Electricity Prices in South Africa: Tariffs and Prepaid Units Calculator

There is no single electricity price per kWh for South Africa. Your distributor, named tariff, supply size, monthly purchase history and deductions determine how many units a payment buys. One electricity unit is one kilowatt-hour (kWh). Start with the supplier and tariff on your receipt, then use the calculator below.

This reference covers Eskom direct supply and all eight metropolitan municipalities. The calculator supports the named tariffs with confirmed VAT treatment below. Other metro entries explain what is published and what still needs confirmation; they do not substitute an assumed rate. Rates were checked on 1 November 2026.

How many electricity units will my payment buy?

Choose the exact tariff on your account. For block tariffs, add the kWh already allocated to your monthly block tally before this purchase, including free allocations if your supplier counts them. This is different from the credit remaining on the meter. Enter only charges or debt deductions actually taken from this payment; charges billed separately on a municipal account should stay separate.

The estimate excludes automatic Free Basic Electricity allocations, time-of-use plans, demand charges, refunds and private submeter fees. It does not retrieve your account or issue a token. All calculation inputs stay in your browser; no meter number or login is required. If your tariff is absent, use its official schedule instead of selecting a similar name.

Verified calculator rates: rand per kWh including VAT

The rates below and the calculator use the same maintained reference. A block boundary is cumulative for the month: “up to 600” means the first 600 kWh in the applicable tally, not 600 cheap units with every purchase. Fixed charges are explained when you select the tariff.

Where a source publishes a VAT-inclusive figure, that figure is retained. Ekurhuleni publishes VAT-exclusive rates: the calculation multiplies them by 1.15 without first rounding the unit price. Displayed unit estimates are rounded to two decimals; the underlying block calculation retains precision.

Electricity tariffs for every metro and Eskom

Cape Town

Confirm Domestic, Home User or Lifeline on the account. The calculator covers Domestic and Home User energy blocks, not Lifeline qualification. Domestic daily charges can be recovered through prepaid vending; Home User fixed charges are billed on the municipal account. Use the selected tariff's charge note and the actual receipt deduction. The City's residential tariff page explains the categories and eligibility.

Eskom direct supply

The calculator includes Homelight 20A and 60A. They have single energy rates in the 2026/27 standard price schedule, page 34. Do not apply a municipal block tariff to these accounts. Homepower, Homeflex and optional purchase packages have different structures and need their own calculations. Eskom's period runs April to March; the municipal references here run July to June.

Ekurhuleni

The calculator includes A.2 residential low income and B residential. They are separate assigned tariffs, not a choice made at each purchase. Use the signed schedule, version 2026.07.30, pages 1, 3 and 4. Its VAT-exclusive basis and B fixed charges are explicit. A.1 indigent, bulk-reseller and other categories are outside this calculator. The City's implementation statement explains its legal review of the approved tariffs; do not use the earlier March draft.

eThekwini / Durban

Prepaid Scales 8, 9 and 13 share the energy price shown above; Scale 12 is separate. The calculator uses the 2026/27 electricity table on PDF page 227, printed page 224, of the final tariff tables. The book also contains future-year columns and TOU rates. Check the scale and year rather than lifting the last or largest figure from the document.

Johannesburg / City Power

The City's 2026/27 electricity summary separates Prepaid Low and Prepaid High. For High it lists 290.46, 333.18 and 379.64 c/kWh at the 350 and 500 kWh boundaries, plus service and capacity charges. Those are source figures, not a VAT-inclusive vending quote. The summary is insufficient to confirm all surcharge and recovery conditions, so City Power is not calculator-enabled. Ask for the current complete schedule and your assigned tariff through the official tariff directory.

Tshwane / Pretoria

NERSA's approved-tariff capture dated 4 August 2026, Gauteng sheet, lists Domestic IBT blocks of 324.12, 379.32, 413.26 and 445.51 c/kWh at 100, 400 and 650 kWh boundaries. These are published source figures, not a confirmed VAT-inclusive estimate. The City's July tariff notice and current approved schedule should be checked against your account. Calculator support remains unavailable until the VAT basis and applicable vending terms are confirmed.

