What does a microwave cost to run?
The most efficient way to heat a small amount of food, because it puts the energy into the food and not the air around it.
Typical model is rated 900W
Price cap is 26.11p
4p per use, 364 uses a year, 55 kWh in total — about £1 a month.
A microwave draws less than an oven and runs for a fraction of the time, and it heats the food directly rather than a large hot cavity. For reheating a plate or cooking a jacket potato it is comfortably the cheapest appliance in the kitchen — pennies a go, and a trivial yearly total for most households.
The one place it loses is browning and crisping, which it cannot do, and cooking for a crowd, where the oven's larger capacity wins back the efficiency it lost. For everything small and quick, it is the right tool and the cheap one.
The short answer: One of the cheapest appliances to run, and the right choice for reheating and small portions.
What actually helps
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This is the small stuff
Every appliance on this site put together is usually less than a third of a typical energy bill. Heating the house is the rest of it. If the numbers here bothered you, the number that actually matters is what your heating costs — and whether a heat pump would make it better or worse in your particular house.
Work out your heating costOther appliances
Energy figures checked 2026-08-26. Electricity priced at the Ofgem cap for 1 July – 30 September 2026. Your own machine and tariff will differ — put your figures in above.