Desktop PC Electricity Cost & Wattage
What a desktop PC costs to run: typical 200 W, about $74 a year. Adjust the figures to your own usage and electricity price.
Your Desktop PC running cost
Costs about
/ month
- Per day
- Per year
- Energy per day
Change the hours and price to match your case.
Typical wattage
| Low | 80 W |
|---|---|
| Typical | 200 W |
| High | 600 W |
| Typical use | 6 h/day |
A desktop PC uses far more electricity than a laptop doing the same tasks, because it is built for performance rather than battery life. A basic office desktop might draw 80 to 150 watts, a typical machine around 200 watts, and a powerful gaming or workstation PC 400 to 600 watts or more under load — before you add the monitor. This page uses an hours-per-day approach; enter a realistic figure for how your machine is actually used, since the draw swings widely between idle browsing and heavy gaming or rendering.
The key detail is that power varies enormously with the workload. The same PC that sips 90 watts while you write emails can pull five times that while gaming, so the honest yearly cost depends on how you use it, not just how long it is on. Leaving a desktop running around the clock — a common habit — is where the real waste hides, because even at idle it draws far more than a sleeping laptop. Sleep and hibernate settings, and pairing it with an efficient monitor, are where the savings are.
If your machine is a gaming or workstation build, the graphics card is usually the biggest single draw, spiking only under heavy load. For everyday tasks it idles far lower, so the yearly cost is really a story of two numbers: a modest idle figure most of the time, and short, expensive bursts when you genuinely push it hard.
For context, a typical laptop doing the same office tasks draws roughly 30-65 W — a fraction of even a modest desktop's 150-200 W. Over a year of daily use, that gap alone is often worth real money at typical prices, before counting the desktop's separate monitor. That is not a reason to avoid desktops — performance per watt for demanding work still favours them — but it is worth knowing the running-cost premium you pay for a machine that is always the more powerful option.
How to cut desktop PC running costs
- Set the PC to sleep or hibernate when idle instead of leaving it running.
- Don't leave it on overnight for downloads unless you really need to.
- Enable power-saving modes; they cut idle draw with no real downside for office work.
- A laptop does everyday tasks for a fraction of a desktop's power — consider it for light use.
- Undervolting or an efficient power supply helps on high-end gaming machines.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a desktop PC cost to run?
At 200 W for six hours a day, about 438 kWh a year — roughly $74 at $0.17/kWh, plus the monitor. A gaming PC used heavily can cost several times more; a basic office PC less.
Is a desktop much more expensive than a laptop?
Yes, usually several times more for the same tasks. Desktops are built for power, not efficiency, so for everyday work a laptop costs far less to run over a year.
Should I turn my PC off or leave it on?
For anything beyond a short break, sleep or shut down. A desktop left running all day draws far more than a sleeping one, and modern PCs wake in seconds, so leaving it on rarely pays.