EV Charging Cost Calculator: Home vs Public Charging
Calculate your monthly EV charging cost based on your driving distance, efficiency, home versus public charging mix, and transparent charging-loss treatment.
What You Enter
Your vehicle's efficiency in miles per kWh, monthly miles driven, home and public electricity rates, the percentage of charging done at home, and an optional additional charging-loss percentage only when your efficiency input was measured at the battery.
How It Works
The calculator converts miles into the kilowatt-hours needed, splits them between home and public charging according to your mix, and applies your rates. For EPA-rated efficiency measured from the wall, the additional charging-loss default is zero because those losses are already included; a nonzero factor is applied only when you enter one.
Limitations
Results are estimates for planning purposes. Your actual cost depends on your vehicle, local rates, time-of-use plans, and charging behavior. Regional electricity rate presets are included so you can start from your area's average.
How to Read Your Result
The calculator returns two numbers that answer different questions. The monthly cost tells you what to budget. The cost per mile tells you whether charging is actually cheaper than fueling, because it is the only figure you can compare directly against a gas car.
For context, the U.S. average residential electricity rate is 18.44 cents per kWh (EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, May 2026 (residential, U.S. Total)). A driver covering 1,000 miles a month in a vehicle rated at 3.5 miles per kWh needs roughly 286 kWh, or roughly $53 a month at the national average rate when charging entirely at home. The same driver charging entirely on a public network at $0.42 per kWh (AAA national average public EV charging rate, August 6, 2026) would pay about $120.
The gap between those two numbers is the point. Your charging mix moves your monthly cost more than your vehicle choice does. A driver who charges at home 90 percent of the time and a driver who charges at home 40 percent of the time can own the identical car and see costs differ by more than 60 percent.
If your result looks higher than you expected, check the home charging percentage before you check anything else. That single input dominates the outcome.
To see how your charging costs fit into the full ownership picture — including purchase price, maintenance, insurance, and resale value — run the numbers in our Vehicle Decision Summary, which combines this charging calculator with the EV vs hybrid 5-year cost, depreciation, and battery risk tools under one set of inputs.
If you are comparing an EV and a hybrid head-to-head, the EV vs Hybrid 5-Year Calculator shows the exact mileage where the EV becomes cheaper over five years using your local electricity and gas rates.
Common Mistakes
Double-counting charging losses. EPA efficiency ratings (miles/kWh or kWh/100mi) are measured from the wall and already include Level 2 and onboard-charger losses. This calculator does not apply an additional loss percentage by default — adding one on top of the EPA figure double-counts and overstates your bill.
Using the national average rate when you are on a time-of-use plan. Utilities across the country now offer EV-specific rate plans with overnight windows priced well below the flat residential rate. If you are on one, enter your actual off-peak rate, not the average. If you are not on one, the difference between your current rate and an available off-peak rate is often the largest single saving available to an EV owner.
Assuming the manufacturer's efficiency rating. EPA-rated efficiency is measured under controlled conditions. Cold weather, highway speeds, and climate control all reduce real-world miles per kWh, sometimes by 20 to 30 percent in winter. If you have owned the car through a winter, use your observed number rather than the sticker.
Treating public charging as a single price. Public rates vary by network, by state, and by whether you hold a membership. DC fast charging costs substantially more per kWh than Level 2 public charging. If most of your public sessions are fast charges on road trips, your effective public rate is higher than a network's advertised base rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to charge an EV at home per month?
At the U.S. average residential rate of 18.44 cents per kWh, a driver covering 1,000 miles a month at 3.5 miles per kWh pays roughly $53 a month charging entirely at home. The calculator does not add a separate charging-loss factor, since the EPA efficiency rating already reflects wall-to-battery losses. Your figure depends heavily on your local electricity rate, which ranges from about 12 cents per kWh in the cheapest states to more than 50 cents in Hawaii.
Is charging an EV cheaper than buying gas?
In most cases yes, but the margin depends on your charging mix rather than on the vehicle. Home charging at the national average rate typically costs 4 to 6 cents per mile. A gas car returning 30 miles per gallon at $4.07 a gallon costs about 13.6 cents per mile. Charging exclusively on public DC fast networks can close that gap or eliminate it entirely.
Why is my actual charging bill higher than the calculator estimate?
Usually because your electricity rate is not the national average. J.D. Power's 2026 EVX Home Charging Study puts average self-reported home charging at $63 a month, but that national figure spans $36 in the Mountain region and $99 in New England. Back those out against the same monthly kWh and the implied rates land near 12.6 and 34.7 cents, close to what those regions actually pay, so entering your own rate is what makes this calculator match your bill. Three other gaps matter: real-world efficiency below the EPA rating, where dropping from 3.5 to 3.0 mi/kWh adds about $9 a month at 1,000 miles; public charging you did not account for, where 15 percent of your kWh at the $0.42 public average adds about $10; and more driving than you assumed, where 1,200 miles instead of 1,000 adds about $11. Any one of these closes a $10 gap on its own, which is why the cause is rarely a single factor. The survey figure is also not measured the same way as this calculator: it was fielded from November 2025 through February 2026, so every respondent's past 30 days fell in winter, and it mixes BEV and PHEV owners, does not control for mileage, and is self-reported, which is difficult to do accurately without a dedicated EV meter. Calculated by GearUp using EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A (May 2026), AAA public charging average, and the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. EVX Home Charging Study, accessed August 19, 2026.
Should I add a charging-loss percentage on top of my efficiency figure?
No, if you are using an EPA-rated efficiency figure (miles/kWh or kWh/100mi). That rating is measured from the wall and already includes Level 2 and onboard-charger losses, so adding another 8 to 12 percent on top double-counts the loss and overstates your cost. A separate loss factor only applies if your efficiency number was measured at the battery rather than the wall, which is uncommon for EPA window-sticker figures.
Does the calculator account for time-of-use rates?
Indirectly. Enter your off-peak rate as the home electricity rate if you charge overnight on a time-of-use plan. The calculator does not model partial shifting between peak and off-peak windows, so if you charge across both, use a weighted average of the two rates.