How much does it cost to run a desktop PC in the UK?
Price updated 9 July 2026 · Q3 2026 (Jul–Sep)
A typical desktop PC (250 W) used 4 hours a day, every day costs about £7.94 a month (£95.30 a year) at 26.11p/kWh.
A desktop PC's running cost depends enormously on what it's doing. An office machine browsing and typing might draw 100W, while a gaming PC under load with a powerful graphics card can pull 400–600W. Idle time matters too: a PC left on all day doing nothing still draws power. Sleep and hibernate settings, and simply switching off when finished, are the easiest savings for a machine that isn't a games rig.
Work out your own cost
About £7.94 a month · £95.30 a year
Uses about 365 kWh a year. Prefilled with the Ofgem cap of 26.11p/kWh — edit any box for your own figures.
Cost by model power
The same desktop PC can vary a lot between models, so here is the range from a low-power to a high-power example.
| Model | Power | Per hour | Per day | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-power model | 100 W | 2.6p | 10p | £3.18 | £38.12 |
| Typical model | 250 W | 6.5p | 26p | £7.94 | £95.30 |
| High-power model | 600 W | 16p | 63p | £19.06 | £228.72 |
What changes the cost
- Office vs gaming hardware (huge range)
- Time spent under heavy load vs idle
- Monitor(s) add their own draw
- Sleep/hibernate settings
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