What Do Countertop Appliances Actually Cost to Run?

We publish the running cost of every appliance we cover, because nobody else does and because it is one of the few numbers in this category that is genuinely checkable rather than a matter of opinion. This post pulls all five categories into one place so you can see how they compare.

Every figure below is arithmetic you can re-do yourself from the wattage printed on the box. Nothing here is measured in a lab, because we do not have one — and we say so on how we review.

The formula

watts ÷ 1,000 × hours of use × your electricity rate = cost

We use $0.17 per kWh, the US average residential price published by the Energy Information Administration. Your rate matters more than your appliance does: US residential rates vary by roughly a factor of three between the cheapest and most expensive states, so substitute your own number from your bill if you want a figure that applies to you rather than to the national average.

One caveat that applies throughout: wattage is a rated figure, meaning the maximum the appliance draws. Anything with a thermostat — an air fryer, a sous vide circulator — cycles its element on and off once it reaches temperature rather than drawing full power continuously. So these figures are honest upper bounds rather than metered measurements, and we flag where the gap is large.

Every category, ranked by cost per use

Food processors — about 0.2 cents

The cheapest thing in the kitchen, because they run for under a minute.

• Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus, 250 W, 30 seconds — 0.002 kWh ≈ 0.04 cents
• Cuisinart FP-8, 350 W, 60 seconds — 0.006 kWh ≈ 0.1 cents
• Hamilton Beach 10-cup, 450 W, 60 seconds — 0.0075 kWh ≈ 0.13 cents
• Cuisinart DFP-14, 720 W, 60 seconds — 0.012 kWh ≈ 0.2 cents

Daily use of the largest of those for a full year comes to about 73 cents. See are food processors worth it?

Blenders — about 0.4 cents

Bigger motors, similarly short run times.

• Magic Bullet, 250 W, 30 seconds — 0.002 kWh ≈ 0.04 cents
• NutriBullet 600, 600 W, 45 seconds — 0.0075 kWh ≈ 0.13 cents
• Ninja BL610, 1,000 W, 90 seconds — 0.025 kWh ≈ 0.4 cents
• Ninja BN701, 1,400 W, 90 seconds — 0.035 kWh ≈ 0.6 cents

A daily smoothie on the thirstiest of those costs about 22 cents a year. Note that Vitamix does not publish wattages — its machines are specified as 2 HP — so we cannot include them in this table without inventing a number, and we will not. More in how many watts you need in a blender.

Stand mixers — about 0.9 cents

Modest motors, but a ten-minute knead is a long run by kitchen standards.

• Hamilton Beach 4-qt, 300 W, 10 minutes — 0.05 kWh ≈ 0.85 cents
• Cuisinart SM-50, 500 W, 10 minutes — 0.083 kWh ≈ 1.4 cents
• Aucma 6.5-qt, 660 W, 10 minutes — 0.11 kWh ≈ 1.9 cents

KitchenAid does not publish wattages for the Artisan, Classic or bowl-lift models, so they are absent here for the same reason as Vitamix. Baking twice a week on the Aucma costs about 2 cents a week.

Air fryers — about 9 cents

The first real step up, because now there is a heating element rather than a motor.

• Chefman TurboFry Dual, 1,500 W, 25 minutes — 0.63 kWh ≈ 11 cents
• Ninja AF101, 1,550 W, 20 minutes — 0.52 kWh ≈ 9 cents
• Instant Vortex Plus, 1,700 W, 20 minutes — 0.57 kWh ≈ 10 cents

Cooking five nights a week works out to roughly $2 a month. This is also the first category where the thermostat caveat bites: an air fryer draws full power during preheat and then cycles, so the true figure is somewhat below these. Full detail in what an air fryer costs to run and are air fryers worth it?

Sous vide — up to about 37 cents for two hours

The most expensive per session, entirely because of duration rather than power.

• Anova Mini, 850 W, 2 hours — 1.7 kWh ≈ 29 cents
• Inkbird ISV-100W, 1,000 W, 2 hours — 2.0 kWh ≈ 34 cents
• Anova Precision Cooker 3.0, 1,100 W, 2 hours — 2.2 kWh ≈ 37 cents

These are the strongest upper bounds in this post rather than realistic figures. A circulator draws full power only while heating the bath, then cycles at a low duty to replace heat lost to the room — so the real number is well under these. We do not have a measured duty cycle and will not invent one. The long-cook figures and the two habits that cut them are in what sous vide costs to run.

The pattern: run time beats wattage

Look at the table sideways and something useful emerges. A 1,400-watt Ninja blender costs 0.6 cents a use. A 300-watt Hamilton Beach stand mixer costs 0.85 cents — more, on a motor less than a quarter the size. The mixer runs for ten minutes; the blender runs for ninety seconds.

So when you are comparing two machines in the same category, wattage is a proxy for capability rather than for cost. Buying the more powerful blender does not meaningfully change your electricity bill. Buying a machine that needs two batches instead of one genuinely does — which is a quiet argument for correct sizing, covered in what size air fryer do I need and what size food processor do I need.

The comparison that actually matters

None of these numbers are worth optimizing in isolation. The reason we publish them is the comparison against a full-size oven, which is where the meaningful saving lives.

An oven element is typically 2,000–5,000 watts, and it is heating a large air-filled cavity plus heavy metal racks, then losing a chunk of that every time the door opens. An air fryer heats a cavity a fraction of the size and is ready in two or three minutes rather than ten to fifteen. For a small portion, the air fryer wins comfortably.

The honest counter-point: for a large quantity, the oven wins. One tray of roast vegetables for six in a single oven cycle beats four sequential air-fryer batches, because each batch pays the preheat cost again. The appliance that saves you money is the one sized to the meal you are actually cooking.

What these numbers do not include

Three honest limits on everything above.

Standby draw. Anything with a clock, a screen or a WiFi radio draws a small amount while plugged in and idle. No manufacturer in our catalog publishes a standby figure, so we cannot quantify it — but across a year of being plugged in it is not nothing, and it is the one argument for unplugging appliances you rarely use.

Missing wattages. Vitamix specifies horsepower rather than watts, and KitchenAid does not publish a wattage for its stand mixers or the KFP1318 food processor. Those machines are absent from the tables above rather than estimated.

Rated versus actual. Every figure uses the rated maximum. For motors that is close to reality under load; for thermostatically-controlled appliances it overstates the true cost, and we have flagged where that gap is widest.

If your electricity rate is well above the national average — and in several states it is close to double — scale everything proportionally. That is the one variable in this post that will actually change your answer.