What does leaving your PC on cost?
Idle, sleep or shut down: see the yearly cost of each when your PC is not in use.
Your result
Using sleep saves about £112 a year. Your PC wakes in seconds with everything still open.
Yearly cost while not in use
How it works
- Idle power
An unused desktop still powers its processor, graphics card, drives, fans and lighting.
- Sleep and off
Sleep keeps your session in memory at a few watts; shut down leaves only the power supply’s standby.
- Yearly cost
Watts × unused hours × 365 × your price.
Tips
- Set sleep after 15–30 minutes of inactivity in your power settings.
- If the PC wakes by itself, check which devices are allowed to wake it (often the network adapter or mouse).
- Turn off RGB lighting during sleep in your motherboard software.
Questions people ask
Should I turn my PC off at night?
Sleep or shut down both save almost all of the idle cost. Sleep is more convenient because your apps stay open; shutting down saves a few watts more.
Does turning a PC on and off wear it out?
Not in any meaningful way for modern hardware. Drives, power supplies and fans are designed for daily power cycles.
How much does a PC use when idle?
A gaming desktop typically draws roughly 40–100 W at the wall when idle, depending on parts, lighting and drives. A plug-in meter gives your exact figure.
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Popular graphics cards
- GeForce RTX 5070
- GeForce RTX 5080
- Radeon RX 9070 XT
- GeForce RTX 4070 Super
- GeForce RTX 4090
- GeForce RTX 3080
- All graphics cards
Prices: Eurostat, nrg_pc_204, EIA, Ofgem, ElCom. Updated 31 October 2026. How we calculate.