The average gas bill for a U.S. home heated or cooked with natural gas came to about $84 a month in 2025, or roughly $1,005 for the year. That’s my math from the Energy Information Administration’s own numbers, and it hides the part that matters: January cost $175 and August cost $37.
My first winter in this apartment I budgeted $95 for gas because that’s what November looked like. January came in at $178. So I don’t trust a single monthly average anymore, and I don’t think you should either. Below is the national benchmark, the month-by-month shape of it, why your price per unit is highest in the month you use the least, what the map does to the number, and a budget line that holds up through a real winter.
The average gas bill in 2026, and how I got the number
There’s no official “average gas bill” figure the way there is for electricity, where the EIA publishes a bill per state. For natural gas it publishes the pieces, and you multiply them yourself:
- Price. The average residential natural gas price, month by month, in dollars per thousand cubic feet (Mcf).
- Volume. How much gas was delivered to homes each month.
- Households. The number of residential gas customers: 73.7 million in 2024, the latest count out.
Price times volume, divided by households, gives you the bill for a typical gas home. For all of 2025 that works out to about $1,005, or $84 a month on average. The price averaged $15.34 per Mcf for the year, which is about $1.48 a therm (one Mcf is roughly 10.4 therms, the unit most bills actually print).
And 2026 is running higher. January 2026 came in around $184 for the typical gas home, the most expensive month in the data I pulled. The price per Mcf in the first half of 2026 was 3% to 15% above the same months of 2025, depending on the month.
Keep in mind this is an average across gas customers, including people who only have a gas stove and people heating a drafty four-bedroom in Minnesota. Almost nobody pays exactly $84. Use it as a starting point and then go find your own January.
The month-by-month shape of a gas bill
Here is 2025 for the typical gas household, from the same EIA data:
- Winter: January $175, February $140, December $158
- Shoulder months: March $105, April $71, October $57, November $97
- Summer: May $49, June $41, July $38, August $37, September $38
Two things jump out. The five cold months, November through March, carry about two thirds of the year’s cost. And the summer floor isn’t zero. Even in August, when nobody’s running a furnace, the typical home still paid around $37 for gas.
That floor is your water heater, your stove, maybe a dryer, plus the fixed customer charge your utility bills whether you use any gas or not. It’s also why I call the summer bill the “honest” one. It shows you what you pay just to have gas service. Everything above it in January is heat.
A monthly average is only useful if you remember it’s an average of a $37 month and a $175 month.
Usage tells the same story. In January 2025 the typical gas home used about 14 Mcf. In August it used about 1.4. Ten times the gas, in the same house.
Why the price per therm is highest when you use the least
This one confused me for a full year, so I’ll save you the trouble.
In August 2025 the average residential price was $26.24 per Mcf. In January it was $12.44. Summer gas looks more than twice as expensive per unit, and that’s mostly an illusion of the math. Your bill has a flat monthly customer charge (the amount varies a lot by utility) plus delivery and supply charges that scale with use. Spread that flat charge over 1.4 Mcf and it looks huge per unit. Spread it over 14 and it almost disappears.
Why it matters for your budget: you can’t cut the summer bill much. I tried. I turned my water heater down to 120 degrees, which was worth doing, and my July bill went from $31 to $28. The fixed part stayed fixed. The money is in the winter months, which is where the tactics that actually lowered my heating bill did their work.
When you read your statement, look at two lines. The usage (therms or CCF) tells you what you used. The customer or service charge tells you what you’d pay at zero. Everything else is price.
Average gas bill by state: the price map is only half of it
The EIA also publishes the average residential gas price by state. The 2025 spread is wild. Per Mcf:
- Cheapest per unit: Idaho $7.69, Montana $8.99, North Dakota $9.50, New Mexico $9.83
- Big cold-weather states: Michigan $10.92, Minnesota $10.98, Colorado $11.17, Illinois $11.25
- Most expensive per unit: Florida $25.48, Massachusetts $25.06, California $22.01, and Hawaii at $52.38
But price per unit doesn’t equal a high average gas bill. Florida has one of the highest prices in the country and mostly uses gas for water heaters and stoves, so bills stay small. Minnesota’s price is under half of Florida’s, and a January bill there can still be brutal because the furnace runs for weeks straight.
The states that hurt are the ones where both halves are high: a cold winter and a price above the national $15.34. Parts of New England sit right there, with Massachusetts over $25.
If you move, ask the landlord or the last owner for last January’s gas bill. The yearly total hides the spike you’ll actually have to pay.
What this winter might look like
I don’t do forecasts, but the EIA does. In its September 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook, it expects natural gas in storage to hit 3,969 billion cubic feet by October 31, which is 5% above the 2021 to 2025 average. More gas in storage heading into winter is the good kind of news for prices, though it doesn’t cancel a cold January.