Mangaung / Bloemfontein — Centlec

The Centlec tariff directory contains the NERSA-approved MMM schedule for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Page 1 lists Domestic IBT energy rates of R3.0442 then R3.5058 above 350 kWh for summer, and R3.7586 then R4.5609 for winter, plus a R50 basic monthly charge. These are as printed: the approved sheet does not state the VAT basis or define the season months. The calculator therefore leaves this tariff unavailable pending confirmation of both. Do not use the application or a neighbouring municipality's schedule to fill the gaps.

Buffalo City / East London

NERSA's Buffalo City decision includes the tariff analysis on page 24. It separates indigent, pensioner, social-housing and ordinary prepaid categories. For Scale 1B it lists 3.368 for the first 2,000 kWh, 3.550 above that, and a 461.000 monthly basic charge. The decision table alone does not establish the customer-facing VAT basis and vending deductions, so these are source figures only and are not used by the calculator. Confirm the current scale and full billing terms with the municipality.

Nelson Mandela Bay / Gqeberha

The municipality's 27 August statement about restoring domestic inclining blocks describes a transition after the court directive. An earlier July flat-rate schedule is therefore insufficient for a current estimate. Obtain the currently applied domestic schedule and details of any retrospective credits directly from the municipality. This hub does not calculate a rate from an older flat tariff, a proposed amendment or a press report. Keep adjustment tokens separate from the units bought with your new payment.

A block-crossing calculation you can check

Take a Cape Town Domestic account that has already counted 550 kWh this month. Assume R500 is available for energy after all deductions. The first 50 kWh costs 50 × R4.1379 = R206.895. The remaining R293.105 buys approximately 59.35 kWh at R4.9390. Total: 109.35 kWh, subject to the vendor's rounding.

With no earlier units and the same R500 energy amount, the purchase stays inside the first block and buys 120.83 kWh. At 600 prior kWh it buys 101.24 kWh. The payment is unchanged; its position in the block schedule changed. If R24.60 is actually deducted for daily charges, enter that separately and the calculator will allocate R475.40 to energy.

Why R500 does not always buy the same units

Read the transaction as a sequence: payment received, non-energy deductions, energy amount, tariff allocation, VAT treatment and kWh issued. Reconcile each line before comparing totals. A debt-recovery deduction is different from an energy-price increase. A tariff change is different from electricity consumed after loading the token.

For an unfamiliar receipt, ask the issuer to identify the tariff code, previous monthly tally, each deduction and the period it covers. Do not divide the full payment by the purchased units and assume the result is the published energy rate: that quotient can include fixed charges or arrears.

For private submeters, obtain the administrator's tariff and fee breakdown. Municipal location alone is insufficient to model that purchase. Use the fewer-units guide for a receipt investigation and the meter-code hub to read the actual balance.

Will smaller purchases or buying on the first save money?

For cumulative monthly blocks, splitting one purchase into several payments does not create a new first block each time. Use your actual month-to-date tally. Calendar timing only matters through the rules of the assigned tariff; it is not a universal discount. Flat-rate Homelight and eThekwini examples behave differently from Cape Town's blocks.

Keep enough credit to avoid an interruption, then budget against expected household consumption and applicable charges. If you need help with an eligible subsidy, see Free Basic Electricity registration. The calculator does not determine subsidy qualification or generate a free token.

Sources, dates and maintenance

Each calculator option links to its source and effective period. Calculations stop outside that period until rates are reviewed. Check the publication's year, approval status, VAT heading and any later implementation notice before reusing a figure. Draft budgets and future-year projections are not current approved prices.

The unsupported entries above identify specific missing terms. They remain unavailable until those terms are verified. A supplier's actual receipt remains the record of its vending transaction; this article is a budgeting reference. For a missing purchase use the token recovery guide, and for a rejected token use the troubleshooting guide.

Electricity price questions