What does a blender cost to run?

Run the numbers on your own use

Change any of these and the figures update. The defaults are the typical case described above; your rate is the input that moves the answer most.

Why this is lower than the number you will see elsewhere

Almost every published answer to this question multiplies the rating on the label by the hours the appliance is switched on. For a blender that gives 7.2 kWh a year, or $1.32.

The number on the box is usually a peak figure measured at the moment the motor bites hardest, and a jug of soft fruit never draws it. Low and medium speeds pull a fraction of the rating, so the average across a blend sits below the plate.

The arithmetic, step by step

Nothing here is hidden, so you can check it or change it. Working in the order the formula runs:

1. 600 W — what it draws while it is actually drawing. This is the rating on the plate.
2. × 80% — the share of its in-service time it is really pulling that. The number on the box is usually a peak figure measured at the moment the motor bites hardest, and a jug of soft fruit never draws it. Low and medium speeds pull a fraction of the rating, so the average across a blend sits below the plate.
   That gives 480 W averaged across the hours it is on.
3. × 0.04 hours a day × 300 days — About two and a half minutes of blending on most days — a smoothie, or a soup finished in the jug.
   480 × 0.04 × 300 ÷ 1,000 = 5.8 kWh a year.
4. × 18.34¢ — the US average residential rate for June 2026.
   5.8 kWh × 18.34¢ = $1.06 a year.

Change any assumption in the calculator above and every figure on this page moves with it. The two that matter most are your rate, which varies 4× across the country, and the hours — the duty cycle is a property of the appliance, but the hours are a property of you.

How sensitive is that number?

A single figure invites more confidence than it deserves. Here is the same appliance under assumptions either side of the default, so you can see how much of the answer is the appliance and how much is the guess about how you use it.

Everything else held at the default. The spread here is the honest error bar on the headline figure.

What it costs per hour, day and month

At 18.34¢ per kWh, the US residential average for June 2026.

What it emits

The same 5.8 kWh that costs $1.06 also emits about 5 lb of CO₂e a year on the average US grid — and that figure moves far more than the money does. On Vermont’s grid the same appliance emits 0 lb; on West Virginia’s it emits 11 lb. The full picture is here, including why an annual average cannot tell you whether running it at night is cleaner.

The thing worth knowing

The wattage arms race on blender boxes is about capability, not cost. A 1,500 W machine crushes ice and grinds nut butter that a 300 W one stalls on — but it also finishes the job sooner, so the energy the two use for the same smoothie lands within a rounding error of each other. You are paying more per year for the electricity of a powerful blender than a weak one by roughly the price of a postage stamp.

What it costs in your state

The appliance is the same everywhere; the rate is not. Running this blender costs $3.04 a year in Hawaii and $0.76 in Nevada — a difference of 4×.

Cost of running one blender for a year, by state. Residential average price, EIA June 2026.

Other kitchen costs

• Standalone ice maker

  $253 a year

  An undercounter unit kept switched on year round.

• Wine cellar cooling unit

  $239 a year

  A through-wall unit holding a small purpose-built cellar at 55°F.

• Garage refrigerator

  $130 a year

  An older second fridge in an unconditioned garage.

• Upright freezer

  $111 a year

  A 15 cu ft frost-free upright in a garage.

• Refrigerator

  $77 a year

  A modern 20 cu ft top-freezer, kitchen at normal room temperature.

• Kegerator

  $64 a year

  A single-tap unit kept at serving temperature year round.

Questions

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, June 2026. U.S. Government work, public domain.

How every figure on this page is computed · Where the data comes from