The agency’s full winter heating outlook usually comes with the October report, due October 6. I’ll look at it then. Until it’s out, here’s how I’m planning: take last winter’s bills and add 10%. That roughly matches how far 2026 prices have run ahead of 2025 so far, and it’s a lot less painful to over-save by $40 than to come up short in February.
If you already know January will be more than you have, the help is real and it opens in the fall. My guide to the home energy assistance program (LIHEAP) walks through who qualifies and when states open their windows. Apply early. Funding runs out.
How to budget for the average gas bill without a January panic
The fix is a small sinking fund for gas, set up in spring. Here’s how I’d do it from scratch:
- Add up the last 12 bills. Your utility’s online account usually shows a year of history. If you’re new to the home, borrow the national numbers in the table below as a placeholder.
- Divide by 12 and round up. For the typical gas household, April 2025 through March 2026 came to $1,022, so about $86 a month.
- Start in April, not July. I’ll show why in the table below. The short version: a July start comes up short in January.
- Pay the real bill from the fund every month. Summer months leave money behind. Winter months eat it.
- Check the balance on November 1. If it’s below about one and a half January bills, bump the monthly amount for the rest of the season.
My own number is $60 a month, because my apartment runs well below the national average. It started in July. It worked for me with room to spare, but when I ran the national numbers for this post, the same July start left the typical household $87 in the hole by March. That surprised me.
Gas is one line of the bigger picture. My breakdown of the average utility bill lays out gas next to electric, water, and trash, and the average electric bill post shows the opposite curve, the one that peaks in summer. For how utilities stack up against everything else in a paycheck, my roundup of budgeting statistics has the national spending shares.
Cozy tip: open your gas account tonight, find last January’s bill, and write that number down somewhere you’ll see it in October. That’s the number to plan around. If you want a spot for it, the free monthly budget printable has a sinking fund line waiting.
A 12-month gas sinking fund, with real 2025 and 2026 bills
This worked example uses the typical U.S. gas household’s actual monthly bills from EIA data, April 2025 through March 2026, and sets aside $86 every month. The whole 12 months added up to $1,022.
| Month | Typical gas bill | Set aside | Fund balance after paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2025 | $71 | $86 | $15 |
| May | $49 | $86 | $52 |
| Jun | $41 | $86 | $97 |
| Jul | $38 | $86 | $145 |
| Aug | $37 | $86 | $194 |
| Sep | $38 | $86 | $242 |
| Oct | $57 | $86 | $271 |
| Nov | $97 | $86 | $260 |
| Dec | $158 | $86 | $188 |
| Jan 2026 | $184 | $86 | $90 |
| Feb | $147 | $86 | $29 |
| Mar | $105 | $86 | $10 |
The fund peaks in October at $271 and then drains almost to zero by March. Ending the winter nearly empty means the $86 was about right.
Three mistakes that make the average gas bill useless
- Budgeting from a fall bill. October and November look calm. The typical October bill in 2025 was $57, less than a third of January’s. That’s exactly the mistake I made my first winter.
- Comparing price per therm across months. Summer always looks more expensive per unit because of the fixed charge. Compare usage between months, and compare price only between the same month in different years.
- Forgetting budget billing settles up. If your utility averages your bill, you still owe what you used. There’s usually a once-a-year true-up, and after a cold winter it can come in high.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average gas bill per month?
For U.S. homes with natural gas service, the average gas bill was about $84 a month across 2025, or roughly $1,005 for the year, based on EIA price, volume, and customer data. It swings a lot by season: about $37 to $41 in summer and $158 to $184 in the coldest months.
Why is my gas bill so high in winter?
Space heating. The typical gas home used about ten times more gas in January 2025 than in August. If your usage (therms or CCF) jumped, it’s the furnace running longer. If usage stayed flat and the total rose, your price went up.
Is $200 a month high for a gas bill?
For a winter month, not unusual, especially in a cold state or a larger house. The typical gas home paid about $184 in January 2026. For a summer month, $200 would be very high and worth a call to your utility, since the national summer bill runs around $40.
How much is a therm of natural gas?
Across 2025, the average U.S. residential price was $15.34 per thousand cubic feet, which works out to about $1.48 per therm. Your utility’s price can be much higher or lower depending on your state, and it looks higher in summer because the fixed monthly charge is spread over less gas.
How much should I budget for gas each month?
Add up your last 12 gas bills, divide by 12, and round up. Set that aside every month starting in spring, so the money builds up before winter. If you have no history, the national average of about $86 a month is a reasonable placeholder until your first January shows you your real number.
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