The questions people ask most often about prepaid electricity in South Africa.
Almost always because you have moved into a higher tariff block. Most municipal tariffs charge more per unit as your cumulative purchases for the calendar month increase. Buy early in the month and you are in the cheapest block; buy again later and you may be two blocks up. The counter resets on the 1st.
The most common cause is a fixed monthly service charge. Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town and Ekurhuleni all deduct one from your first purchase each month before any units are credited. In Johannesburg that charge is R241.50, so a R200 first purchase is fully consumed by it.
Other possibilities are arrears recovery, where a portion of each purchase goes towards money owed to the municipality, or a meter that needs a key change token.
Generally no, with one important exception. The blocks track your monthly cumulative total, so buying R1,000 at once or in five R200 purchases lands you in the same place by month end. The exception is the fixed monthly charge — it is charged once per month regardless, so it does not penalise splitting purchases.
If you are near the end of a month and already deep into the expensive blocks, waiting for the 1st resets you to the cheapest block. Whether that is worth doing depends on how much you need and how close you are to running out. Note the fixed monthly charge will apply again on your first purchase in the new month.
Rates come from each municipality's own published tariff schedule and are stored VAT-inclusive. For covered areas the calculation matches real purchases closely. It does not model Free Basic Electricity allocations, arrears recovery, special tariffs, or third-party vendor fees, so treat the result as a close estimate rather than a guarantee.
South Africa has roughly 180 licensed municipal distributors and adding them is ongoing. Where an area is not covered, the calculator tells you which municipality supplies it rather than showing a number borrowed from a different supplier. Your prepaid receipt is the most reliable way to find your own rate in the meantime.
Divide the rand amount by the units received. If R100 gave you 28 kWh, your effective rate was about R3.57 per unit for that purchase. Bear in mind this blends any blocks the purchase spanned, and will be skewed if the fixed monthly charge was deducted from it.
Your receipt normally names the supplier. Roughly half of South African customers buy from Eskom directly and the rest from a municipality. Supply is often split within one town, so a neighbour being on a different supplier is entirely normal.
NERSA approves annual tariff adjustments. Eskom's take effect on 1 April and municipal tariffs on 1 July. Each result on this site shows when the figures were last verified against the official schedule.
No. This is a calculator only. It does not sell electricity, process payments, or issue tokens. Nothing you type is sent anywhere — the calculation runs entirely in your browser. See the privacy policy for details.