The average water and electricity bill in Singapore runs roughly S$95 to S$245 a month for a typical HDB household in 2026, before any rebate. The split is predictable: electricity is the big number, running about S$64 a month for a 1- to 2-room flat up to S$130-plus for a 5-room with heavy aircon, while water sits at about S$30 to S$70 depending on how many people live there. Those figures use the current published rates: electricity at 29.72 cents per kWh including GST for April to June 2026, and water at an all-in S$3.53 per cubic metre including GST since the last increase on 1 April 2025. Your actual bill swings mostly on aircon hours and household size, not on flat type alone. Below is what each part costs, the exact tariffs behind the numbers, the U-Save rebates that knock a chunk off, and the few changes that move the bill more than switching off a fan ever will.
Utilities in Singapore are billed by SP Group on one statement that bundles electricity, water and (if you have a gas hob or heater) town gas. There is no fixed monthly fee for a normal home; you pay for what you use at the regulated tariff. So the average bill is really a function of two things: how much electricity and water you draw, and the per-unit rate at the time.
The estimates below combine the current 2026 rates with the Energy Market Authority's average consumption benchmarks by flat type, and PUB's figure of about 141 litres of water per person per day. Treat them as planning numbers. A single person in a 4-room flat who barely runs the aircon will land well under the 4-room figure; a family of five running two aircon units nightly will blow past it.
If you want to sanity-check your own spending against these, drop the totals into the personal budget calculator and see what share of your take-home pay utilities really eat. For most working adults it should sit comfortably inside the housing-and-utilities slice of a 50/30/20 budget.
| Flat type | Electricity (avg kWh) | Electricity bill | Water bill | Combined before rebate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1- to 2-room | ~215 kWh | ~S$64 | ~S$30 | ~S$94 |
| 3-room | ~350 kWh | ~S$104 | ~S$45 | ~S$149 |
| 4-room | ~370 kWh | ~S$110 | ~S$61 | ~S$171 |
| 5-room / executive | ~450 kWh | ~S$134 | ~S$68 | ~S$202 |
The regulated electricity tariff is reviewed every quarter by SP Group and approved by the Energy Market Authority. The biggest piece of it is the energy cost, which tracks the price of natural gas used to generate most of Singapore's power, so the tariff moves up and down with global gas prices.
For 1 April to 30 June 2026, the household tariff is 27.27 cents per kWh excluding GST, or 29.72 cents per kWh including 9 percent GST. That was a small rise from the previous quarter: the household rate went up about 2.1 percent, or 0.56 cent per kWh before GST, which works out to roughly S$1.80 more on a 4-room flat's monthly bill before GST.
The tariff breaks into four parts. For Q2 2026 the energy cost is 20.71 cents per kWh, network costs 6.25 cents, the market support services fee 0.23 cent, and the market administration and PSO fee 0.08 cent, all before GST. You cannot change the network or fee components. The only lever you control is how many kWh you draw, and on the retail side, whether you buy at this regulated tariff or switch to an Open Electricity Market plan.
Water is priced by PUB and has not changed since 1 April 2025, the second and final step of a two-phase increase announced in 2023. For a household using 40 cubic metres a month or less, which covers more than 96 percent of homes, the all-in price is S$3.24 per cubic metre before GST, or about S$3.53 including 9 percent GST.
That single price is actually three charges stacked together. The water tariff is S$1.43 per cubic metre and pays for treating and supplying clean water. The water conservation tax is S$0.72, set at 50 percent of the tariff, and exists to nudge you toward using less. The waterborne fee is S$1.09 and covers treating used water and maintaining the sewerage network. Add them up and you get S$3.24 before GST.
Use more than 40 cubic metres in a month and everything above that line is charged at a higher rate: a S$1.81 tariff, a 65 percent conservation tax, and a S$1.40 waterborne fee. Almost no ordinary household hits that tier, so for budgeting purposes the first-tier S$3.53 per cubic metre including GST is the number that matters.
Because the conservation tax is a flat percentage of the tariff, cutting your usage cuts all three charges at once. Every cubic metre you do not use saves the full S$3.53, not just the tariff slice.
| Component | Rate (excl GST) | What it pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Water tariff | S$1.43 | Producing and supplying potable water |
| Water conservation tax | S$0.72 | A levy (50% of tariff) to discourage waste |
| Waterborne fee | S$1.09 | Treating used water and the sewer network |
| All-in (excl GST) | S$3.24 | Total per cubic metre |
| All-in (incl 9% GST) | ~S$3.53 | What you actually pay per cubic metre |
The flat-type figures above are HDB benchmarks, but the same two tariffs apply to every home in Singapore; a private property just tends to use more of both. A two- or three-bedroom condominium with central or multiple split aircon units commonly lands in the same band as a 5-room flat or higher, roughly S$120 to S$210 a month on electricity alone, because the cooling load is larger and condos often run aircon in more rooms.
