Cost per hour of gaming at 26.32p per kWh (UK average), the live standard variable rate since 1 October 2026. Extras and second PC are estimates.
The short answer
When you stream, your gaming PC does almost all the work it was already doing. The extras are encoding the video, a webcam, a microphone and maybe a light. For a typical single-PC setup, these add roughly 20 to 40 watts. These are our estimates, because the extra power depends heavily on your hardware.
| Setup (estimate) | Typical power | Per hour | Per month (3 hrs/day) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-range PC, gaming only | about 330 W | 8.7p | £7.93 |
| Same PC streaming, with webcam and light | about 360 W | 9.5p | £8.65 |
| Plus a second PC just for streaming | about 510 W | 13p | £12.25 |
| Console with a capture card into a PC | about 210 W + PC | 5.5p | £5.04 |
Where the extra power goes
- Encoding. Modern graphics cards have a separate chip for video encoding (NVENC on NVIDIA, AMF on AMD). It's designed to work alongside gaming without much extra load. Encoding on your processor (x264) uses much more power.
- Webcam and microphone. USB devices like these use just a few watts.
- Lighting. LED ring lights and panels are usually rated somewhere around 10 to 20 watts. Check the label on yours.
- A second PC. A dedicated streaming PC can add 100 to 200 watts, which is often more than everything else put together.
Long streams add up
A 6-hour stream on a mid-range PC with extras costs about 57p. Stream 5 days a week and that's roughly £12.35 a month. Long streams on a high-end PC cost more still.
How to find your real figure
The only way to know exactly is to measure. Plug your whole setup into a plug-in energy monitor and compare the reading while gaming with the reading while streaming. See how to measure your power use.
Sources: Octopus Energy tariff data.