Energy prices in the Netherlands: what you actually pay per kWh and m³

Search for the Dutch energy price and you will find a dozen different numbers, none of which match your bill. The sources are not wrong; there simply is no single Dutch energy price. Electricity is billed per kilowatt hour (kWh) and gas per cubic metre (m³), but what you pay for each unit is assembled from four separate parts, set by four different parties – and only one of them is chosen by your supplier.

That structure matters more than it sounds. Two households in different towns can sign identical contracts with the same supplier and still receive different bills. And a headline rate quoted in an advertisement can be entirely accurate while telling you almost nothing about your annual cost.

What you are actually paying for: the four components

Every kWh and every m³ carries the same four charges.

The supply rate (leveringstarief) is the price of the energy itself. Your supplier sets it, and it is the only component that genuinely differs between suppliers. The kale leveringstarief – the bare supply rate – is this figure before tax, VAT and network charges are added.

Energy tax (energiebelasting) is set by central government, per kWh and per m³, and is identical whichever supplier you use.

Network charges (netbeheerkosten) are set by the regional grid operator (netbeheerder) that owns the cables and pipes to your address. Your supplier collects the money and puts it on your invoice, but neither sets it nor keeps it, so it is identical at your address whichever supplier you use. There are six household grid operators – Liander, Stedin, Enexis, Coteq, Rendo and Westland Infra – and you do not choose yours; it follows your postcode. Look up which one serves your address at mijnaansluiting.nl.

VAT (btw) is charged on top of the whole lot, including on the energy tax.

Alongside the per-unit charges, each connection carries standing charges (vaste leveringskosten) – a fixed annual amount for having a contract at all, whatever you use.

Working the other way is the energy tax reduction (vermindering energiebelasting): a fixed annual credit per electricity connection, €519.80 excluding VAT for 2026, roughly €629 including VAT. Every household gets the same amount whether it uses 500 kWh or 5,000 kWh, deducted automatically – you do not apply for it. The government breakdown of the bill is published at rijksoverheid.nl.

The practical consequence: when you compare suppliers, you are comparing one component of four. The other three follow your postcode and the tax code.

Current rates

As things stand in september 2026, the lowest fixed electricity tariff on the market is € 0,2517 per kWh and the lowest fixed gas tariff € 1,4333 per m³. Among variable contracts the lowest rates are € 0,2681 per kWh and € 1,4528 per m³. The cheapest supplier for a household taking both gas and electricity on a one-year fixed contract is currently Eneco.

Read those as a snapshot, not a forecast. Supply rates move continuously; the tax component changes at most once a year, on 1 January; network charges are reset annually by the grid operators.

How much an average Dutch household uses

Statistics Netherlands puts average household consumption at 2,430 kWh of electricity and 1,040 m³ of gas per year (CBS figure for 2024, published via Milieu Centraal).

What that consumption costs over a year depends entirely on the contract behind it. The rates above are per unit; the annual total only becomes concrete once they are applied to your own address, your own consumption and the contract type you choose.

Whether that resembles your own bill depends on your home. A 1930s terraced house with single glazing burns gas at a rate a 2020 flat never will, and a household with solar panels or a heat pump sits nowhere near the average on either fuel. To sanity-check your own usage first, our breakdown of what Dutch households typically use gives the ranges by home type.

Why advertised prices mislead

Suppliers advertise the bare supply rate, because that is the number they control and the number that looks smallest. Three things get lost.

First, the bare rate is a minority of what you pay. Tax, VAT and network charges make up a large share of the total, so a supplier undercutting a rival by a few cents per kWh moves your bill by much less than that difference suggests.

Second, standing charges are invisible in a per-kWh comparison. A supplier with a keen unit rate and high standing charges can be dearer over a year for a low-consumption household and cheaper for a heavy one.

Third, welcome discounts (welkomstkorting) are one-off amounts credited in the first contract year. They flatter a one-year comparison and vanish in year two – cheapest with the discount is not the same as cheapest.

The only comparison that answers the question is total annual cost, for your consumption, at your address.

How the contract type changes the price

A fixed contract (vast) locks the supply rate for a set term: you know what you will pay, and you gain nothing if the market falls. A variable contract (variabel) lets the supplier adjust the rate, usually at set moments and with advance notice, tracking the market loosely and with a lag. A dynamic contract (dynamisch) follows the wholesale market directly – hourly for electricity, daily for gas – rewarding households that can shift consumption to cheap hours and exposing those that cannot.

None is inherently cheaper. Since the 2022 energy crisis, when wholesale prices spiked and then fell back, the gap between contract types has narrowed and widened repeatedly. Which one wins depends on when you sign and what the market does afterwards. The differences between the four contract forms, including the regulated model contract, are set out in our guide to choosing a Dutch energy contract.

Why your own price will differ from any average

Three variables push your bill off any published average. Your address sets the grid operator and therefore the network charges. Your consumption decides how much the per-unit rates matter relative to the standing charges and the tax reduction – the reduction is the same in euros for everyone, so it weighs far more heavily on a small flat than on a detached house. And the moment you sign fixes your supply rate against that day market, which is why two neighbours on the same tariff sheet can pay different amounts.

To get a figure that applies to you, run your own postcode and usage through a full comparison of suppliers and tariffs, then check how the result reappears on the invoice – our guide to reading a Dutch energy bill walks through the line items in order.

How we arrive at these figures

Every rate on this page comes from the offers the suppliers we compare currently have on the market, and is refreshed automatically.

• Rates shown: the lowest supply rate per kWh and per m³ available at the reference date, listed separately for fixed and for variable contracts.
• Not included in those rates: energy tax and network charges. Both are identical at every supplier for the same address, so they do not change which offer is cheapest.
• Consumption figures: where a national average is quoted it is the CBS profile of 2,430 kWh and 1,040 m³ per year (CBS, 2024, via Milieu Centraal).
• Reference date: 8 september 2026.

Change the reference date and the numbers change. That is the point: a price without a stated method is a claim, not a price.

We compare the suppliers that list their offers with us, and we receive the same fee for every switch whichever supplier you choose, so we have no interest in any particular provider.

Frequently asked questions