Landed homes are a different scale again. A terrace or semi-detached house with several aircon units, a pool pump or a tankless heater can pull two to four times the electricity of an HDB flat, so combined utility bills of S$300 to S$600 a month are normal at the top end. Water climbs with garden taps and more bathrooms. The arithmetic does not change: multiply your kWh by 29.72 cents and your cubic metres by S$3.53, both including GST, and you have the bill whatever the dwelling.
One thing private-property owners lose is the rebate. The GST Voucher U-Save is for HDB flats only, so a condo or landed household pays the full tariff with no quarterly offset, which widens the real gap between an HDB bill and a private-home bill beyond what consumption alone suggests.
Once you know the tariff is 29.72 cents per kWh including GST, every appliance has a price tag you can work out. Multiply its power draw in kilowatts by the hours you run it, then by 29.72 cents. A 1-horsepower aircon draws roughly 0.75 to 0.9 kW while the compressor runs, so eight hours a night across a month is where most of a cooling-heavy bill comes from.
The table below turns typical usage into a monthly dollar figure at the current tariff. The aircon and electric water heater dominate, exactly as the consumption pattern predicts, while lighting and small electronics barely register. Use it to see which habit is actually worth changing rather than guessing.
These figures assume the stated run hours; your own will differ. The point is the ranking, not the decimal. If you want to test a what-if, such as cutting aircon from eight hours to five, redo the sum with your hours and compare it against the slice of take-home pay you set aside for bills in your personal budget calculator.
| Appliance | Assumed usage | Approx kWh/month | Approx cost/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aircon (1 HP split) | 8 hrs/night | ~190 kWh | ~S$56 |
| Storage water heater | Daily showers | ~60 kWh | ~S$18 |
| Refrigerator (older model) | Always on | ~55 kWh | ~S$16 |
| Clothes dryer | 3 loads/week | ~35 kWh | ~S$10 |
| Rice cooker / kettle | Daily | ~15 kWh | ~S$4 |
| LED lighting (whole flat) | Evenings | ~20 kWh | ~S$6 |
| Phone and laptop charging | Daily | ~5 kWh | ~S$1.50 |
Aircon is the heavyweight. A single split-unit air conditioner running overnight can draw more power than the rest of a flat's appliances combined, which is why a family that sleeps with the aircon on every night sits at the top of the range while a household that uses a fan most nights sits near the bottom. Raising the set temperature by even a degree or two cuts the compressor's run time and the kWh that follow.
Water heating is the quiet second driver. An instant or storage water heater used for daily hot showers adds meaningfully to electricity, and on water it is the shower itself that dominates, making up close to 29 percent of household water use according to PUB. A standard kettle, fridge and lighting are rounding errors by comparison.
What barely moves the needle: standby power from a few devices, the cost of charging phones and laptops, and switching off a single LED bulb. These are not zero, but chasing them while the aircon runs at 18 degrees is fixing the wrong thing. Spend your attention where the kWh actually pile up, which is cooling and heating.
Before you judge your bill, subtract the GST Voucher U-Save rebate, which is credited straight to the SP account of eligible Singaporean HDB households four times a year, in January, April, July and October. It is not cash; it offsets the utilities bill directly, so it quietly lowers what you actually transfer to SP.
For Financial Year 2026, including the extra B2026 top-ups announced for the year, the total U-Save works out to S$570 for 1- and 2-room flats, S$510 for 3-room, S$450 for 4-room, S$390 for 5-room, and S$330 for executive or multi-generation flats. As an example, eligible households received up to S$190 in the April 2026 quarter alone. That is real money against a S$170-ish combined bill.
Spread across the year, the 4-room rebate of S$450 is about S$37.50 a month, which can wipe out a fifth or more of a typical 4-room utilities bill. There is no application for most households; if you qualify, it appears as a credit. Check your SP statement to confirm it is being applied, and see the GST Voucher guide for who is eligible and how the wider scheme fits together.
