The advertised price is the trick. Texas plans are built to look cheapest at exactly 1,000 kWh — use a little more or less and the rate jumps. This checks what a plan would actually cost you.
Enter your real usage and the numbers off each plan's Electricity Facts Label (EFL). We do the math at your usage, not the advertised one.
Find this on any past bill. Use a summer month if you want the worst case.
Set by your wires company, the same on every plan in your area — prefilled with typical values. Confirm against your EFL, they change twice a year.
Bill credits / the 1,000 kWh bullseye. A plan advertises something like 9.9¢, but that rate only lands if you use right around 1,000 kWh. Drop to 999 or climb to 1,100 and the credit disappears — the real rate can jump to the low 20s. The site shows the 1,000 kWh number in the biggest font, which is exactly how these plans win the top of the list.
Free nights & weekends. Sounds great, but the free hours are usually paid for with an inflated daytime rate. Unless most of your use is genuinely overnight, you often come out behind.
Variable rate. No locked price — it can move every month and tends to spike in summer, right when you use the most. For most homes a fixed rate is the safer pick.
The Electricity Facts Label is the standardized fact sheet for every plan. It lists the average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh, the energy rate, any monthly base charge, the delivery charges, the early-termination fee, the term length, and whether the rate is fixed or variable.
Whatever a listing says, the EFL is the source of truth. Read it before you sign.
Your power stays on. Texas has a Provider of Last Resort that automatically picks up customers from a failed provider, with electricity still flowing over the same wires. The catch is that those rates are usually higher than the competitive market — so if it happens, shop for a new plan right away.