How many watts does a computer use? It does compute!

Updated: Feb 05, 2025
Created: Mar 15, 2024
8 min

Julia ZaraevaAuthor

From working from home to hardcore gaming – your computer can handle it all. But have you ever wondered how much electricity your computer consumes and how much it costs you? Find out in our article.

Key takeaways

Average laptop draws from 30 to 70 watts, while a desktop computer needs from 200 to 300 watts.
Using a PC for work and gaming may demand over 2000 watts of power and cost you about $0.50 for a single day, $15 a month, and $180 a year.
ExampleLeft in a stand by mode, your computer turns into an energy vampire, and energy vampires suck from $100 to $200 a year.
To save energy, you can turn your PC off when not in use, use power strips, manage power settings, disconnect external devices like monitors, printers, and speakers causing peripheral drain and contributing to standby power consumption, and also run your computer on solar power.

Computers and their power ratings

Just like cars, computers come in a wide range of configurations, each with varying power demands. We’ll explore some general figures of how many watts a computer uses to give you a better idea.

30-70 W

average wattage of a laptop

Laptops are known for their portability, and that often translates to energy efficiency as well. On average, laptops use between 30 and 70 watts while operating. This can vary depending on the specific model, screen size, and workload. For instance, a basic Chromebook browsing the internet may use about 20 to 30 watts, while a high-performance gaming laptop running a graphics-intensive game may consume about 300 watts.

200-300 W

average wattage of a desktop computer

Desktop computers encompass an even wider range in terms of both size and power usage. A standard desktop computer might use around 200 to 300 watts, while a top-of-the-line gaming PC with powerful graphics cards and multiple monitors can easily reach 500 watts or more. The type of processor, graphics card, RAM, and storage drive all play a role. Generally, higher-performance components require more watts to operate.

Volts, amps, watts – what’s the difference?

Understanding your electric usage involves several key measurements that show how power flows through your home and how much your appliances consume. Each unit of measurement tells part of the story about your home's electricity consumption and helps determine your monthly bill.

The foundation of electric power lies in the partnership between volts and amps. Volts provide the pressure that pushes electricity through your home's wiring, while amps measure the actual flow of electricity through those wires. When you multiply these together, you get watts, which indicate how much power an appliance needs to operate. Different appliances have different capacity needs - for example, a microwave might use 1,000 watts while a light bulb might only need 60 watts.

Your electric bill is calculated using kilowatt-hours, which measure how much power you consume over time. One kilowatt-hour represents the energy used when a 1,000-watt appliance runs for one hour. Your power company tracks these units of energy usage, adding up the kilowatt-hours from all your appliances to determine your monthly charges. This makes it easy to understand why running high-capacity appliances like air conditioners can significantly impact your bill.

Evaluating PC running costs

Finding out the exact power consumption of your laptop or computer is a tricky task. Working on a laptop from home for one day, you might use about 500 Watt-hours. Or you can burn the same amount of energy playing video games for just a couple of hours.

Let’s take an ordinary computer. We work from home and play games for a couple of hours in the evening. So we spend about 1,600Wh during the day and about 600Wh in the evening. That’s 2,200Wh per day.

200 W * 8 h + 300 W * 2 h = 2,200 Wh/day

Given $0.20 per kilowatt-hour, using a PC for a single day costs us about $0.50, a month – $15, and a year – $180. But again, these are all very rough estimates. If you work from the office, you’ll consume much less power than if you work from home with energy-intensive software or explore the game world for the whole weekend.

Monthly and yearly costs to run a computer by state

The consumption cost heavily depends on the cost of electricity, and each state has its own cost per kilowatt hour. Let's see how much it would cost you to run a computer every day throughout the year.

State	Average Electricity Rate ($/kWh)	Monthly Cost ($)	Annual Cost ($)
California	0.30	20	240
Texas	0.13	8	105
Florida	0.14	9	110
New York	0.21	14	170
Pennsylvania	0.16	10	130

PC is an energy vampire

That’s not all the electricity your computer and laptop consume. They are energy vampires, just like your phone charger. The energy vampires are electronic devices that continue to consume electricity even when they’re seemingly turned off but still connected to the mains.

5 tips on running computer energy-efficiently

While computers and laptops can be energy vampires when left unchecked, they don’t have to be ones. By adopting smart habits, you can greatly reduce your energy consumption. Here are some things you can do:

Tip#1: Turn PC off when not in use

This seems obvious, but it’s easy to leave your computer idle for extended periods. When you’re finished with your computer or laptop, instead of putting it in sleep mode, turn it off completely.

Tip#2: Use power strips

Tip#3: Manage power settings

Most operating systems offer power management features that can help optimize your computer’s energy use. These can automatically put your computer to sleep after a period of inactivity or adjust screen brightness.

Tip#4: Beware of peripheral drain

External devices like monitors, printers, and speakers can also contribute to standby power consumption. Use power management features for these as well, or unplug them when not needed.

Tip#5: Run your computer on solar power

Running your computer on solar power is a great way to reduce your overall energy consumption and environmental impact. Even greater is that with portable solar panels, you are not bound to the grid and can work on your laptop from literally anywhere.