How many watts does a toaster use?
A domestic toaster draws 1000 to 1500 watts while the elements are on. Two-slice models sit at the lower end, four-slice at the upper.
That is roughly three times what a refrigerator averages. The toaster costs about $5 a year and the refrigerator about $80.
- How many watts does a toaster use?
- Between 1000 and 1500 watts while running, and the exact figure is printed on the appliance rather than measured by anybody. At 750 W a single minute costs about 0.66¢.
- How much electricity does a toaster use per minute?
- At 750 watts, one minute uses 0.0125 kWh. Ten minutes a day for a year comes to about $24.18 at 53¢ per kWh.
Work it out with your own tariff
Residential sector, US average, as published in Electric Power Monthly released 26 August 2026. This is a revenue-weighted average across all residential customers and utilities, not a tariff any single household pays. In the same month the state residential averages (table 5.6.A) ran from 14.37 cents in Idaho to 52.72 in Hawaii, with California at 34.74 and New York at 29.49 — a spread of more than three and a half times. Use the figure from your own bill; the default here is a placeholder, not an answer.
Minutes a day
Watts, from the label on yours
Your rate, cents per kWh
| Period | Electricity | Cost | Time counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| One minute | 0.01 kWh | $0.0066 | 1 minute |
| Your daily use | 0.13 kWh | $0.0663 | 10 minutes a day |
| A month | 3.8 kWh | $1.99 | × 30 days |
| A year | 45.6 kWh | $24 | × 365 days |
750 W × 10 min ÷ 60 ÷ 1000 = 0.1250 kWh × 53¢ = $0.0663 a day.
Minutes are counted per day in total, not per use. If you use it three times a day for two minutes, that is six. The distinction matters because multiplying one use by 365 assumes you use it once a day, and most pages that quote a yearly figure never say which they did. 1000-1500 W covers what is printed on domestic toasters; two-slice models sit at the lower end and four-slice at the upper. A toaster is a bare resistive element, so the rating on the appliance is what it draws while the elements are on. Rate defaults to 18.34¢ (U.S. Energy Information Administration, June 2026).
The clearest example of why watts alone are useless
| Appliance | Draw while running | Cost a year |
|---|---|---|
| Toaster | 1200 W | about $5 |
| Refrigerator | 50 W average | about $80 |
The toaster draws twenty-four times more and costs fifteen times less. Everything in that gap is duration: four minutes a day against every hour of the year.
If you take one thing from this site, this is the pair to remember. A wattage without a duration is not an answer, and the appliances people worry about are usually not the ones costing them money.
What four minutes a day actually comes to
At 1200 W, four minutes a day for a year is about $5.40. A single round of toast costs under a cent.
There is no meaningful saving available here. Unplugging a toaster saves nothing at all, because a toaster with a mechanical timer draws nothing when not toasting — there is no standby to eliminate.
Where a toaster does matter
Not on the bill, but on the circuit. At 1200 to 1500 watts it is one of the largest single draws in a kitchen, and running it alongside a kettle or a microwave on the same circuit is how breakers trip. That is a question about amps rather than about cost, and the arithmetic is the rating divided by 120.
What this does not account for
No source, and none is needed. A toaster is a bare resistive element and the rating on the appliance is what it draws. Nobody certifies toasters for energy use, so any page quoting a measured figure has measured nothing.
Toasters with digital displays do have a standby draw. Models with a clock or electronic controls draw a small amount continuously. A plain mechanical toaster draws nothing between uses. We do not publish a figure for the electronic ones because it is not printed and not certified.
The elements are not on for the whole cycle on some models. Higher-end toasters modulate the elements, so a four-minute cycle may not be four minutes at full power. The figure here is therefore a ceiling.
Toaster ovens are a different appliance. They draw similar power but run for far longer, which as this page argues is the part that decides the cost.
Worth reading next
Sources
- 01Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.3 — average price of electricity to ultimate customersU.S. Energy Information Administration ·
How these figures are produced: see our methodology.
Figures are calculated from published wattages and a published tariff, both dated above. They are good for comparing devices, not for predicting your bill: your rate, settings and usage all differ.