APS rate plans explained: which one actually fits your home

APS has exactly four residential rate plans open to new customers right now. Nine more are frozen, meaning existing customers can stay on them but nobody new can join.

Most people are on the wrong one, and the reason is boring: they were placed on a default plan years ago and never revisited it after their usage pattern changed. Adding a pool pump, an EV, a work-from-home schedule, or solar can flip which plan is cheapest by fifty dollars a month or more.

This walks through all four, with the actual published rates, and shows the arithmetic for where the crossover point sits.

The four open plans

All four tariffs were last revised effective March 8, 2024 under Commission Decision No. 79293. Every rate below is from those tariff sheets, retrieved August 9, 2026. Source: APS rates, schedules and adjustors (opens in a new tab).

A note on names. Older APS materials and a lot of third-party content still reference “Saver Choice,” “Saver Choice Max,” “Lite Choice,” and “Premier Choice.” Most of those URLs now 404 or redirect. The R-1 tariff itself confirms a renaming, referring to tiers “formerly Basic XS,” “formerly Basic,” and “formerly Basic L.” If you are reading a guide that uses the old names, it predates the current plan set.

When peak actually is

Every APS time-of-use plan uses the same on-peak window: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, year round.

That is only three hours a day, and only on weekdays. Fifteen hours a week out of 168.

Winter plans add a super off-peak window from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, November through April. That is the cheapest power APS sells to residential customers.

Seasons are defined in the tariffs: summer is the May through October billing cycles, winter is November through April.

Twelve holidays are billed at off-peak rates, plus Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve when they fall on a weekday. The twelve include Cesar Chavez Day on March 31 and Juneteenth on June 19.

Plan 1: Fixed Energy Charge (R-1)

One price, all day, every day. No time-of-use, no seasonal variation, no demand charge. Price depends on your average monthly consumption tier.

Who R-1 fits

People whose usage is spread evenly through the day and who cannot or will not shift load. Retirees home all day. Anyone running medical equipment on a fixed schedule. People who want a bill they can predict without thinking about it.

Who cannot use R-1

Solar customers. The tariff limits R-1 to “full requirements residential Customers who do not have an on-site distributed generation system.” If you have rooftop solar, this plan is closed to you.

The tier trap

Notice the tier structure penalizes heavy users. Cross 1,000 kWh average and your rate jumps 19 percent over the small tier, on every kilowatt-hour, not just the ones above the threshold.

Plan 2: Time-of-Use 4pm-7pm (TOU-E)

Two components: a daily service charge and an energy charge that varies by time. APS time-of-use rates explained breaks down the full price schedule and the arithmetic on shifting load out of the peak window.

Read those numbers again. Summer on-peak power costs 2.8 times what off-peak costs. Winter super off-peak costs less than a tenth of summer on-peak.

Who TOU-E fits

Anyone who can keep the house off the grid between 4 and 7 on weekdays. Pre-cool the house at 3 p.m., run the dishwasher at 9 p.m., charge the car overnight, and this plan is hard to beat.

Who TOU-E punishes

Families where everybody gets home at 5 p.m. and turns on the AC, the oven, and the TV at once, in July.

Plan 3: Time-of-Use with Demand Charge (R-3)

Same 4-7pm window, but three components instead of two. Energy prices drop sharply. In exchange, you pay for your single highest hour of on-peak demand.

How the demand charge is measured

The demand measurement, per the tariff: “the Customer’s highest amount of demand (kW) averaged in a one-hour On-Peak period for the billing cycle.”

One hour. Not an average of your month. The worst single on-peak hour sets the charge for all thirty days.

The load-factor ceiling

There is a ceiling. The tariff caps billing demand at “a kW no higher than that which would result in a 15% load factor,” which protects customers with one freak usage spike and otherwise low consumption.

The crossover: TOU-E or R-3?

This is the question most people actually have, so here is the arithmetic.

Illustrative assumptions, stated so you can substitute your own: a summer billing cycle of 31 days, 1,200 kWh total consumption, 150 kWh of it during the 4-7pm weekday window, 1,050 kWh off-peak. Adjustors (PSA, TCA, REAC, DSMAC) are excluded because their current values were not verified. All five tariffs state that adjustments apply on top of these rates, so real bills will be higher than these figures on both plans.

