How much electricity does a treadmill use?
Written by Jamie Miller, Founder & EditorLast checked
A home treadmill is a modest appliance, not a hidden money pit. Running one for half an hour a day, every day, on a typical machine drawing 750 watts, costs about £17 a year at the current UK price cap. The honest answer depends on two things we cannot know for you: what your machine actually draws, and what you pay per unit. Both are on a label you can read in under a minute, and the calculator below does the rest.
The arithmetic, which is the part that never goes out of date
Electricity is billed by the kilowatt-hour. A 1,000-watt appliance running for one hour uses one kilowatt-hour. So:
watts ÷ 1000 × hours × your rate in pence ÷ 100 = cost in pounds
That is the whole thing. Everything else on this page is about getting the two numbers right.
Work out your own
Your rate is on your bill, per kilowatt-hour. The default is the Ofgem price cap from 1 October 2026for direct debit customers, averaged across England, Scotland and Wales. Yours will differ by region and tariff. Independently verified, Independent publication, checked 18 Sept 2026
Finding your machine's real draw
Every mains appliance sold in the UK carries a rating plate, usually near the power inlet at the front of the deck or on the underside of the motor cover. It states the input either in watts or in amps. If it gives amps, UK mains is 230 volts, so:
amps × 230 = watts
A machine rated 6A draws up to about 1,380 watts. And there is a hard ceiling worth knowing: a standard UK 13-amp plug tops out around 3,000 watts. Any home treadmill on a normal socket is bounded by that, whatever its marketing says. Independently verified, Independent publication, checked 18 Sept 2026
That rating is the maximum. Actual draw is lower most of the time and rises with speed, incline and the weight of the person on the belt. A 90kg runner at 12 km/h on a 10% incline pulls considerably more than a 60kg walker on the flat.
Why horsepower is not the answer
Treadmills are sold on horsepower and it is close to useless for this question, for two reasons.
First, the figure quoted is usually peak horsepower, a brief maximum the motor can reach, not the continuous rating it can sustain. The two can differ by a factor of two or more, and brands are inconsistent about which they print. Where a manufacturer does not say which it is quoting, we record the figure as manufacturer-stated and unverified rather than converting it.Manufacturer stated, Manufacturer spec, checked 18 Sept 2026
Second, horsepower describes power delivered to the belt, and the electricity you pay for is power drawn from the wall. The difference is motor efficiency, which almost no consumer manufacturer publishes. Converting 2.5hp into watts and calling it your running cost quietly assumes an efficiency figure nobody has given you.
What it costs at a range of draws
Half an hour a day, every day, at 26.1p per kilowatt-hour. These are the arithmetic above applied to an assumed draw, not measurements of any particular machine.
| Draw | kWh per hour | Per hour | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 W | 0.30 | £0.08 | £0.27 | £14 |
| 500 W | 0.50 | £0.13 | £0.46 | £24 |
| 750 W | 0.75 | £0.20 | £0.69 | £36 |
| 1000 W | 1.00 | £0.26 | £0.91 | £48 |
| 1500 W | 1.50 | £0.39 | £1.37 | £71 |
| 2000 W | 2.00 | £0.52 | £1.83 | £95 |
What we have not done
We have not plugged a treadmill into a power meter. We own none and we have measured none, so you will not find a table of measured wattages here, and you should treat one on any site that does not say how it was measured with the same suspicion. What we have given you is the arithmetic, the method for reading your own machine's plate, and the reasons the headline horsepower figure will mislead you. That is the part we can stand behind.
If you own a treadmill and a plug-in energy monitor, we would genuinely like your readings, with the model, your weight, the speed and the incline. Send them over. That is how a figure on this page earns a better grade than manufacturer-stated.
Things that cost more than the motor
- Standby. A treadmill left switched on at the wall draws a small amount continuously. Over a year that can rival the running cost itself. Switch it off at the socket.
- The room. Heating a cold garage so the treadmill is usable costs considerably more than the treadmill does.
- A console screen. A large always-on display is a real draw on premium machines.
Related: treadmill speed to pace.