The short answer
Estimate your usage from your own bill, not from averages
You can guess your electricity usage from appliance stickers and national averages, but neither number will pick you the right plan. The figure that matters is your real annual usage in kilowatt-hours, taken from your own bill or smart meter, because the cheapest plan changes depending on how much you actually use. A fixed daily supply charge sits under every bill, so a low-usage flat and a high-usage family home are best served by completely different plans, even on the same street. This guide shows how to estimate your usage properly, then test it against live plan prices for your state.
Here is the core takeaway in one line: the right way to estimate electricity usage in Australia is to read your real annual kilowatt-hours off your own bill or smart meter, because the cheapest plan for you depends on that number and a fixed daily supply charge sits under every bill regardless of how much you use. That fixed charge is the catch most guides miss. It means cutting your usage has a floor it cannot break through, and it means a low-usage home and a high-usage home should pick plans on completely different grounds. Get your own kilowatt-hours right and you can compare plans honestly. Lean on a national average and you will compare the wrong homes.
Reframe the assumption: "average usage" feels like a useful starting point. It is not. The average smooths over the two things that actually set your bill, your real kilowatt-hours and the split between fixed and usage charges. Two households on the identical plan, one using 2,500 kWh and one using 7,500 kWh, are not on a slightly different bill. They are often best on entirely different plans.
Average annual electricity usage
Rough usage by household size and state
Use this only to sanity-check the figure from your bill. Climate drives most of the gap between states: warmer states run lower, colder states much higher.
| Household | NSW | VIC | QLD | SA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | 2,000 - 3,000 | 1,800 - 2,800 | 2,200 - 3,200 | 2,000 - 3,000 |
| 2-3 people | 3,000 - 4,500 | 2,800 - 4,000 | 3,200 - 4,800 | 3,000 - 4,500 |
| 4+ people | 4,500 - 7,000 | 4,000 - 6,500 | 4,800 - 7,500 | 4,500 - 7,000 |
The blind spot
Why most usage guides send you the wrong way
Search for how to estimate your electricity usage and you will find two approaches that both fail, for the same underlying reason.
The first is the appliance-wattage method: list your devices, multiply watts by hours, add it up. It looks rigorous and is almost always wrong. It misses standby loads, it guesses how often things actually run, and it cannot see the seasonal swing when heating or cooling dominates a quarter. People build a tidy spreadsheet, then get a bill that bears no resemblance to it.
The second is the national average: "the typical Australian home uses X kilowatt-hours." That number blends a Hobart house running resistive heating all winter with a mild-climate Brisbane unit, then hands you the midpoint. It is true of nobody. Worse, it hides the part of the bill that does not move with usage at all.
Both methods share one flaw: they treat your bill as if it were just usage times a rate. It is not. Every bill has a fixed daily supply charge bolted underneath, and that single fact changes which plan is cheapest for you. Skip it, and even a perfect usage estimate points you at the wrong plan.
How the bill is actually built
Expert analysis: usage, supply charge and the rate
A kilowatt-hour, and why it is the only currency that matters
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the energy used by 1,000 watts running for one hour: a 2,000 watt heater on for one hour burns 2 kWh. Your retailer charges a usage rate per kilowatt-hour, so your whole bill is denominated in this one unit. As of 18 May 2026, single-rate usage rates ran from about 26 to 33 c/kWh in Victoria up to about 43.7 c/kWh in South Australia, the dearest state. That spread is why the same number of kilowatt-hours costs very different amounts across the country.
The fixed supply charge changes the whole calculation
Here is the piece the averages bury. On top of the usage rate, you pay a daily supply charge, a fixed fee just to stay connected, commonly around 90 c to $1.20 a day. That is roughly $330 to $440 a year before you have used a single kilowatt-hour. For a low-usage flat, that fixed charge can be a third or more of the bill, so the plan with the lowest supply charge often wins even if its usage rate is not the sharpest. For a high-usage family home, the fixed charge is a rounding error and the usage rate is everything. Same market, opposite advice.