On TOU-E:

On-peak    150 kWh x $0.34396 =  $51.59
Off-peak  1,050 kWh x $0.12345 = $129.62
Service        31 days x $0.458 =  $14.20
                          Total = $195.41

On R-3, with a 5 kW on-peak demand:

Demand         5 kW x $19.585 =  $97.93
On-peak    150 kWh x $0.14227 =  $21.34
Off-peak  1,050 kWh x $0.05943 =  $62.40
Service        31 days x $0.458 = $14.20
                          Total = $195.87

Forty-six cents apart. That is the crossover.

Where the breakeven moves

Set the demand at 3 kW instead and R-3 comes to $156.70, saving about $39 a month. Set it at 8 kW and R-3 comes to $254.62, costing about $59 a month more than TOU-E.

The breakeven for this usage profile lands at roughly 5 kW of on-peak demand. Below that, R-3 wins. Above it, TOU-E wins. Your own breakeven moves with your on-peak/off-peak split, so run your own numbers with your actual bill.

View the numbers as a table

Illustrative monthly R-3 bill by on-peak demand, against a flat $195.41 on TOU-E — full dataset

On-peak demand on R-3	Value ( USD)
3 kW	156.7 USD
5 kW	195.87 USD
8 kW	254.62 USD

Computed from the APS R-3 and TOU-E tariff sheets, March 8, 2024 revision, using the illustrative usage profile stated above. Adjustors (PSA, TCA, REAC, DSMAC) are excluded, so real bills run higher on both plans.

For reference, a 4-ton central AC unit alone can draw 4 to 5 kW while running. If your AC is on at 5 p.m. in July along with anything else, you are probably above the crossover.

Plan 4: EV Overnight Charging (R-EV)

Requires proof of EV ownership. The tariff says service is “subject to an annual certification for proof of EV ownership.”

Adds an overnight window on top of the standard structure: 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., Monday through Friday, year round.

The trade is explicit: overnight power at 8.468 cents, roughly 31 percent below the standard off-peak rate, in exchange for an on-peak rate 7 percent higher than TOU-E.

Rough break-even: you need to move enough consumption into the overnight window that the 3.9 cent per kWh saving there outweighs the 2.4 cent per kWh penalty on your on-peak usage. An EV charging 250 kWh a month overnight saves about $9.70, which covers an on-peak penalty on up to roughly 400 kWh. Most households are nowhere near 400 kWh of 4-7pm weekday consumption, so if you genuinely charge overnight, this plan usually wins.

Note the overnight window is weekdays only. Weekend charging bills at off-peak, not overnight.

With all four plans on the table, the shape of the choice is easier to see side by side.

• 4-7pm weekdays
• All other hours

View the numbers as a table

Summer energy price by APS plan, peak window versus everything else — full dataset

Category	4-7pm weekdays (¢)	All other hours (¢)
R-1 (Large tier)	15.418¢	15.418¢
TOU-E	34.396¢	12.345¢
R-3	14.227¢	5.943¢
R-EV	36.824¢	12.345¢

Source: APS residential tariff sheets R-1, TOU-E, R-3 and R-EV, March 8, 2024 revision under Commission Decision No. 79293, retrieved August 9, 2026.

R-1’s flat bar is the whole point of the plan: nothing you do with your schedule changes the price. Every other plan trades a cheaper off-peak rate for a more expensive three hours.

What is the best APS plan for solar in Arizona?

Solar customers get two choices, not four. R-1 is closed to distributed generation entirely. Both TOU-E and R-3 state they are “available to all residential Customers, including Partial Requirements Customers with an on-site distributed generation system.”

APS’s own solar page (opens in a new tab) confirms this, listing TOU-E and R-3 as the two options alongside the Resource Comparison Proxy export rate.

The Grid Access Charge

There is a third charge solar customers pay that nobody else does. Each tariff applies a Grid Access Charge to “the nameplate kW-dc power rating of the Customer’s distributed generation facility”:

Check the tariff sheet for the billing period on that charge before estimating a monthly figure.

Why solar argues for TOU-E over R-3

The general shape of the solar decision: solar cuts your energy consumption but does very little for your demand peak, because the 4-7pm window sits at the end of the production day. Panels are ramping down exactly when the demand charge is being measured. That is an argument for TOU-E over R-3 unless you have storage that can discharge into that window.

