How Much Does It Cost to Charge a Phone?

Learn how much it costs to charge your smartphone. Charging a phone costs less than $1 per year in electricity.

1 min read

Quick Answer

Charging a smartphone costs about $0.50-1.00 per year in electricity. A typical phone battery holds 10-15 watt-hours, and charging daily for a year uses only 4-6 kWh total.

Key Takeaways

Phone batteries are tiny.
Fast charging is slightly less efficient but still costs pennies.
Wireless charging is about 70% efficient vs 85% for wired—still negligible cost difference.

Explanation

Phone batteries are tiny. An iPhone battery holds about 10-15 watt-hours (Wh), while larger Android phones hold 15-25 Wh. Charging efficiency is about 80-90%, so you might draw 12-30 Wh from the wall per charge.

At $0.16/kWh, charging a 15 Wh phone daily costs: 0.015 kWh × 365 days × $0.16 = about $0.88 per year. Even heavy users charging twice daily pay under $2 yearly.

The charger uses almost no power when plugged in without a phone (under 0.5W). The real cost of phone charging is negligible—worrying about it is not worth the mental energy.

Things to Know

Fast charging is slightly less efficient but still costs pennies.
Wireless charging is about 70% efficient vs 85% for wired—still negligible cost difference.
Charging from a car uses fuel, which costs far more than home electricity.