The reference price, and the usage figure hidden inside it
Every plan you compare is quoted against a regulated reference price. In New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia that is the Australian Energy Regulator’s Default Market Offer (DMO); the 2025-26 prices apply until 30 June 2026, with the DMO 2026-27 taking over from 1 July 2026. Victoria runs its own Victorian Default Offer (VDO), set by the Essential Services Commission. The catch: the reference price is calculated at a model annual usage the regulator sets for each network zone (for example, around 3,900 kWh for the Ausgrid network), reviewed each year. When a retailer advertises "X% below the reference price", that percentage is measured at the regulator’s usage, not yours.
Why the network you are on matters too
Both the supply charge and the usage rate are shaped by your distribution network, the poles and wires company for your address (Ausgrid, Energex, SA Power Networks and so on). Retailers pass these network costs straight through, which is why a plan can be cheap in one suburb and ordinary in the next. This is also why a usage estimate alone is never enough: the same kilowatt-hours are priced differently depending on the grid you sit on.
Interactive explainer
Test your usage against live plan prices
Pick your state and set your annual usage. The estimator ranks real single-rate plans currently on the market and shows the cheapest one for that usage, plus how much of the bill is the fixed supply charge you cannot avoid.
Your state
Your yearly usage:
Cheapest plan at this usage
$ /year
, on the network.
% of this bill is the fixed supply charge.
See offers and ratesLive single-rate prices for each state’s main metropolitan network, GST included, ranked at the usage you set. The cheapest plan can change as you move the slider, which is the whole point: the winner at a low usage is often not the winner at a high one. Prices last verified 03/07/2026. Estimate only, not a quote. Source: live retailer offers via Selectra’s comparator.
| Your annual usage | Cheapest plan | Estimated yearly bill |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 kWh (small home) | Kogan Energy Kogan Energy with free FIRST | $978 |
| 7,500 kWh (large home) | Kogan Energy Kogan Energy with free FIRST | $2,328 |
Live prices, every state
The cheapest plan in each state right now
One card per state: the single cheapest single-rate plan on each state’s main metropolitan network, costed on 5,000 kWh a year, GST included. Last verified 03/07/2026.
Benchmarked at 5,000 kWh. Your own usage changes the winner, which is the whole point of this page. Compare on your real usage.
What a bad estimate costs
How an estimate error becomes a money error
Getting your usage estimate wrong is not an academic problem. It changes which plan you pick, and the gap compounds every quarter:
They compare at the wrong usage
A household plugs the national average into a comparison, picks the plan that wins at that figure, then discovers their real usage is far higher or lower. The plan that looked cheapest at 4,000 kWh is not the cheapest at their actual 8,000 kWh, and they have locked in the wrong one.
They chase usage cuts the supply charge swallows
A low-usage flat works hard to shave a few kilowatt-hours, but most of their bill is the fixed supply charge. The effort barely moves the total, while a single switch to a plan with a lower supply charge would have done more in one afternoon.
They read the percentage, not the dollars
"This plan is 12% below the reference price" sounds decisive. But that percentage is measured at the regulator’s model usage, not theirs. At their real usage the saving can shrink or grow, and the headline number led them to a plan that is not actually their cheapest.
They ignore the time-of-use trap
On a time-of-use tariff, an annual kilowatt-hour total hides when the power is used. Two homes with identical annual usage pay differently if one runs its load in the expensive evening peak. The annual figure alone cannot see that.
The insider insight
The cheapest plan is a moving target tied to your usage
Here is the part the comparison sites understate. Because every plan is a fixed supply charge plus a usage rate, the cheapest plan is not a fixed answer, it is a function of your kilowatt-hours. A plan with a low supply charge and a higher usage rate wins for a small flat. A plan with a higher supply charge but a lower usage rate wins for a big household. There is a crossover usage where the leader changes, and most people never realise their home sits on the wrong side of it.
The non-obvious Australian truth: the advertised "X% below the reference price" is calculated at the regulator’s model annual usage for your network, not at yours. If you use much less than that benchmark, the fixed supply charge is a bigger slice of your bill than the headline assumes, and a different plan is often genuinely cheaper for you. If you use much more, the usage rate dominates and the ranking shifts again. The percentage is a marketing number anchored to an average household. Your bill is anchored to your meter.
