak hours are the free or cheaper hours. Peak hours are the rest.

The Number That Decides It: Your Free-Hours Share

Your free-hours share is the part of your monthly use that falls inside the free window. For most Texas homes, air conditioning sets it. AC runs hardest on summer afternoons and early evenings, which are never free on a free nights plan.

Every label assumes a share. The average prices on an EFL are not your price. They assume a set share of your use is in the free hours: 35% for Chariot, 38% to 43% for TXU depending on the utility area (TXU says this comes from its own time-of-use customers over three years) and 30% for Champion. If your share is lower, your average price will be higher than the label shows.

How a home that hasn’t shifted any use compares. Our calculator’s default pattern comes from ERCOT’s residential load profile. Averaged over a year, it puts about 23% of use between 11 PM and 6 AM, and about 29% between 9 PM and 5 AM. Both are below what the Chariot and TXU labels assume. That pattern describes homes that haven’t moved any use to the night. TXU says its figure comes from customers already on time-of-use plans. Our profile has no weekday and weekend split. If a home used the same amount every day, weekends would be 2 of 7 days, about 29%, close to Champion’s 30%.

A quick break-even check

Delivery charges are the same on both kinds of plan, so leave them out. Then:

1. Divide the fixed plan’s energy rate by the free-hours plan’s rate for the other hours.
2. Subtract the result from 1.
3. That is the share of your use that must be in the free hours just to break even.

Example with made-up round numbers (not any real plan): a fixed plan at 12¢ per kWh and a free nights plan at 18¢ per kWh for the other hours. 12 ÷ 18 = 0.67. 1 − 0.67 = 0.33. You would need about a third of your use in free hours to break even. A higher base charge on the free nights plan raises that bar further, most of all at low usage.

Who Free Nights or Weekends Plans Can Fit

• Homes that can move big loads into the free window. A pool pump on a night timer, a dishwasher and laundry run late, or a water heater on a timer.
• Night-shift workers who are home and active at night and away or asleep during the day.
• EV owners who charge overnight, but check eligibility first. TXU’s label says EV owners cannot sign up for its free nights plan.
• Weekend-heavy homes, for the free weekends plan. For example, people who are away on weekdays and home on weekends.

Who Should Skip Them

• Anyone home during the day. Remote work, kids at home or retirees running AC all afternoon pay the other-hours rate on most of their use.
• Homes where summer AC is the biggest load. You cannot move AC to the night. The longer your cooling season, the more months this matters.
• Evening households. Dinner, dishes and TV mostly happen before 9 PM, and Chariot’s free window does not start until 11 PM.
• Small apartments with low usage. At 500 to 700 kWh a month, a $9.95 base charge is a bigger part of the bill. Check at your real usage.
• Anyone who will not keep new habits. Running laundry at midnight is easy for a week. The plan only works if you keep doing it for the whole contract.

How to Check a Plan Against Your Own Usage

1. Find your free-hours share. Smart Meter Texas (smartmetertexas.com) shows your 15-minute usage. Add up a few weeks of use inside the plan’s free hours and divide by your total.
2. Read the EFL. Check the free hours, the rate for other hours, the base charge and the share the price assumes.
3. Compare on ElectricityFinder. Enter your ZIP code and monthly kWh. This is free. Free nights and weekends plans show as estimates priced on an average Texas usage pattern, not yours, and are labeled that way. If we could not read a plan’s free hours from its label, the result says so and its cost is only a flat-rate stand-in. On October 18, 2026 that was the case for TXU Free Nights & Cool Summer 12. Type “free nights” in the results search to see only plans with night hours.
4. For a price based on when you actually use power, connect your smart meter. This is part of the $29-a-year membership. Free nights and weekends plans whose hours we could read from the label are then priced on your real 15-minute data.

The Bottom Line

Free nights and free weekends plans can work for homes that use a lot of power in the free hours. Many homes don’t, mostly because summer AC runs in the afternoon. Before you sign up, find your free-hours share, compare it with the share on the label, and compare the total cost with a plain fixed-rate plan. Compare free nights plans with the fixed-rate plans on your utility before you sign anything.