A fridge draws about 150 watts, or 0.15 kWh per hour. Enter your hours and electricity rate below for the exact cost per day, month and year.
Wattage is pre-filled with a typical value for a fridge; change any field for your own device, usage and rate. Cost uses your rate × kWh — a US-average placeholder rate of $0.17/kWh is shown; enter your own from your bill for an accurate figure.
A fridge draws about 150 watts while running. Energy is billed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), and one kWh is 1000 watts for one hour — so a fridge uses 150 ÷ 1000 = 0.15 kWh for every hour it is on. Multiply that by the hours you use it and by your rate per kWh to get the cost. The calculator above does it live; change the wattage if your model differs. Kept up every day of the year at 8 hours a day, that is about 438 kWh — roughly $74.46 at the $0.17/kWh placeholder rate used here.
Wattage moves with size, age and model, so treat 150 W as a mid-range starting point rather than a fixed number — the rating plate on your own appliance, or its ENERGY STAR listing, gives the figure to type in. The rate matters just as much: the US Energy Information Administration publishes current average residential prices by state, and the figure on your own bill is better still. This LK Forge calculator recomputes every result as you type.
Layout moves a fridge's bill more than brand does. Across the 2,969 full-size fridges on ENERGY STAR's certified list, the median rating is 363 kWh a year for a top-freezer, 556 kWh for a bottom-freezer and 640 kWh for a side-by-side; a fridge with no freezer compartment sits at 288 kWh, and compact models at 244 kWh. Models with a built-in ice maker have a median of 588 kWh against 362 kWh without, though they also tend to be bigger (21.6 vs 17.0 cu ft).
The compressor cycles on and off rather than running all 24 hours, so the calculator counts about 8 running hours a day. At 150 W that is 438 kWh a year, close to the 457 kWh median of all full-size certified fridges. To match your own fridge, take the kWh a year from its yellow EnergyGuide label and divide by 365 for kWh a day.
A fridge can't be switched off or moved to off-peak hours, so the savings come from making the compressor run less. Keep it at the FDA-recommended 40°F (4°C) or below but not far below, since every extra degree of cold is extra running time. Check the door gasket seals all the way round, leave a gap behind the cabinet so the condenser can shed heat, and don't park it next to an oven or in full sun. An old second fridge in a garage is often the single biggest saving: unplugging it removes its whole yearly total from the bill. For a whole-home estimate, use the full electricity bill & appliance calculator.