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.

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.

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. We don’t collect or store your personal data; this site is for comparison and planning only. 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.