The average electricity bill in Australia (2026-27, by state)

You want a number. We understand. Everybody wants the number, which is why the internet is full of pages confidently declaring the average Australian electricity bill down to the dollar. Here's the problem: a single national average is a statistical party trick. It blends a Hobart apartment with a Queensland pool-and-aircon household, a solar-heavy retiree with a five person share house, and produces a figure that describes nobody.

So we're going to do this differently. First, the numbers that actually mean something: the 2026-27 benchmarks set by the regulators themselves, state by state. Then, why your own bill will differ from all of them, and how to find your real number.

The benchmarks that matter: what the regulators set for 2026-27

Australia doesn't have one electricity market; it has regulated benchmarks set separately by different bodies, updated each year, taking effect on 1 July.

New South Wales, South East Queensland and South Australia: the Default Market Offer (DMO). The Australian Energy Regulator sets the DMO annually as a price cap on standing offers and a reference price for comparing market offers. The AER released its final 2026-27 determination on 26 May 2026, taking effect 1 July 2026. This year's decision cut residential flat rate standing offer prices by between 3.4 and 5.0 per cent in New South Wales and by 7.2 per cent in South East Queensland, while South Australian households saw a modest increase of 1.4 per cent. For smart meter households on time of use standing offers, prices fell across all three regions, by up to 10.7 per cent in South East Queensland. Small business prices fell in every DMO region. The exact dollar caps differ by distribution zone (Ausgrid, Endeavour and Essential in NSW; Energex in SE Queensland; SA Power Networks in SA) and by tariff type, which is exactly the point: even the official benchmark isn't one number, it's a grid of them. The AER's 2026-27 determination also introduced a Solar Sharer Offer, a regulated plan with a free daytime usage window, in a nod to how much cheap midday solar is now sloshing around the system.

Victoria: the Victorian Default Offer (VDO). Victoria's Essential Services Commission sets its own benchmark across the state's five distribution zones. The ESC released its final 2026-27 decision on 25 May 2026, also effective 1 July 2026, with the average annual bill for a domestic customer on the default offer coming in about five per cent lower than the year before (on the ESC's standard assumption of 4,000 kWh annual usage), and about six per cent lower for small business. The 2026-27 decision also introduced Victoria's first regulated time of use reference price and a cap on daily supply charges. Note the load-bearing phrase "on the standard assumption of 4,000 kWh": change the usage assumption and the benchmark bill changes with it. There is no average without an assumption underneath it.

Everywhere else in the National Electricity Market. Regional Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT each have their own arrangements: notified or regulated prices set by state-level regulators rather than the DMO. The pattern holds everywhere: the benchmark depends on where you are, what tariff you're on, and how much the regulator assumed you use.

Why the benchmark still isn't your number

Regulator reference prices are caps and comparison anchors for default offers. Most households aren't on default offers, and shouldn't be: the entire reason the reference price exists is so market offers can be advertised against it. Which brings us to the gap that matters.

Households on a default offer can typically save several hundred dollars a year by moving to the cheapest market offer for their usage. Based on 2026-27 regulator reference prices, that gap is commonly in the range of $300 to $600 a year, and more for some households.

Beyond that, four things make your number yours:

Your usage. The single biggest variable. The regulators' representative bills assume a defined annual consumption; your household may use half that or triple it.

Your distribution zone. Network charges differ by zone, which is why the same regulator publishes different caps for different parts of the same state.

Your tariff type. Single rate, time of use, controlled load and demand tariffs price the identical kilowatt hour differently depending on when and how you used it. Our tariffs guide covers each.

Your solar. Exports offset imports, and feed-in rates vary between plans, so two identical houses with identical panels can sit on very different totals.

Find your actual number

Averages are for articles. Your bill is for you. Upload it and our engine reads your real usage and tariff, projects the plans on the government's energy register onto your numbers, and shows your projected annual cost on each. Estimates, not quotes, and we show the workings. If you're already beating the benchmarks, you'll know that too, and you can stop reading articles like this one.

New to the bill itself? How to read your electricity bill and how to read your gas bill decode every line. And the full diagnostic lives at why is my bill so high.