How to read your electricity bill, line by line
Every part of an Australian electricity bill, in the order it appears, from your NMI to the GST line. Keep your latest bill beside you, then compare your figures against published plans.
Understanding your power bill takes more than the total
The amount due tells you what this billing period cost. It doesn't tell you what a year costs, or whether another plan would be cheaper.
That answer is spread across daily charges, usage rates, credits and GST. Retailers lay bills out differently, but the same parts turn up in much the same order.
Learn them once and any bill makes sense. Then you can enter the figures in our electricity plan comparison and see a yearly dollar figure for your own home.
Your bill holds every figure our tools need
Read it once with this guide, then let the tools do the sums. Every tool is free, and none of them asks for your account number.
Your yearly cost against published plans
Enter your postcode and usage and see the plans retailers publish to the Consumer Data Right feed, ordered by yearly cost including GST, supply charges and usage.
See Your yearly cost against published
A yearly cost without a bill
Our electricity cost calculator works out a yearly figure from a bill, from your usage, or from your household size if the bill is lost.
Upload a bill, numbers masked
In a free My Household account you can upload a PDF, JPG or PNG bill and have the figures read for you. Account numbers are masked before anything is saved.
See Upload a bill, numbers masked
Every price change on record
Our price change tracker shows each recorded change to a plan's price, with the old value, the new value and the date.
How to read your electricity bill, from the top of page one
Each part below is a question you'd ask with the bill in front of you. The answer comes first, in the order the lines usually appear.
Where are my account number and NMI?
Both sit near the top of page one. The account number is your retailer's reference for you. The NMI, or National Meter Identifier, belongs to your property's connection and stays with it when you switch retailer. You don't need either to compare plans with us.
What period does this bill cover
Look for the billing period dates and the number of days. Near the meter readings you'll see whether each read was actual or estimated. An estimate means the meter wasn't read this time, so the usage is a guess that a later actual read will correct.
How much electricity did I use?
Usage is shown in kilowatt hours, or kWh. One kWh is the energy a 1,000 watt appliance uses in an hour. Divide the total kWh by the days in the billing period for a daily average, which makes bills from different seasons comparable.
What is the supply charge per day?
The supply charge is a fixed amount for every day you're connected, however much power you use. It's shown in cents or dollars per day and multiplied by the days in the period. Two plans with the same usage rate can still cost different amounts because of it.
Which usage rate am I on?
Your usage rate is the price per kWh, and your bill names the type. A flat rate charges the same at any hour. Time of use charges different rates by time of day. Controlled load is a separately wired circuit, often hot water, on its own rate.
What are feed-in credits and discounts?
If you have solar, feed-in credits are what the retailer pays for power you send to the grid: kWh exported times the feed-in tariff. Discounts appear as a credit line. Check whether yours was guaranteed or depended on paying on time, because a missed condition removes it.
What does "Could you save money
This box is the better offer message. The AER Better Bills Guideline makes retailers show it on page one of a residential bill at least every 100 days. It only compares your retailer's own plans, so a cheaper plan from another retailer won't appear in it.
Why is GST on my electricity bill?
GST is the 10% goods and services tax. Many bills list charges before GST, then add it as its own line near the total. When you compare plans, check every price includes GST. Our yearly costs always do, along with supply charges and usage.
Could you save money on another plan?
What people ask before they compare their bill
The worries that stop most households entering their figures, answered plainly.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do you need my account number?
- No. If you upload a bill we mask the account number, NMI and MIRN before anything is saved, and you can delete the file or your whole account at any time.
- Do I need an account to compare?
- No. Enter your postcode and usage, or figures from a recent bill, and see the published plans for your area by yearly cost. An account is only for saving comparisons, recording bills and alerts.
- Where do the prices come from?
- Electricity and gas plans come from the plans retailers must publish under the Consumer Data Right, hosted by the Australian Energy Regulator. We check them every 24 hours and every plan links to the retailer's own page.
- Do providers pay you to rank higher?
- No. Results are ordered by estimated cost at your usage. We may be paid when you choose some plans, and any sponsored placement is labelled, but payment never changes the order. See How we make money at /tools/how-we-make-money/.
- Why can't I compare electricity in WA or the NT?
- Retailers there do not publish their plans through the national feed we use, so we can't show a complete, current list. The household, electricity, solar and battery calculators still work.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Every comparison, calculator and the free account cost nothing. The free account covers one household and five alerts.
Your bill, turned into a yearly cost.
Enter these figures and see your yearly cost against the published plans for your postcode.
Free. No sign-up to compare.