Cheapest Electricity in Texas — City by City
Last updated: October 18, 2026 · 8 min read
A household in Plano and a household in Corpus Christi can sign up with the same retail provider on the same day and pay completely different all-in rates. That's not a glitch — it's how the Texas market is built. Two independent pricing decisions stack: the retail energy charge from a competitive provider, and the regulated delivery charge from the local TDU. This guide walks the major Texas markets and tells you what to expect in each.
The short answer
The lowest typical residential rates in deregulated Texas right now are in Oncor territory (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Arlington) and CenterPoint territory (Houston, Katy, Sugar Land). Rural AEP Texas and TNMP areas usually run 1 to 2 cents per kWh higher because of grid economics. Austin and San Antonio are regulated and don't offer plan choice.
Why Texas Rates Vary So Much by City
Two structural facts drive the variation. One: your TDU is fixed by ZIP code, and each TDU has its own delivery charge schedule approved by the PUCT. Two: retail providers file different price books for each TDU territory — same provider, same plan name, different rates depending on which city you're in. The all-in price you pay is the sum.
The TexasPowerCost.com search tool pulls plans for your specific ZIP rather than averaging across a city. Even within a single city, two ZIPs in different TDU sub-areas can show different plan inventories — particularly in places like Round Rock or Lewisville where multiple TDUs split coverage.
Houston Metro and the Gulf Coast
Houston, Katy, Sugar Land, Pasadena, Pearland, The Woodlands, and Galveston all sit in CenterPoint Energy territory. CenterPoint's per-kWh delivery rate sits in the middle of the four TDUs. Houston typically has the largest plan inventory of any Texas city — over 100 active offers across 30+ providers — because providers compete hard for the Houston market.
A Texas example
A 3-bedroom house in 77084 (West Houston) using 1,400 kWh in July might see 92 active plans on Power to Choose, ranging from a headline 8.4¢/kWh bill-credit plan to a 14.8¢/kWh green plan. The cheapest plan at that household's real usage is usually not the cheapest at 1,000 kWh. See current Houston plans →
Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex
Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Frisco, McKinney, Richardson, and most other DFW cities sit in Oncor territory. Oncor is the largest TDU in Texas by customer count. Like Houston, the Metroplex sees fierce retail competition — the cheapest plan in Plano in any given month is usually within a fraction of a cent of the cheapest plan in Dallas.
Mid-cities in the Metroplex — Mansfield, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Grapevine, Bedford — show the same plan inventory as central Dallas and Fort Worth because Oncor's tariff is uniform across the territory. See Dallas rates → and Fort Worth rates → for live data.
Austin and Central Texas — Why You Can't Shop
Austin itself is served by Austin Energy, a municipal utility owned by the City of Austin, which opted out of deregulation in 2002. Customers within Austin city limits cannot shop for a retail provider. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, and Georgetown sit on a patchwork of Oncor, Pedernales Electric Cooperative, and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative — some areas are deregulated and some are not.
Watch out: cooperative vs deregulated
If you live in a Hill Country town outside the major cities and your bill comes from Pedernales Electric Cooperative or Bluebonnet, you cannot shop. The TexasPowerCost.com ZIP search returns "no plans available" for these areas — which is itself useful information. You can still lower your bill through efficiency upgrades and rate-class selection within the co-op.
San Antonio and South Central Texas
San Antonio is served by CPS Energy, the largest municipal utility in the country, which opted out of deregulation. Customers within CPS territory pay the rate the utility sets — they cannot shop. Surrounding cities split between CPS extensions, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC), and other co-ops. Most of South Central Texas outside San Antonio proper is not deregulated.
The Rio Grande Valley and South Texas Coast
Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen, and Victoria are in AEP Texas Central territory. AEP Texas Central typically has the highest per-kWh delivery charge of the four TDUs because of long rural distribution lines and lower customer density per square mile. Retail energy charges from REPs can still be competitive, but the all-in delivered rate usually runs higher than the urban centers up north.
ZIP-level pages exist for every major Rio Grande Valley city. See the cities directory → for the full list.
West Texas, the Panhandle, and Lubbock
Abilene, San Angelo, Vernon, and other West Texas cities are in AEP Texas North territory. The Permian Basin cities — Midland and Odessa — are in Oncor territory and benefit from Oncor's lower per-kWh delivery rate. Amarillo is served by Xcel Energy, which is regulated and outside ERCOT entirely — Amarillo customers don't shop for a provider.
