Your PG&E bill shows one number per month. Your SmartMeter records usage every hour (or every 15 minutes), and PG&E lets you download up to three years of it for free. That file is the most accurate way to answer "which rate plan is cheapest for me?", because time-of-use plans charge different prices by hour.
Our new free tool, the PG&E Green Button usage analyzer, reads that file and prices every hour of your last 12 months on each plan.
What you need: PG&E "Download My Data"
PG&E calls it Green Button Download My Data. According to PG&E's Data Access Tools guide, it's available to residential and small business customers, covers electric and gas, and provides your usage in a human-readable CSV file or a machine-readable Green Button XML file. Interval data appears in your account about two business days after it's recorded.
How to download it
- Sign in to your account at pge.com.
- Open My Usage (Energy Usage Details).
- Choose Green Button – Download My Data (look for the green Green Button icon).
- Pick a date range. The last 12 months is ideal because it covers both summer and winter prices; PG&E keeps up to 3 years.
- Choose CSV or Green Button XML, and pick the usage (interval) data rather than billing totals.
- Export. PG&E may give you a .zip file; you can upload it as is.
PG&E occasionally renames menu items on its site, so if a label above doesn't match, look for "Download My Data" or the Green Button logo on your usage page.
What the analyzer shows
Upload the file at /tools/green-button-analyzer, pick your baseline territory (the letter on your bill), and say whether you have an EV, home battery or heat pump. You get:
- Annual and monthly cost on five plans: E-TOU-C, E-TOU-D, EV2-A, E-ELEC and the tiered E-1, priced hour by hour from PG&E's current tariff sheets.
- Your cheapest plan and the yearly difference versus your current plan.
- Peak-hour share: how much of your usage falls in the 4-9 p.m. peak.
- A heatmap of average usage by hour and month, so you can see when your home really uses power.
- Your top spike days, with the biggest hour of each.
- Always-on load: the watts your home draws around the clock, estimated from the lowest hour of each day.
- Gas use by month, if your file includes gas.
How it prices each plan
| Plan | Peak | Part-peak | Credit or tiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-TOU-C | 4-9 p.m. every day | None | Baseline credit on usage up to baseline |
| E-TOU-D | 5-8 p.m. weekdays, holidays off-peak | None | None |
| EV2-A | 4-9 p.m. every day | 3-4 p.m., 9 p.m.-midnight | None |
| E-ELEC | 4-9 p.m. every day | 3-4 p.m., 9 p.m.-midnight | None |
| E-1 | No time-of-use | No time-of-use | Tier 1 up to baseline, Tier 2 above |
Summer is June 1 to September 30 and winter is October 1 to May 31. The daily Base Services Charge is added to every plan. Rates are PG&E's total bundled rates from Schedules E-TOU-C, E-TOU-D, EV2, E-ELEC and E-1, the same rate file our rate plan calculator uses.
Sample walkthrough (sample data, not a real customer)
To show what you'll see, we ran the analyzer on a made-up sample file in PG&E's CSV layout: 12 months of hourly data (November 2024 to October 2025) for an imaginary home in baseline territory X with an EV charged after midnight three nights a week and summer air conditioning. These numbers describe that sample file only, not typical PG&E customers.
- Usage: 7,128 kWh for the year, about 19.5 kWh a day.
- Peak share: 36% of usage fell between 4 and 9 p.m.
- Always-on load: about 140 W, roughly 1,226 kWh a year.
- Top spike day: July 4, 2025, at 51.9 kWh (an overnight EV charge plus a hot afternoon).
Estimated annual cost on each plan for this sample:
| Plan | Estimated annual cost | Average per month |
|---|---|---|
| EV2-A | $2,635 | $220 |
| E-ELEC | $2,806 | $234 |
| E-TOU-D | $2,859 | $238 |
| E-1 | $2,901 | $242 |
| E-TOU-C | $2,909 | $242 |
Because the sample home has an EV, EV2-A comes out cheapest, about $274 a year less than E-TOU-C, mostly because its overnight charging lands in EV2-A's lowest-priced hours. When we told the analyzer the same home had no EV, battery or heat pump (so EV2-A and E-ELEC aren't available), E-TOU-D came out cheapest by about $50 a year versus E-TOU-C. Your result depends entirely on your own file.
Privacy
Your file is processed in memory and discarded as soon as results come back. We don't store the file, the interval readings, the name and address lines at the top of PG&E's CSV, or your results, and you don't need an account. Details are in our privacy policy.
What it doesn't include
It's an estimate, not a PG&E quote. It assumes PG&E generation rather than a Community Choice Aggregator, and it leaves out taxes and city fees, the California Climate Credit, CARE and FERA discounts, medical baseline and solar export credits. For solar homes it prices only the electricity you import. Before switching, confirm the plan in your PG&E account.
Want a second opinion on the bill itself?
The analyzer tells you which plan fits your usage. Our free PG&E bill audit reads your actual bill, checks the rate, baseline and charges for errors, and tells you what to change.
Frequently asked questions
Is the PG&E Green Button analyzer free?
Yes. There's no account, no email and no charge.
Which file should I download, CSV or XML?
Either works. Choose hourly or 15-minute interval usage, not billing totals, and 12 months if possible. If PG&E gives you a .zip, upload the .zip.
Do you keep my usage data?
No. The file is read in memory and discarded when your results are returned. We keep only an anonymous count that an analysis ran.
Why does the analyzer need my baseline territory?
E-TOU-C's baseline credit and E-1's Tier 1 allowance depend on your territory's daily baseline quantity. The letter is printed on your PG&E bill.
Does it work for solar customers?
Partly. It prices the electricity you import from the grid. NEM 2.0 netting, the annual true-up and Net Billing Tariff export credits aren't modeled, and Net Billing Tariff customers must be on E-ELEC.
What if I only have a few months of data?
The analyzer scales the annual figure up from the days you have and warns you. Because summer and winter prices differ, a full 12 months gives a much better answer.
Sources
- PG&E, Data Access Tools (Download My Data: residential, electric and gas, CSV or XML, up to 3 years for interval data).
- PG&E tariff book: Schedules E-TOU-C, E-TOU-D (holidays: Special Condition 1), EV2, E-ELEC and E-1, rates effective June 1, 2026.
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