A GPU’s running cost = (GPU watts + about 150 W system overhead) ÷ 1,000 × hours per day × 30 × your state’s price per kWh — a 450 W card at 8 hours a day runs roughly $10 to $45 a month depending on where you live.
Quick answer. Electricity is the cost people forget when they buy a GPU. Depending on the card and, above all, your state’s electricity rate, running a high-end GPU can add anywhere from a few dollars to more than $40 a month to your power bill. Pick your GPU, your state, and your daily hours below to see the exact monthly and yearly cost — and how it compares to renting the same card in the cloud.
A GPU draws close to its rated TDP under load. A 450W card running 8 hours a day uses roughly 3.6 kWh daily, or about 108 kWh a month, before adding the rest of the system. Multiply total system watts by hours used, divide by 1,000 to get kWh, then multiply by your state electricity rate. This calculator adds a default 150W system overhead on top of the GPU TDP. States like Idaho, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, and Wyoming tend to have the lowest residential rates, while California, Hawaii, and the Northeast are the most expensive. GPU reference specs
GPU
VRAM
TDP
Bandwidth
Street price
Cloud $/hr
Released
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
32 GB
575 W
1792 GB/s
$2,500
$0.69
2025
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
16 GB
360 W
960 GB/s
$1,200
$0.40
2025
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
12 GB
250 W
672 GB/s
$650
$0.25
2025
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
24 GB
450 W
1008 GB/s
$1,900
$0.34
2022
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
16 GB
320 W
717 GB/s
$1,100
$0.28
2022
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
12 GB
200 W
504 GB/s
$550
$0.20
2023
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
24 GB
350 W
936 GB/s
$900
$0.22
2020
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
12 GB
170 W
360 GB/s
$280
$0.12
2021
NVIDIA A100 80GB
80 GB
400 W
2039 GB/s
$8,000
$1.10
2020
NVIDIA H100 80GB
80 GB
700 W
3350 GB/s
$25,000
$2.49
2022
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
24 GB
355 W
960 GB/s
$850
$0.30
2022
Intel Arc B580
12 GB
190 W
456 GB/s
$250
N/A
2024
Frequently asked questions
How much electricity does a GPU use?
How is GPU power cost calculated?
Which US states have the cheapest electricity for GPUs?
How GPU power cost is calculated
The math is simple once you have the three inputs. First, take the card’s power draw in watts and add an overhead for the rest of the system — CPU, RAM, fans, and power-supply losses — which this calculator defaults to 150 W. Divide the total watts by 1,000 to convert to kilowatts, multiply by the hours you run it per day, and you have kilowatt-hours per day. Multiply by 30 for a month, then by your state’s price per kilowatt-hour to get dollars.
For example, a 450 W GPU plus 150 W overhead is 600 W, or 0.6 kW. Run it 8 hours a day and that’s 4.8 kWh daily, about 144 kWh a month. At a low state rate near $0.11/kWh that’s roughly $16 a month; at a high rate near $0.30/kWh it’s about $43. Same card, same hours — the bill nearly triples based purely on geography. One nuance: a GPU only pulls close to its rated TDP under full load, so light or bursty use costs less than the figure above, which assumes sustained load.
Cheapest and most expensive US states for running a GPU
Where you live can matter more than which card you own. States with historically low residential electricity rates — such as Idaho, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, and Wyoming — make even a power-hungry card cheap to run. At the other end, Hawaii, California, and much of the Northeast (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island) carry the highest rates, where the same GPU can cost several times as much per month. Rather than quote figures that go stale, select your state in the calculator above to see the current rate and your exact cost. If your bill looks painful, it’s a strong signal to consider cloud rental, where the provider absorbs the power cost.
Power cost vs cloud rental
Electricity is only half the ownership equation, so the calculator also shows what renting the same card in the cloud would cost for the hours you entered. The comparison usually breaks one of two ways. For heavy, near-continuous use, owning the card and paying for power can undercut rental — you’ve already absorbed the hardware cost, so you’re only paying watts. For light or occasional use, the card’s idle hours make rental cheaper overall, because you’re not paying to keep an expensive asset that mostly sits idle. If you’re weighing the full picture rather than just the power bill, run it through the buy, build, or rent wizard, or rent a cloud GPU and skip the electricity entirely.
How we calculate this (methodology)
Cost is estimated as total system watts (GPU TDP plus a 150 W default overhead) converted to kWh, multiplied by your daily hours, 30 days, and your state’s residential rate. The cloud comparison multiplies the card’s hourly rental rate by the same hours. State rates and rental figures are reference values, reviewed and updated {MONTH_YEAR}. The estimate assumes the GPU runs near full load for the hours you specify, so real-world costs for light gaming or intermittent workloads will typically be lower.
People also ask
How much does it cost to run a GPU 24/7? It depends on the card and your rate. A 350 W card plus overhead running continuously uses roughly 360 kWh a month, which is about $40 at a low rate and well over $100 in the most expensive states. Enter your card and state above for an exact figure.
Does a GPU use a lot of electricity when idle? No. At the desktop or when lightly loaded, a modern GPU draws only a fraction of its rated TDP — often 10 to 30 watts. The big numbers appear only under sustained full load, such as gaming, rendering, or AI training.
Is it cheaper to run a GPU or rent one in the cloud? For heavy daily use, running your own card is often cheaper once you’ve bought it, since you only pay for power. For light or occasional use, renting usually wins because you avoid paying for idle hours. The calculator shows both so you can compare directly.
Related tools: Buy vs rent a GPU · Compare GPU power draw · Rent instead of paying for power