Export compensation is a separate topic with its own math. See APS solar buyback rates explained for the current 6.171 cent export rate and the 10-year lock.

Which plans are frozen

Nine residential tariffs are closed to new enrollment: Saver Choice Plus (R-2), Standard Legacy (E-12), Time Advantage 7pm-noon Legacy (ET-2), Combined Advantage 7pm-noon Legacy (ECT-2), Time Advantage 9pm-9am Legacy (ET-1), Combined Advantage 9pm-9am Legacy (ECT-1R), Residential Energy Support Program Legacy (E-3), Medical Care Equipment Program Legacy (E-4), and Net Metering Legacy (EPR-6).

R-2 is the one most people encounter. Its tariff states it “was frozen as of December 1, 2021,” and existing customers may stay but “no customers connecting any service after that date will be eligible.”

R-2’s structure is worth knowing because it is materially different: on-peak runs 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., a five-hour window rather than three, and the demand charge is $9.389/kW in both seasons. If you are on R-2, your peak window is two hours longer than everyone else’s.

If you are on a legacy plan, run the numbers before switching. Leaving a frozen plan is a one-way door.

Why is APS so expensive in Arizona?

The honest answer for 2026 is that it is about to get more so, and the reason is documented in a public filing.

On June 13, 2025, APS filed a rate application with the Corporation Commission requesting an annual base-rate revenue increase of $662.44 million, or 15.99 percent, using a test year ending December 31, 2024. Net of other adjustments, APS puts the customer-facing increase at $579.52 million, or 13.99 percent. The residential class figure in the filing’s bill-impact table is 16.44 percent.

That is Docket No. E-01345A-25-0105 (opens in a new tab). The application also proposes a 10.70 percent return on equity on a fair value rate base of roughly $21.6 billion.

Per the ACC’s July 10, 2026 case update (opens in a new tab), the evidentiary hearing began May 18, 2026 and closed July 7, 2026 after 31 hearing days. The Administrative Law Judge’s Recommended Opinion and Order is expected in late November 2026, and a commissioner vote is due by December 31, 2026. APS’s own rate case page states new rates “are not expected to go into effect until much later this year,” and estimates roughly $20 a month more for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh if the request is approved as proposed.

Three proposals worth watching

• Higher Grid Access Charges for solar customers, plus increased revenue allocations for solar customers still on legacy plans (E-12, ET-1, ET-2, ECT-1R, ECT-2).
• A Formula Rate Mechanism that would allow five annual automatic adjustments, bounded between 0.85 and 1.15 times the annual average adjustment, before APS must file a new general rate case.
• Elimination of the Critical Peak Pricing riders for residential and general service.

No decision has been issued. Anyone quoting you a final 2026 rate is quoting a request, not an outcome. How to comment on the APS rate case covers how to weigh in with the Commission before it rules, and APS rate increase history puts this request in the context of prior cases.

Which is the best APS plan?

There is no single best plan, and any guide that names one is guessing at your usage. The plan that wins is decided by two numbers from your own account: the share of consumption falling between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays, and your highest single on-peak hour in kilowatts. Four steps get you both.

1. Pull twelve months of hourly data from your APS online account. Guessing your on-peak share is the single biggest source of error in this decision.
2. Add up kWh consumed between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays. If that is under about 10 percent of your total, a time-of-use plan is almost certainly cheaper than flat.
3. Find your highest single on-peak hour in kW. Under 5 kW favors R-3, over 5 kW favors TOU-E, for a usage profile similar to the example above.
4. If you drive an EV, check how much charging you can genuinely move to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weeknights. Weekend charging does not count toward the overnight rate.

Rates in this article were verified against published APS tariff sheets on August 9, 2026, all on the March 8, 2024 revision. Adjustors are excluded from every calculation. Confirm current figures against the linked tariffs before switching plans.

Related reading

• APS solar buyback rates explained covers what APS pays for exported power and how the 10-year rate lock works.
• Is solar worth it in Arizona? puts rate plans into the wider payback picture.
• Arizona solar incentives and tax credits covers the state credit that survived 2025 and the federal one that did not.
• APS time-of-use rates explained is the full price schedule behind the TOU-E summary above.
• APS rate increase history tracks prior base-rate cases against the pending one.

• APS
• Rate Cases
• Arizona