There is no single Canada-wide cost: estimate your PC’s average power draw at the wall, multiply by the hours it runs and your local marginal electricity rate. At a continuous 100-watt draw, a 24/7 stream uses 72 kWh in a 30-day month; the energy cost is 72 multiplied by your rate per kWh. Your actual bill change can also depend on your utility plan, other household usage, delivery charges, rebates and taxes.
Calculate the monthly electricity cost
Use the stream’s average power draw in watts—not the number printed on the PC’s power supply. For a 30-day month, continuous operation is 720 hours.
- Estimate monthly energy: average wall draw in watts ÷ 1,000 × 24 × 30 = monthly kWh.
- Estimate energy cost: monthly kWh × your applicable marginal price per kWh.
- Adjust for your plan: if rates vary by time or household consumption tier, calculate each period or tier separately using your utility’s rules.
A plug-in electricity usage monitor can measure the connected load at the wall. Include a display, capture hardware or audio equipment only if it must remain powered and is part of the estimate. Do not count a router as an additional stream cost if it would be on anyway.
| Assumed average draw | Energy in 30 days | At illustrative $0.10/kWh | At illustrative $0.20/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 W | 36 kWh | $3.60 | $7.20 |
| 100 W | 72 kWh | $7.20 | $14.40 |
| 200 W | 144 kWh | $14.40 | $28.80 |
| 300 W | 216 kWh | $21.60 | $43.20 |
The wattages and $0.10/$0.20 rates are arithmetic examples, not claims about typical PCs or Canadian electricity prices. Substitute measured draw and your own rate. No published figure establishes the average wattage or monthly electricity cost of a Canadian home PC running a 24/7 YouTube stream.
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Why the rate depends on where you live
Canada has no universal residential electricity price. Province, utility, rate plan, time of use, household consumption and bill structure all matter. The Canadian Energy Regulator notes that comparisons are complicated by differences in rate structures, system designs, subsidies, delivery charges and policy; its 2026 snapshot uses jurisdiction-specific effective dates, so it is comparative context rather than your live marginal rate. Canadian Energy Regulator: How much do your neighbours across Canada pay for electricity?
Ontario examples: regulated energy prices
The Ontario Energy Board’s page lists regulated prices set November 1, 2025. Under time-of-use pricing, the listed prices are 9.8¢/kWh off-peak, 15.7¢ mid-peak and 20.3¢ on-peak. Its ultra-low-overnight plan lists 3.9¢, 9.8¢, 15.7¢ and 39.1¢ across four periods. Tiered pricing lists 12.0¢/kWh and 14.2¢/kWh, with seasonal thresholds. These are Ontario electricity-line prices, not all-in Canadian rates; check the current plan page and your own billing arrangement before using them. Ontario Energy Board: Electricity rates
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A stream draws power through all hours, so under a time-based plan, estimate consumption in each applicable period rather than multiplying all kWh by one rate. Under tiered pricing, the marginal price may depend on the household’s other usage and whether it has crossed the applicable threshold.
Toronto example: bill components and local rates
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The energy-only multiplication estimates the cost of electricity consumed at the applicable price. Your incremental bill can differ because of time periods, tiers, delivery and regulatory charges, rebates and taxes. Fixed customer charges may not change simply because you run a stream, so distinguish the estimated energy component from the total bill.
What determines the PC’s power draw?
- Workload and components: the PC’s average draw depends on its hardware and what it is doing while streaming. A power supply’s rated capacity is not a reading of ordinary consumption.
- Other equipment: add displays and peripherals only when they are powered for the stream and included in your calculation.
- Measurement boundary: a wall meter reading for the complete setup answers a different question from a reading for the PC alone. Keep the boundary consistent when comparing setups.
No specific PC or electricity monitor was tested for this article. A measured average is more useful than assuming that every computer draws the same amount.
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Streaming settings affect reliability, not the cost formula
YouTube’s encoder recommendations help configure a stream, but bitrate does not directly tell you how many watts the host PC uses. For H.264, YouTube recommends 5 Mbps at 1080p/30 fps and 6 Mbps at 1080p/60 fps; higher resolutions and frame rates have higher recommended settings. Its guidance supports RTMP/RTMPS and H.264, H.265 and AV1, up to 60 fps, and recommends a two-second keyframe frequency that does not exceed four seconds. Choose settings your connection can sustain, test first, and monitor stream health. YouTube Help: Choose live encoder settings, bitrates, and resolutions
These are YouTube ingest recommendations, not measurements of PC electricity use. YouTube Help advises: “Make sure to test before you start the live stream.”
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Ways to keep a prerecorded YouTube stream running
If you want to keep a YouTube channel live from uploaded recordings, you can run the streaming software on a home PC or have a cloud service loop uploaded videos. The home-PC calculation above covers electricity, not the time or reliability cost of keeping the computer and connection available.
Or let it run in the cloud
StreamNeo is a cloud service for keeping a YouTube channel live from uploaded videos. Upload a recording or build a playlist, add your YouTube stream key, and go live; StreamNeo loops the video from the cloud. Nothing has to stay on at home. Each slot has one flat price for any uploaded quality up to 4K 60fps, automatic recovery if YouTube drops the stream, 10 GB storage per slot pooled across active slots, looping and playlists, and team support. The first day is free with no card; one free day is available per account.
Monthly: $9.99 per month. See StreamNeo for plan lengths and details. UPI and cards are supported in India; card checkout is available worldwide. For five or more slots, contact support.
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