Average Electric Bill in Illinois
Residential · 12-month average, September 2025 – August 2026.
That works out to about $1,586 a year. Among the 50 states and DC, Illinois has the 38th highest average residential bill.
Data current through August 2026 — the latest available from the U.S. EIA, which publishes monthly figures on a roughly two-month delay.
What makes up the bill
Price × usage = bill, exactly: 18.92¢/kWh × 699 kWh ≈ $132. A state can land high on either factor — Illinois sits close to the U.S. average on both.
Compared with nearby states
| Illinois | $132 | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average | $158 | |
| Indiana | $159 | |
| Kentucky | $155 | |
| Missouri | $147 | |
| Wisconsin | $125 | |
| Iowa | $121 |
Illinois is $26 a month below (-16.5%) the U.S. average of $158. Neighboring states share fuel mixes, weather, and often a grid operator, which makes them a closer benchmark than the national average.
Trend since 2008
Each point is a trailing 12-month average, which strips out the summer/winter swing and leaves the underlying trend. Bills start in January 2008 because that is when EIA began reporting customer counts.
Seasonal swing
- Highest month
- $193
- July 2026
- Lowest month
- $105
- November 2025
- Swing
- $88
- peak minus low
- Latest month
- $171
- August 2026
Actual bills are far from flat: Illinois peaks in July 2026 and bottoms out in November 2025. The headline figure above is the average across all twelve months.
Illinois electricity bills in context
Illinois households pay an average of $132 per month for electricity, ranking 38th most expensive of the 50 states and DC. This bill is 16.5% below the national average of $158, driven by both a lower price and lower usage. Residents pay 18.92¢/kWh compared with the national rate of 18.07¢/kWh, a difference of 0.85¢/kWh working against them; however, they use 699 kWh per month against the national average of 876 kWh, a gap of 177 kWh that pulls the bill down and more than offsets the higher rate.
From September 2025 through August 2026, the average bill climbed 8.5% to $132 from $122 the year before. Over the five years since August 2021, it has grown 40.7%, and since December 2008 it has risen 56.2%. Seasonal swings are substantial: bills peak at $193 in July 2026 and drop to $105 in November 2025, a gap of $88 around the year-round average.
Among bordering states, Illinois sits in the middle. Wisconsin at $125 and Iowa at $121 charge less; Missouri at $147, Kentucky at $155, and Indiana at $159 all exceed Illinois for the month, with Indiana approaching the national bill.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›How much is the average electric bill in Illinois?
›Is the electric bill in Illinois higher than the national average?
›Why is electricity expensive in Illinois?
›When is the electric bill highest in Illinois?
›How does Illinois compare with neighboring states?
How this is calculated
EIA’s retail-sales dataset reports, for every state and month, total residential revenue and the number of residential customers served. The average monthly bill is simply the first divided by the second — total spending across all households, spread evenly over all accounts.
bill = revenue ÷ customers · averaged over 12 months (September 2025 – August 2026)
Two caveats worth knowing. It is an average, so it blends apartments with large houses — a typical household in Illinois may pay well above or below $132. And it counts what was actually billed for electricity, including fixed service charges, so it is not the same as multiplying your own usage by the advertised rate.
Looking for the rate rather than the bill? See Illinois electricity prices by sector.