So the real question is which rate you pay most weeks.
The Two Numbers Behind Every Full Charge
Every answer on this page comes out of two inputs. Get both right and the arithmetic is grade school.
Your usable battery size
Every Tesla trim carries a different pack. The Model 3 holds the smallest battery in the lineup. The Model Y sits above it. Model S and Model X carry the largest. Within each model, Long Range and Performance builds hold more than the standard versions of the same car.
Your car already knows the figure. Run the battery low, charge it to full, and read the kWh added on the charging screen. Or pull the spec for your exact build year and trim.
Use your own number. A figure copied off a forum thread will be wrong for your trim, and the error carries straight through every calculation after it.
The rate on the stall
Tesla posts the price per kWh on the Supercharger screen and in the app before you plug in. It changes by location. Many sites price by time of day, so the same stall reads one way at lunchtime and another way after midnight. Some sites bill by the minute when the car draws below a certain speed.
Check the app before you route. The site one exit further down the freeway often carries a different rate than the one you are parked at.
Cost To Fully Charge Tesla At Supercharger, Model By Model
Multiply your pack size by the rate on the screen. That is the bill for a complete fill.
One caveat before the model notes. A Supercharger session rarely runs all the way to a full battery. Charging slows as the pack fills, so most drivers unplug partway and drive on. A true full fill at a stall means paying the posted rate through the slowest stretch of the charging curve. Our guide to how long it takes to charge a Tesla walks through why the last stretch takes so long.
Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 full charge cost is the smallest number in the lineup, because the pack is the smallest. Run your kWh against the peak rate, then against the overnight rate at the same site, and you have the two ends of the band.
The small pack cuts both ways. The dollar gap between a stall fill and a garage fill is smaller for a Model 3 than for anything else Tesla makes. It still repeats every single week you charge in a parking lot.
Model Y
Tesla Model Y Supercharger cost scales with the bigger pack. Same rate, more kWh, higher bill. A Long Range Y costs more to fill than the equivalent Model 3 at the identical stall, and the spread between the Supercharger rate and the home rate widens with it.
The Y is the family car doing school runs and grocery trips. Those are the miles that belong on a home charger, since the car sits in the driveway every night anyway.
Model S and Model X
Both carry the largest packs Tesla sells, so both sit at the top of the table on every rate. Big battery, big spread.
The Model X owner who Superchargers out of habit pays the largest premium of anyone in the lineup, because the multiplication is working against a bigger number on the left side. Same habit, higher price per week.
California and Arizona Move the Home Side of the Math
Supercharger rates are set by Tesla and posted per site, so they swing with location and hour across both states.
The home side swings with your utility. Arizona residential electricity runs lower per kWh than California, which widens the gap between a garage fill and a stall fill for Phoenix, Chandler and Scottsdale drivers.
California owners claw most of that back with timing. On a time of use plan, the overnight block is the cheapest electricity you have access to all day. A smart Level 2 charger handles it for you: plug in at dinner, set the window, and the car waits until the rate drops before it draws an amp.
One line the clean multiplication leaves out. Some energy is lost as heat during charging, so both the stall bill and the home bill land slightly above the raw math. It applies to both sides, so the comparison between them holds.
The Same Full Charge in Your Garage
A Level 2 wall connector fills the car overnight while you sleep. The Level 1 cord that came with the car does the same job on standard household voltage and takes considerably longer, which is why it works as a backup and struggles as a daily driver. Our Level 1 vs Level 2 breakdown covers the difference in detail.
Level 2 runs on a 240 volt circuit. Most American homes have no spare one sitting ready, so the work is a dedicated circuit pulled from your panel by a licensed electrician. On an older panel with no room left, that means a service upgrade first, and a good electrician tells you that before the quote, never after the drywall is open.
Price your own run with our EV charger installation cost calculator, then set the install against your weekly Supercharger math. Fill your pack size and your two rates into the equation above and the payback period works itself out in a couple of minutes.
Superchargers earn their price on road trips. They are fast, they are everywhere along the interstates, and they get you back on the freeway. Daily miles are a different job, and a wall connector does that one at the cheapest rate you have. For the wider picture, read our comparison of Supercharger versus home charging costs.
Rizzo Electric has wired homes and businesses across Orange County, Los Angeles and Arizona for four decades, licensed, bonded and insured, and we handle Tesla Wall Connector installations from the panel to the final test.
Get a free quote for a home Tesla Wall Connector so most of your full charges happen in your garage.
