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electricity cost

How Much Does It Cost to Run a 24/7 YouTube Stream on a Ryzen 5 Desktop?

Measure the Ryzen 5 desktop’s average wall draw during your actual stream, multiply by 8.76 for annual kWh, then apply your electricity rate.

By VGSources Team 3 min read
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There is no dependable electricity-cost figure from “Ryzen 5” alone. To estimate your 24/7 stream, measure the complete desktop’s average power draw at the wall while it is running the stream you intend to keep live, then multiply by your electricity rate. A processor’s TDP is not the power use of the whole PC.

Calculate the cost from your measured watts

For continuous operation throughout a 365-day year, use:

Annual energy (kWh) = average wall draw in watts × 8.76

Annual variable electricity cost = annual kWh × your price per kWh

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Average monthly variable cost = annual variable cost ÷ 12

The 8.76 factor comes from 8,760 hours in a 365-day year divided by 1,000 watts per kilowatt. Use the electricity price on your own bill or tariff; a regional average is only a benchmark.

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Worked scaling example, not a Ryzen PC measurement

At the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2025 annual average residential price of 17.30¢/kWh, every continuous 10W of average draw uses 87.6 kWh in a year and costs about $15.15 a year, or $1.26 per average month. This is arithmetic using that national rate, not a measured result for a Ryzen 5 desktop. The estimate assumes constant draw for all 8,760 hours and covers variable energy charges, not fixed bill fees or other charges. EIA electricity data

Measure the whole desktop, not the CPU specification

“Ryzen 5” covers multiple processors and does not specify the rest of the computer or how it is configured to stream. As one example, AMD lists a 65W default TDP for the Ryzen 5 8605G; that processor specification is not a measurement of the complete PC’s power draw at the wall. Multiplying 65W by 24 hours would therefore not establish the desktop’s stream cost. AMD Ryzen 5 8605G specifications

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  1. Configure the PC and YouTube stream as you plan to use them continuously, including the intended resolution, frame rate, codec, and encoding path.
  2. Measure the computer’s power at the wall while that stream is running. An appropriate plug-in electricity monitor, or an energy monitor you already own, can provide the missing whole-system reading.
  3. Use the average watts from the representative streaming period in the formula above. If your monitor reports energy in kWh directly, record the measured period and scale that energy to your expected operating hours.
  4. Apply the price per kWh from your current electricity bill or tariff. Treat the result as an estimate of variable energy charges.

Take the reading under the actual workload: the processor model alone does not establish what the full PC draws while encoding. YouTube recommends testing with representative audio and movement and watching stream health during an event. YouTube live encoder settings and recommendations

Why the stream settings matter

Resolution, frame rate, codec, encoding method, and the rest of the hardware shape the workload, but the label “Ryzen 5” does not identify those conditions. YouTube’s recommended live bitrate for 1080p at 30 fps is 10 Mbps for AV1 or H.265 and 14 Mbps for H.264. Those are network encoder bitrates, not power measurements, so they cannot be used to infer a universal watts figure. YouTube live encoder settings and recommendations

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Use electricity-rate figures only as benchmarks

The EIA reports a 2025 U.S. annual average residential electricity price of 17.30¢/kWh. Its reported 2025 state range—from 8.20¢/kWh in North Dakota to 35.72¢/kWh in Hawaii—is across all customer types, not a residential-only state comparison. Neither figure is necessarily the rate on an individual household’s bill. EIA electricity data

Your actual variable cost depends on your measured average wall draw and your applicable price per kWh. Fixed monthly charges do not necessarily rise with the electricity used by the streaming PC.

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Or let it run in the cloud

If you do not want a desktop running at home, StreamNeo keeps a YouTube channel live from uploaded videos: upload a recording or build a playlist, add your YouTube stream key once, and go live. It loops the video in the cloud, so nothing at home has to stay on. It streams the upload as made, up to 4K 60fps, at one flat price per slot; it also automatically recovers if YouTube drops the stream. The first day is free with no card. Monthly service is $9.99 per month. See StreamNeo, or start the free first day.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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