Cost of living: How much does it cost to run an Xbox Series X?

The cost of living crisis has us all feeling the pinch. And with energy bills rising across the globe, you might have found yourself wondering how much it costs to run your favorite gaming hardware. In the UK, energy bills have risen pretty significantly since the beginning of October, with countries all over the world facing similar price hikes in the coming weeks and months. So, with money-saving in mind, how much does it cost to run a PS5? Follow that link to answer that question. How much does it cost to run an Xbox Series X? Read on to find out more info.

Whether arithmetic is your strong suit or not, calculating how much gaming consoles, handhelds, and desktops cost to run per hour is actually quite straightforward. So long as you know your device's output in Wh (watts per hour), Sust-It's 'Electricity Cost Calculator' can keep you right. According to the Xbox website, the Xbox Series X has a power rating of 315Wh at full speed when running some of its most power-hungry and performance-heavy games, such as Halo: Infinite, Gears 5, and Forza Horizon 5.

Using the UK's previous price cap of 28 pence per kWh (kilowatts per hour; set in April 2022), playing the most visually-demanding games on Xbox Series X would have cost 8.82 pence per hour. However, against the new rate of 34 pence per kWh (as of October 1, 2022), spending 60 minutes with the same games will now set us back 10.71 pence. If we assume a game like Halo: Infinite has our Xbox Series X consoles running at full capacity, then, a five-hour session steering the Master Chief around the year 2560 will cost us 53.55 pence – up from the pre-October cap price of 44.10 pence.

As outlined by Eco Cost Savings, running different modes on our Xbox Series X hardware will consume different amounts of electricity. Here's a closer look at that:

Even when powered off, but still plugged in, the Xbox Series X consumes 2W (max)
When on stand-by (instant on), the Xbox Series X consumes 29W
When powering its dashboard features, the console consumes up to 42W
The Xbox Series X console has a 315W power rating, and the maximum consumption recorded when playing games is 211W

To give all of the above some structure, if we were to play a high-demanding game for two hours per day every day on Xbox Series X during the month of October, it'll cost us around £1.24 per week / £5.47 per month. As outlined in our comparative cost analysis, this compares against the PS5's £1.67 per week / £7.38 per month split. Much similar to PS5 players, if you want to save money while playing your Xbox Series X two sensible options are: consider managing your gaming sessions, and consider playing less; and ensure your console is switched off at the socket after each session and not left on standby.

Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at GamesRadar+. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.