The Amazon Echo is a voice-activated speaker that uses electricity to talk to users. The Echo was released in late 2014 and has been used by millions of people around the world. It is a small speaker that can be placed in any room and can be connected to the internet. The Echo can be used to control devices like lights, music, and appliances.
Alexa can be super useful thanks to the Echo’s always-listening capabilities that keep it ready for action at a moment’s notice. But how much electricity is that convenience costing you?
I have five Echo devices sprawled across my house in rooms where they’re super convenient to have, and I use them for all kinds of stuff: music, timers, alarms, listening to the news, and more. However, just like with some of the other devices and appliances in your home, your Echos are constantly sipping electricity. This obviously costs money, but just how much money are you spending to have your Echo always on and listening for your commands?
Using a Kill A Watt meter, I monitored the electricity usage of all the Echo devices in my house, which consist of an Echo Dot, a 1st-gen Echo, a 2nd-gen Echo, an Echo Plus, and an Echo Spot. Here’s what I found out.
Standby Energy Usage
Here’s a breakdown of how much electricity various Echo devices pull when they’re in standby (a.k.a. when they’re just sitting there not doing anything):
Echo Dot: 1. 75 watts 1st-Gen Echo: 2. 95 watts 2nd-Gen Echo: 1. 95 watts Echo Plus: 2. 4 watts Echo Spot: 1. 9-2. 25 watts (depending on screen brightness)
Of course, the wattage means nothing by itself, but it’s useful to know when calculating how much that wattage costs you on your electricity bill. Using this handy conversion tool, you can quickly find out the exact cost per day, per month, or even per year.
For example, a 2nd-gen Echo left in standby mode for an entire month would cost you roughly $0.21. Keep in mind, this depends on how much electricity costs in your area, but for me, it’s $0.15 per kWh.
When Playing Music, Getting Info, and More
Obviously, an Echo uses up slightly more electricity when it’s actively being used, whether that’s playing music or just telling you the weather. Here’s what my Echo devices were pulling while I had music playing (displayed as a range based on the volume of the music):
Echo Dot: 2. 1-2. 4 watts (2. 25 watts on average) 1st-Gen Echo: 3. 1-3. 4 watts (3. 25 watts on average) 2nd-Gen Echo: 2. 4-3. 4 watts (2. 9 watts on average) Echo Plus: 3. 0-4. 3 watts (3. 65 watts on average) Echo Spot: 2. 6-3. 2 watts (2. 9 watts on average, and with screen brightness at its lowest)
This adds slightly more to your monthly cost, but not by much. As an example, let’s say I play music and do other stuff on my 2nd-gen Echo for a total of 1.5 hours per day on average. After a month, this would cost me around $0.22—not much more at all.
Obviously, as you can see from the lower energy usage of the Echo Dot, you’ll pay less if you have one of those smaller siblings. But even a full-size Echo won’t really make a dent in your electricity bill.
