Plan data is pulled from the Power to Choose dataset operated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas — the same filings every licensed retail electric provider is required to submit. PowerBot does not receive rates from providers directly, and providers cannot edit what appears here.
The dataset is refreshed twice a month. Between refreshes a provider may withdraw or reprice a plan, so a rate shown here can be stale by up to about two weeks. The provider's own Electricity Facts Label, linked from every plan, is always the authoritative document.
Texas plans are not priced at a single rate. Providers file a separate price for 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh of monthly usage, and the difference between them is often large — a plan that looks cheap at 1,000 kWh can be among the most expensive at 500 kWh. This is the single most common way headline rates mislead.
PowerBot uses the filed price for the tier nearest your stated usage:
| Your monthly usage | Priced at |
|---|---|
| Up to 750 kWh | 500 kWh tier |
| 751 – 1,500 kWh | 1,000 kWh tier |
| Over 1,500 kWh | 2,000 kWh tier |
This is an approximation, and worth being explicit about: at 1,400 kWh you are shown the 1,000 kWh price, which will usually understate the true bill slightly. Providers only file three tiers, so no comparison site can do better than interpolate — we would rather tell you which tier you are seeing than quietly smooth it.
Plans are then ordered by that total, not by the advertised rate. A plan with a lower cents-per-kWh figure and a $9.95 monthly charge frequently loses to a slightly higher rate with no fee, which is precisely the comparison the headline number hides.
The ranked list above is pure arithmetic — no model is involved in producing it, and it is reproducible from the formula in section 3.
On top of that, Claude reviews the shortlist for your ZIP and usage and explains the trade-offs in plain language: contract length against rate, early termination fees, renewable content, whether a promotional credit is genuinely reachable at your usage level. It is there to explain the ranking and flag terms worth noticing, not to reorder it by criteria you cannot see.
The estimate covers energy charges and recurring monthly fees. It does not include:
Your final bill will differ. The estimate is built to compare plans against each other on identical assumptions, which is what makes the ordering meaningful.
No provider pays to appear, to rank higher, or to be labelled best value. There are no affiliate agreements and no sponsored placements. The ordering is a function of the cost formula and nothing else — see About for how that is funded and what would have to be disclosed if it ever changed.