Lubbock is the newest addition to the deregulated market. Lubbock Power & Light's integration into ERCOT in 2021 was followed by the rollout of retail choice in 2024, giving Lubbock residents access to the same competitive REPs as the rest of the state for the first time.
How to Find the Actual Cheapest Plan for Your City
City-level averages are useful for orientation. They won't tell you what to actually sign. To find the real cheapest plan for your specific address, you need to feed three things into the search: your ZIP code, your real monthly usage (or a bedroom-size proxy), and ideally both your summer peak and winter low.
Smart move
Run the search twice — once at your summer peak kWh (look at last August's bill) and once at your winter low (look at last February's bill). The plan that performs reasonably at both extremes is the one to sign — not the plan that wins by 50 cents at a single fictional 1,000 kWh data point.
The Texas-Specific Bottom Line
The cheapest electricity in Texas is generally found in dense urban TDU territories — Oncor (Dallas–Fort Worth) and CenterPoint (Houston) — because grid economics favor high customer density. AEP Texas and TNMP territories run higher. Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and most rural co-ops aren't part of the deregulated market at all. The single most useful shopping habit is to compare plans by ZIP, not by city average — plan inventories and TDU sub-territory tariffs can differ even within one city.
See the cheapest plan in your city, right now
Enter your ZIP, pick your home size, and we'll rank every plan by what it actually costs at your real usage.
Find My Best Plan →Common Questions Texans Ask
Which Texas city has the cheapest electricity right now?
Among deregulated cities, the lowest typical residential rates are in the Oncor and CenterPoint territories — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano, Arlington, Katy. Dense urban TDUs spread infrastructure cost across more customers. Among regulated cities, Austin Energy and CPS Energy in San Antonio set their own tariffs that have historically been competitive with deregulated rates, though you cannot shop there.
Why are Austin and San Antonio different from Houston and Dallas?
Austin and San Antonio are served by municipal utilities (Austin Energy and CPS Energy) that opted out of deregulation when the state restructured the market in 2002. Customers in those cities cannot shop for a retail provider — they pay whatever tariff the city utility sets. The trade-off is no plan choice but generally stable, transparent pricing.
How do I find the actual cheapest plan for my city?
Enter your ZIP code on the TexasPowerCost.com search tool. The system pulls every plan currently filed for your specific ZIP from the official Power to Choose API, computes the true monthly bill using linear interpolation across the three EFL price points, and sorts results by total bill — not the misleading 1,000 kWh advertised rate.
Do rates really vary between Houston and Dallas?
Yes. The retail energy charge varies because each REP files separate price books for each TDU territory. The delivery charge varies because CenterPoint Energy (Houston) and Oncor (Dallas) operate different grids with different cost bases. Combined, the all-in delivered rate can differ by 1 to 2 cents per kWh between the two cities for the same household profile.
Can I shop for electricity in Lubbock or El Paso?
Lubbock joined the deregulated market in 2024 after years operating outside ERCOT — Lubbock customers can now choose a retail electric provider for the first time. El Paso remains outside ERCOT and is served by El Paso Electric, a regulated utility, so customers there do not shop for a provider.
Are smaller Texas cities more expensive than the big ones?
Generally yes. Rural and small-city TDU territories — most of AEP Texas and TNMP — carry higher per-kWh delivery charges because the cost of operating long distribution lines is spread across fewer customers. The retail energy charge from REPs may be similar, but the all-in delivered cost in Corpus Christi or McAllen is often noticeably higher than in Dallas or Houston.
Can I get the same plan in Houston as I can in Dallas?
Sometimes, sometimes not. A REP can file the exact same plan name in both territories with different rates, or they can file completely different plans in each territory. Plan filings are TDU-specific. The plan inventory you see on Power to Choose changes when you change ZIP, even within a single REP's offerings.
Your Next Move
The cities directory lists every Texas city with a dedicated rate page. The ZIP search tool returns the cheapest plan for any deregulated ZIP in seconds. To understand why rates vary by city, read Texas TDU delivery charges, fully explained. To dig deeper at the ZIP level, see how Texas electricity rates vary by ZIP code.