At the Ofgem cap rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026, a laptop rated 60W costs about 12.6p a use and £46.11 a year when 8 hours a time, once a day.
| Per hour of running | 1.6p |
|---|---|
| Per use | 12.6p |
| Per day | 12.6p |
| Per year | £46.11 (175 kWh) |
Calculated at 26.32p per kWh, the capped electricity unit rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026 on a standard variable tariff paid by direct debit. Electricity carries no VAT in that period, so this is the full unit price. The 54.83p daily standing charge is not included, because you pay that whether or not anything is switched on.
Two things worth knowing about that figure. The cap limits the unit rate, not your bill, so using more still costs more. And it is a Great Britain average: the actual capped rate is set per region, so your own rate could move these numbers either way. It is on your bill.
Laptop has no thermostat cycling it on and off, so the running cost is simply the rated power multiplied by the time it is switched on. Short bursts of high wattage cost less than people expect.
Figures for laptop run from about 20W to 140W. The charger rating is the maximum it can supply, not the running draw. A laptop with a 65W charger typically pulls 15W to 30W for ordinary work, rising towards the charger rating only under sustained load or while charging a flat battery.
Very little to gain: a laptop is already one of the cheapest things in the house to run, and uses a fraction of a desktop.
Reading the charger wattage as the running cost, the same error people make with desktop power supplies.
Annual running cost against the appliances closest to it, on the same assumptions. The ordering surprises people: short bursts of very high wattage usually cost less than something modest left on for hours.
| Appliance | Per year |
|---|---|
| Kettle | £72.05 |
| Electric oven | £67.25 |
| Laptop | £46.11 |
| Games console | £43.23 |
| Air conditioner | £41.45 |
Across a year, a laptop on these assumptions is about 7.0% of a typical annual electricity bill of £658.00 at these rates.
The figures here use the capped rate. If you are on a fixed tariff, or you want to add several appliances together, put your own unit rate into the energy cost calculator on the homepage.