How much does it cost to charge a Tesla Model 3?

A full charge for a 2026 Tesla Model 3 Premium RWD costs about $16.34 at home, at the US average residential electricity rate of 18¢/kWh. Filling up the same car costs $11.21 in Idaho, the cheapest state, and $30.17 in California — your own rate decides it.

That full charge draws roughly 91 kWh from the wall and buys 363 miles of EPA-rated range — about $0.045 a mile.

What it costs at three real electricity rates

Your rate is the only input that really moves this number, so here is the same car at three real ones — the cheapest state, the national average, and the most expensive large mainland market.

Hawaii is higher still at 52¢ — a 4.2:1 spread from the cheapest state to the dearest. Figures checked August 2026.

What it costs per mile

A Tesla Model 3 costs about $0.045 a mile to charge at home at the US average electricity rate, or $4.50 per 100 miles. That is energy only — the EPA rates this car at 25 kWh per 100 miles measured at the wall socket, so charging losses are already inside the figure and should not be added again.

Per mile is the number that survives a change of car: it does not care about battery size, so it is the only fair way to line this car up against one with a much bigger or smaller pack.

What it adds to your electricity bill

Charging a Tesla Model 3 at home adds about $45 a month to your electricity bill at the US average rate, driving 12,000 miles a year. That is the yearly cost of $540 spread evenly across twelve months — a month with a road trip in it costs more, and a quiet one costs less.

Nothing else on the bill changes: the car draws the same kilowatt-hours whatever else is running in the house, so the increase is the charging and nothing more.

At the cheapest state rate the same driving adds $31 a month, and $83 at the most expensive — the table above has all three. If your utility offers an overnight or time-of-use rate, charging on it lands at the low end rather than the middle.

Where the numbers come from

The EPA rates this Premium RWD at 25 kWh per 100 miles with 363 miles of combined range. Those two figures together give the energy for a full charge, which is where the 91 kWh above comes from.

We work it out that way rather than quoting a battery size on purpose. Manufacturers publish gross capacity, which includes a buffer at each end of the pack that never takes a charge, so a cost built on it overstates your bill. And the EPA measures at the wall socket rather than at the battery, so charging losses are already inside the figure — no need to add them, and adding them would count the same loss twice.

What this means for this car

The Model 3 Premium RWD has one of the longest EPA ranges on this site at 363 miles, and it ties the Model Y for the lowest energy consumption of any Tesla here at 25 kWh per 100 miles. That combination is what makes it cheap to run in the way that actually shows up on a bill: low consumption keeps the cost per mile down, and long range means fewer stops at public fast chargers, which usually cost more per kWh than charging at home. The Standard RWD is rated slightly better still at 24 kWh per 100 miles, though with 321 miles of range rather than 363 — so the cheaper car is also marginally the cheaper one to charge per mile.

How it compares

All at 18¢/kWh and 12,000 miles a year. The gas comparison is illustrative — it is not a claim about any particular car.

Figures are for the 2026 Tesla Model 3 Premium RWD. Other trims of the same car are rated differently — see above. How these figures are calculated.