How to determine what electric rate you're on

To find out what electric rate you’re on, start with your most recent electricity bill—it will name your rate plan directly. But if that name doesn’t mean much to you, you’re not alone: a 2025 report from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative found that only 17% of consumers struggling with high electricity bills even know that switching rate plans is an option, and that number has declined since 2023. Your rate plan determines how much you pay for every kilowatt-hour you use—and knowing which one you’re on is the first step to taking control of your energy costs.

Start with your most recent electric bill. If you’re on paperless billing, log into your account and download a recent copy. A mailed paper bill works just as well.

From there, you can figure out your rate in two ways: First, your bill will usually name the rate plan you’re on directly, though, the name alone won’t tell you the specifics of what you pay per hour. For that, you’d need to look up that specific rate tariff on your utility’s website.

The second way is to look at how your charges are calculated. If you’re being charged different amounts for electricity used at different times of day, you’re on a time-varying rate. If there’s one consistent rate applied to everything you use, you’re on a flat rate. (Your bill might show multiple line items, but if they’re all charged at the same rate, that’s still a flat plan.)

If you’re unhappy with your current plan, it’s also worth knowing that switching electric providers or changing rate plans is an option in many states—something far too few people realize.

Generally, residential electricity customers fall into one of two categories: flat rates or time-varying rates.

Flat electricity rate plans

Most electricity customers are on a flat rate plan, which means you pay a fixed price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for all the electricity you use—regardless of when you use it. Running your dishwasher at midnight or doing laundry on a Sunday afternoon? Same rate either way.

The math is simple: multiply your total electricity usage by your rate. If you use 600 kWh in a month at a flat rate of 15 cents per kWh, your bill comes out to $90. Because your bill is based purely on the volume of electricity you consume, flat rates are also sometimes called “volumetric rates.”

Time-varying electricity rate plans

On a time-varying rate, what you pay for electricity changes depending on when you use it—by time of day, day of the week, or even season. The idea is to reflect the actual cost of producing electricity: when demand is high (think: a hot summer afternoon when everyone’s running their AC), power is more expensive to generate. When demand drops overnight, it’s cheaper. Time-varying rates pass those fluctuations on to you.

The most common type is a time-of-use (TOU) rate. Under a TOU plan, your utility divides the day into time blocks—peak, off-peak, and sometimes mid-peak—and sets different prices for each. Electricity typically costs more during peak hours (often late afternoon into evening on weekdays, when the grid is under the most strain) and less overnight or on weekends. TOU rates are increasingly common for customers who install solar or solar-plus-storage, since they create more opportunities to maximize savings by shifting energy use to off-peak hours.

Beyond TOU, there are a couple of other time-varying structures worth knowing about. Critical peak pricing (CPP) plans charge a significantly higher rate during a small number of “super peak” hours—often the 40 to 100 highest-stress hours on the grid each year—while offering slightly reduced rates the rest of the time. Peak-time rebate plans flip the script: instead of charging you more during peak hours, they give you bill credits or rebates for reducing your usage when the grid needs it most.

Your electric rate doesn’t just determine what you pay, it also shapes how much you can save with solar. Here’s why it matters:

On a flat rate, your solar savings are straightforward: every kWh your panels produce offsets electricity you’d otherwise buy at that fixed rate. The higher your flat rate, the more each kWh of solar is worth.

On a TOU rate, timing becomes everything. If your solar panels generate most of their power during peak hours (which they often do, particularly in the afternoon), that energy offsets the most expensive electricity on your bill. Pair that with a battery storage system, and you can store excess solar energy to use during peak hours—squeezing even more value out of your system.

This is also where net metering comes in. If your utility offers net metering, excess solar energy your panels send back to the grid earns you a credit on your bill. The value of that credit can vary depending on your rate plan and your utility’s specific net metering policy—another reason it pays to understand the rate you’re on before you go solar.

No matter which rate plan you’re on, solar—or solar plus battery storage—can help reduce your monthly electricity bill. If you want to see how much you could save, EnergySage’s Solar Calculator gives you a real estimate without requiring any personal information. And when you’re ready to start comparing options, create a free account on the EnergySage Marketplace to receive custom quotes from local installers.