Pricele #69: Electricity (100 kWh) in Australia 🇦🇺
The puzzle for 7 September 2026 asked what 100 kWh of electricity costs in Australia. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Electricity (100 kWh) · Australia
$28.30
40 AUD
About 65 minutes of the average local wage buys 100 kWh of electricity.
More expensive than 81% of the 48 countries in the game.
Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com, December 2025.
About electricity (100 kWh)
A hundred kilowatt-hours is roughly what a small flat draws in a month, and what it costs ranges from under a dollar-fifty a week to the price of a restaurant meal. Almost none of that spread is the cost of generating the power. It is network charges, carbon and energy taxes, and in several countries a subsidy that holds the household tariff below what the grid actually spends.
Where Australia sits
Of the 48 countries priced for electricity (100 kWh), Australia ranks #10 from the top at $28.30, 1.4× the median of $20.65.
Australia combines high wages with high retail costs and long domestic supply lines. Groceries are concentrated between two supermarket chains, which the country's competition regulator has repeatedly examined, and fuel carries an excise that puts it above US levels but well below European ones. The GST is a flat 10% and most basic food is GST-free, so the tax explanation for expensive Australian groceries is weaker than it looks: what you are paying for is distance and wages, not tax. That distinction shows up clearly in the work-time column, where Australia looks far more ordinary than its dollar prices suggest.
| Nearby on the electricity (100 kWh) table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colombia | $27.30 | 85,446.2 COP | 10.3 h |
| South Africa | $27.80 | 452.4 ZAR | 6.2 h |
| Australia | $28.30 | 40 AUD | 65 min |
| Spain | $29.40 | 25.4 EUR | 2.4 h |
| Chile | $29.60 | 27,301.4 CLP | 4.7 h |
What else costs what in Australia
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $5.69 | 8.5 AUD | 13 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $2.21 | 3.5 AUD | 5 min |
| Cappuccino | $3.95 | 5.63 AUD | 9 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.76 | 2.51 AUD | 4 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $5.04 | 7.18 AUD | 12 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $3.69 | 5.26 AUD | 9 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.28 | 1.82 AUD | 3 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.64 | 2.32 AUD | 4 min |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $11.00 | 15.5 AUD | 25 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $24.38 | 37.56 AUD | 56 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.27 | 1.96 AUD | 3 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $34.77 | 53.57 AUD | 80 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $0.44 | — | 1 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $3.07 | 4.76 AUD | 7 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for electricity (100 kWh) in every country or everything priced in Australia.