There is no single average business energy bill, and that is the first thing to understand: what you pay turns on how much you use, not how big your firm is. As a rough 2026 benchmark, a typical micro business burning about 10,000 kWh of electricity and 10,000 kWh of gas a year is looking at roughly £4,300 before VAT, around £5,200 with VAT. A busy cafe or small workshop on the same high street can pay five to seven times that. And unlike households, businesses have no price cap to fall back on, so the wrong contract at the wrong moment costs real money.
Here is what the official numbers say, where your bill is likely to land, and the handful of figures worth pulling before you sign anything.
Usage decides the bill, not headcount
Two firms with the same number of staff can sit at opposite ends of the table below. A solicitor’s office of six runs laptops and lights. A sandwich shop of six runs fridges, an oven and an extraction fan all day, and can use several times the energy. So budget from your own meter, not from what a similar-sized business down the road pays.
| Usage profile | Electricity/year | Gas/year | Est. cost before VAT | Est. cost with VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro business | 10,000 kWh | 10,000 kWh | £4,300 | £5,200 |
| Small shop or office | 20,000 kWh | 22,500 kWh | £7,000 | £8,400 |
| Cafe or light hospitality | 30,000 kWh | 50,000 kWh | £11,300 | £13,600 |
| Pub or restaurant | 50,000 kWh | 100,000 kWh | £19,700 | £23,600 |
| Small workshop | 75,000 kWh | 150,000 kWh | £29,500 | £35,400 |
Electricity is where the money goes
On the latest DESNZ figures (2025, provisional), the average non-domestic business paid 24.34p per kWh for electricity but just 5.29p for gas (DESNZ). For the smallest users the gap is wider still, and the rate is higher across the board: the table below shows why a very small firm can face a punishing unit price even when its total bill is modest.
| Consumption band | Electricity | Gas |
|---|---|---|
| Very small | 34.93p | 8.29p |
| Small | 29.09p | 5.13p |
| Medium | 25.91p | 4.68p |
| Large | 24.40p | 4.15p |
| All users (average) | 24.34p | 5.29p |
Two things follow. Smaller users pay more per unit than larger ones, so size works against you on the rate. And because electricity costs roughly four to five times as much per kWh as gas, an hour saved on lighting, refrigeration, an electric heater or a compressor is worth far more than an hour saved on the gas side. If you are going to chase savings, chase the electricity first.
There is no business price cap
The household price cap does not cover businesses. Microbusinesses, charities and other non-domestic customers are not protected by it (Ofgem). That matters most at two moments: when a fixed deal ends and you roll onto “deemed” or out-of-contract rates, which are usually much higher, and when you agree a renewal under time pressure. A business energy contract is binding once agreed, even over the phone, and there is no cooling-off period (Ofgem). Treat the renewal date as a hard deadline, not a prompt.
Two costs went up in April 2026
The Climate Change Levy, a per-kWh tax on most business energy, rose on 1 April 2026 to 0.801p per kWh for both electricity and gas, up from 0.775p, and is set to reach 0.827p in April 2027 (GOV.UK). On 20,000 kWh of electricity that is about £160 a year before VAT. Network costs went up too: Ofgem added about £66 to the network part of bills from April to fund grid upgrades (Ofgem). Neither is large on its own, but both pull the same way.
The low-use break most firms miss
Business energy is normally standard-rated at 20% VAT. But genuinely low-use sites qualify for 5% VAT, and the same low usage is exempt from the Climate Change Levy. The thresholds: no more than 33 kWh of electricity a day (1,000 kWh a month), or 145 kWh of gas a day (4,397 kWh a month) (HMRC). A small shop, lock-up or one-person unit can sit under these without realising it. It is not automatic: you have to tell your supplier, usually with a VAT declaration. If you are a low user, check.
A worked example
Take the micro business above, on current June 2026 microbusiness quote averages from the broker Bionic: 30.0p per kWh for electricity, 9.5p for gas, with standing charges of 42.6p and 30.8p a day (Bionic).
- Electricity: 10,000 kWh x 30.0p = £3,000, plus 42.6p x 365 days = £156. About £3,156.
- Gas: 10,000 kWh x 9.5p = £950, plus 30.8p x 365 days = £112. About £1,062.
- Total: roughly £4,200 before VAT, about £5,060 with 20% VAT.
That lands within a whisker of the £4,300 the official DESNZ band rates imply for the same usage, which is a handy cross-check. If a quote for a standard micro site comes in well above this, ask why.
What to pull before you renew
Three numbers, every time:
- Your actual annual kWh, electricity and gas, per meter, from a real bill, not your monthly direct debit (which is often estimated or smoothed across the year).
- Your contract end date, with a reminder six months before. Leaving it late is how firms land on deemed rates.
- The full quote, not just the headline unit rate: standing charge, contract length, any broker commission, and whether the price is fixed or can move.
Get those in front of you and a business energy bill stops being a mystery. It is your usage times a rate you can negotiate, plus a tax and a standing charge you can at least plan for.