The practical move is simple but rarely done: compare plans at your annual kilowatt-hours, not at the benchmark, and check both the supply charge and the usage rate, not just the advertised discount.
Grounded in the analysis
What you should actually do
Specific steps that follow from how the bill is built, not generic advice.
Get your real annual kWh
Read it off your latest bill (it shows kilowatt-hours per quarter, so add four), or pull the annual total from your retailer’s app. If you have a smart meter, view the interval data: it is the most precise figure you will ever have.
Compare at your usage, not the benchmark
Ignore the advertised "% below reference price". Put your own kilowatt-hours into a comparison so plans are ranked on your home, and check the supply charge and usage rate separately, not just the headline discount.
Match the plan to your usage shape
Low usage: prioritise the lowest daily supply charge. High usage: prioritise the lowest usage rate. On a time-of-use tariff, look at when you use power, because the evening peak is the dearest window.
One state caveat that matters: you can only act on a usage estimate by switching plans if your state has retail competition. Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT let you choose your retailer and tariff. In Western Australia (Synergy) and the Northern Territory (Power and Water) there is no retail competition, so your lever is tariff choice and timing, not switching providers.
Current figures, last updated 2026-06-15
Australian usage and price benchmarks for 2026. Sources: the Australian Energy Regulator (aer.gov.au), the Essential Services Commission (esc.vic.gov.au) and Canstar’s rate database. Live plan prices above come from current retailer offers. Confirm current figures before relying on them, as rates and determinations are reviewed regularly.
The bottom line
Why this matters right now
With the DMO 2026-27 and a lower Victorian Default Offer both landing on 1 July 2026, a wave of retailers will re-advertise their plans as a fresh percentage below the new reference price. That percentage is still anchored to a model household, not yours. The households who come out ahead this year are not the ones who chase the biggest advertised discount. They are the ones who know their own annual kilowatt-hours, compare plans at that usage, and weigh the fixed supply charge against the usage rate for the way they actually live. Estimate your usage from your own meter, then let your real number, not an average, choose the plan.
Common questions
A Selectra expert answers your usage questions
Most Australian homes use somewhere between about 2,000 kWh a year for a one-person flat and 7,500 kWh for a large family home. State averages differ a lot because of climate: warmer Queensland and milder New South Wales sit lower, while colder Tasmania runs much higher. These are orientation figures only. The number that actually decides your bill is your own annual usage, printed on your electricity bill or visible in your smart meter data.
Start with your most recent bill: it shows your usage in kilowatt-hours for the billing period, usually a quarter. Add up four quarters for an annual figure, or read the annual total straight from your meter portal. Avoid building an estimate from appliance wattages, because it ignores standby loads, seasonal heating and cooling, and how often things really run. Your billed kilowatt-hours are the only estimate worth comparing plans on.
For a typical two to three person household, annual electricity bills commonly land between about $1,400 and $2,000, depending on the state, the network and the plan. As a regulated anchor, the 2026-27 Victorian Default Offer sets an average flat-tariff household bill of about $1,591 a year. Your bill is your usage multiplied by the usage rate, plus the fixed daily supply charge, so two homes on the same plan can pay very different totals.
A kilowatt-hour is the standard unit of electricity, the energy used by 1,000 watts running for one hour. A 2,000 watt heater on for one hour uses 2 kWh. Your usage rate is charged per kilowatt-hour (for example 33 c/kWh), so kilowatt-hours are the currency of your bill: estimate them accurately and every other number falls into place.
Not as much as people expect, because part of your bill is fixed. The daily supply charge, commonly around 90 c to $1.20 a day, is roughly $330 to $440 a year that you pay just to stay connected, no matter how little power you use. Cutting usage lowers the usage portion only. That is exactly why a low-usage home should weigh the supply charge heavily when comparing plans, while a high-usage home should focus on the usage rate.
Three ways: read the kilowatt-hours off your paper or PDF bill, log into your retailer’s app or online account for a usage history, or if you have a smart meter, view your interval data through your retailer’s portal or a connected app. Smart meter data is the most precise, showing usage by the half hour, which also tells you how much of your load falls in the expensive evening peak on a time-of-use tariff.