Eligibility hinges on owning and living in an HDB flat, the property's annual value, and not owning more than one property. The annual value threshold is what excludes higher-end homes, so most ordinary HDB households are in.
| Flat type | Total FY2026 U-Save | Roughly per month |
|---|---|---|
| 1- and 2-room | S$570 | ~S$47.50 |
| 3-room | S$510 | ~S$42.50 |
| 4-room | S$450 | ~S$37.50 |
| 5-room | S$390 | ~S$32.50 |
| Executive / multi-gen | S$330 | ~S$27.50 |
An SP bill is easier to sanity-check than it looks. Each utility line shows the units you consumed and the rate applied, so you can verify the charge yourself. For electricity, find the kWh figure and multiply by 29.72 cents; for water, find the cubic metres and multiply by S$3.53. If the printed total is wildly off your own sum, that is the cue to look closer rather than just paying it.
Watch the meter-reading basis. Some months SP estimates your usage instead of taking an actual reading, shown as an E next to the figure, then corrects it the following month. An estimated month that overshoots makes the next actual-reading month look unusually low, which explains a lot of bills that seem to jump for no reason. Two months read together usually average out.
Three things sit on the bill that are not consumption: the 9 percent GST, any town gas line if you have gas appliances, and the U-Save credit if you qualify, which appears as a deduction rather than a charge. Read those before concluding your usage changed. A bill that rose purely because a U-Save quarter fell in the previous statement is not a usage problem at all.
If you suspect a leak or a faulty meter, PUB and SP both let you compare against your own history through the SP app, which plots month-on-month usage. A silent overnight water draw with everything switched off points to a leak; a flat that climbs every quarter alongside the tariff is just the rate moving, not your habits.
The current S$3.53 per cubic metre including GST is the end point of a two-step increase PUB announced in 2023, the first water price revision since 2017. The first step took effect on 1 April 2024 and the second, final step on 1 April 2025, together raising the all-in price before GST from S$2.74 to S$3.24 per cubic metre. PUB framed it as covering the higher cost of producing water from desalination and NEWater as cheaper sources reach their limit.
Because that second step has already landed, the price is stable for now; there is no further scheduled increase as of 2026. PUB reviews water prices periodically rather than quarterly, so unlike electricity it does not move every three months. The thing to plan for is the next periodic review, not a near-term jump.
Lower-income households were given extra help to absorb the rise through larger U-Save and the GST Voucher scheme, which is part of why the rebate matters so much on the water line. If you are eligible and the rebate is showing on your statement, the effective price you pay per cubic metre is meaningfully below the headline S$3.53.
Since 2019 you can buy electricity from a private retailer instead of the default SP regulated tariff, and the power supply is identical because it all runs through the same grid. The only thing that changes is the price you pay per kWh and the contract terms. For a household that uses a steady amount each month, a fixed-price plan can lock in a rate and protect you from quarterly tariff jumps.
As of early 2026, the cheapest 12-month fixed plans sat around 29.00 cents per kWh, with some 24-month plans near 28.80 cents, against the regulated 29.72 cents including GST. The gap is thin right now, so the saving from switching is modest unless a retailer is throwing in a sign-up rebate. When gas prices spike and the regulated tariff climbs, a fixed plan you locked in earlier looks much better; when the tariff falls, you may be stuck paying above it.
The other plan type is a discount off the regulated tariff, which tracks SP's quarterly rate minus a fixed percentage, so you always pay a little less than the default whichever way the tariff moves. That removes the bet on gas prices but caps your upside. Read the fine print on contract length, early-termination fees and whether the security deposit and transmission charges are included before you sign. The electricity retailer comparison lays out the live plans, and SP Services covers how the default account and billing work if you stay on the regulated tariff.
Start with cooling, because it is where the money is. Set the aircon to 25 degrees rather than 18, use a fan to feel cooler at a higher temperature, and clean or replace filters so the unit does not work harder than it needs to. A timer that switches the aircon off after you fall asleep can shave hours off the nightly run with no comfort lost.
On appliances, the tick rating on the energy label is a real money signal. Singapore's mandatory labels rate fridges, aircon, washing machines, dryers and more, and a higher tick rating means lower lifetime running cost. When an old aircon or fridge dies, the efficient replacement often pays back the price difference through lower bills over its life, so weigh the running cost, not just the sticker. The opportunity cost of keeping a power-hungry 20-year-old fridge is a recurring monthly tax you stop noticing.
For water, the cheap wins are a shorter shower, fixing a dripping tap promptly, and fitting water-efficient fittings, which PUB rates with its own labelling scheme. A running toilet or a slow leak can waste cubic metres a month silently, so a leak is worth chasing the moment your bill jumps without a change in habits.
