About Utility Rates

Electricity rates for many areas could generally be determined pretty easily—state commissions, PSC reports, and provider tariff pages often publish typical bills or rate schedules. But the full picture of actual utility costs for a given city or area was extremely fragmented. Water, sewer, and trash lived on city sites, county portals, ordinance PDFs, and provider dashboards. Comparing “what will my total bill look like?” across cities meant opening a dozen tabs and reconciling different units, fee structures, and assumptions.

We built Utility Rates to put electric, water, sewer, and trash in one place, with consistent assumptions and clear sources. Our goal is to give you a comparable monthly estimate so you can see how costs stack up by city and county—and to make it obvious where every number comes from.

Bill estimates are the foundation; use the links below for calculators, broadband guides, and articles.

• City & county bill estimates

  Our core product: comparable monthly estimates for electric, water, sewer, and trash using official tariffs, PSC reports, and municipal rate schedules.

  Each city page shows assumed usage, a line-item breakdown, source links, and a last-verified date. County pages summarize cities in the same area.

  Browse by state →How we calculate →

• Internet & broadband

  City and county guide pages with FCC filing context, plus an address-based plan comparison tool on our Tools hub.

  Guides explain local broadband landscape from our research data; the comparison tool shows retail offers for your address via a labeled partner embed.

  Internet guides & search →

• Calculators & tools

  Free interactive tools: compare two cities side-by-side, estimate solar payback, calculate appliance running costs, and more.

  Many calculators can pull rates from cities we cover. Assumptions and disclaimers are on each tool page.

  View all tools →

• Blog

  Articles on utility costs, moving between cities, rate trends, and how to read your bills—written to complement the data on the site.

  Longer-form context and tips; city pages remain the home for sourced rate tables and last-verified dates.

  Read the blog →

Our rate estimates and city research are written and maintained by our team. We cite official sources, show last-verified dates, and mark gaps as estimated rather than inventing numbers. Partner comparison tools—such as the embedded internet lookup—are clearly labeled, run under the partner's terms, and show their own advertiser disclosures.

We may receive compensation when you use certain comparison tools (for example, when you click through or sign up for service). That is a standard affiliate or performance arrangement. It does not change how we source or present utility-rate estimates on city and county pages, and we do not let partners edit our methodology or rate tables.

For data handling on embedded tools, see our Privacy Policy — third-party tools. Questions or corrections about our research? Contact us.

We try to be as accurate and transparent as possible. Every utility component (electric, water, sewer, trash) is tied to a source—usually an official rate schedule, PSC report, city ordinance, or provider page. We store a source name, URL, and a “last verified” date so you can see when we last checked that rate. City and county pages show these sources with clickable links.

We use standardized usage assumptions (e.g., assumed kWh and gallons per month) so estimates are comparable across cities. Your actual usage will differ; our methodology explains the formulas and assumptions in detail so you can judge how well they match your situation.

If you see anything that is incorrect or needs updating, please let us know. We will do our best to correct it.

Read our full methodology → for estimation formulas, default usage, and how we handle confidence and source tracking.

Rates change. We update data when we re-verify sources; the “last verified” date on each city page tells you how current that component is. Most informational pages do not require an account—we do not sell your browsing data from those pages. For binding decisions (moving, switching providers, budgeting), always confirm current rates and fees with the utility or local government.

We focus on areas where we can document rates from official or authoritative sources. Gaps and “estimated” flags exist where data is incomplete; we prefer to label that clearly rather than guess. If you spot an error or have a better source, we welcome feedback.

The team behind Utility Rates brings years of industry experience in the public power and utility domain—from utility operations and rate structures to data systems and transparency. We built this site because we know how hard it is to find comparable, sourced utility cost data in one place.

Our background in utility operations, data, and systems drives our focus on accuracy and clear sourcing. We link every estimate to official or authoritative sources and keep our methodology and assumptions visible so you can judge how well they match your situation.