Finally, automate the boring part. Paying by GIRO avoids late fees, and some banks offer cashback on utility bills paid by a specific card, which is a small but free recurring discount on spending you cannot avoid. Put the saved attention into the levers that matter rather than micromanaging every plug.
Many HDB flats use town gas for cooking and water heating, billed by City Energy and shown on the same SP statement. For 1 April to 30 June 2026, the town gas tariff is 21.92 cents per kWh excluding GST, or 23.89 cents per kWh including GST. Like electricity, it is reviewed quarterly and moves with fuel costs.
Gas is usually the smallest of the three lines for a typical home, often a low double-digit figure a month if you cook regularly, less if you mostly eat out. A gas water heater shifts the cost of hot showers off your electricity bill and onto gas, so households compare the two when deciding between an electric and a gas heater. If you have neither a gas hob nor a gas heater, you have no town gas line at all, and your utilities bill is just electricity and water.
Using the Q2 2026 tariff of 29.72 cents per kWh including GST, a typical HDB electricity bill runs about S$64 a month for a 1- to 2-room flat, around S$104 for a 3-room, about S$110 for a 4-room, and roughly S$134 for a 5-room or executive flat. The biggest variable is how much you run the aircon, so heavy users can sit well above these figures.
Water costs about S$3.53 per cubic metre including GST for households using 40 cubic metres a month or less. Based on PUB's average of roughly 141 litres per person per day, a 2-person home pays around S$30 a month, a 4-person home about S$61, and a larger household near S$68. The price has been unchanged since 1 April 2025.
The electricity tariff is reviewed every quarter and rose about 2.1 percent for households for the April to June 2026 period, to 29.72 cents per kWh including GST, because global natural gas prices climbed. Water did not change in 2026; it last rose on 1 April 2025. A higher bill usually reflects more aircon use, a hotter month, or losing a quarter's U-Save rebate timing rather than a rate change alone.
For Financial Year 2026, including the extra top-ups for the year, eligible Singaporean HDB households get total U-Save of S$570 for 1- and 2-room flats, S$510 for 3-room, S$450 for 4-room, S$390 for 5-room, and S$330 for executive or multi-generation flats. It is credited to your SP account quarterly in January, April, July and October, not paid as cash.
It can be, but the saving is small right now. In early 2026 the cheapest fixed plans sat around 29.00 cents per kWh against the regulated 29.72 cents including GST. A fixed plan protects you if the tariff rises later, while a discount-off-tariff plan guarantees a slightly lower rate whichever way prices move. Check contract length and early-termination fees before signing, and the supply is identical either way.
Air conditioning, by a wide margin, followed by electric water heaters used for hot showers. Both depend on how long they run. Raising the aircon set temperature and shortening hot showers cut more from the bill than switching off lights or unplugging chargers, which are minor by comparison.
Yes. The 9 percent GST is added to electricity, water and town gas charges. The headline rates of 29.72 cents per kWh for electricity, S$3.53 per cubic metre for water and 23.89 cents per kWh for town gas already include GST. Published tariffs are often quoted both before and after GST, so check which figure you are reading.
The same tariffs apply, but consumption is higher. A two- or three-bedroom condo often runs S$120 to S$210 a month on electricity alone, similar to a large flat or more, because more rooms are cooled. Landed homes can use two to four times an HDB flat, so combined utility bills of S$300 to S$600 a month are common at the upper end. Private homes also get no U-Save rebate, which widens the gap further.
A 1-horsepower split aircon draws roughly 0.75 to 0.9 kW while running. At the Q2 2026 tariff of 29.72 cents per kWh including GST, eight hours a night for a month works out to about S$56. Raising the set temperature from 18 to 25 degrees and using a fan cuts the compressor's run time, which is the fastest way to bring that figure down.
A single person in an HDB flat who runs the aircon sparingly often pays around S$40 to S$80 a month combined for water and electricity, well below the per-flat-type averages, which assume a full household. The biggest variable is still aircon: a solo occupant who sleeps with it on every night can match a small family's bill despite using less water.
There is no scheduled increase as of 2026. The current S$3.53 per cubic metre including GST was the final step of a two-phase rise that took effect on 1 April 2024 and 1 April 2025, the first revision since 2017. PUB reviews water prices periodically rather than quarterly, so the next change would come from a future review, not a near-term adjustment.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.