Why gas's sticker price is the wrong number to start from
Gas looks cheap on every east-coast bill: priced per unit of energy, it costs a fraction of what electricity costs across the mainland east coast. A gas burner also wastes most of what it burns, though. Roughly 40% of the energy in a gas flame reaches the pan; the other 60% goes past the pan and into the room. An electric ceramic or radiant element does better, around 74%, and induction better again at 85 to 90%, since it heats the pan directly through the cooktop's own magnetic field instead of heating an element underneath it first. Divide each fuel's raw price by its own efficiency and you get the real cost of a unit of heat that actually reaches the food, the only fair way to put gas and electric side by side.
Cheapest cooktop type, by state
Cost of the heat that actually reaches the pan, not the sticker price of the fuel that made it, for a ceramic, induction or gas cooktop element.
| State | Ceramic | Induction | Gas | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 44¢ | 37¢ | 24¢† | Gas |
| Victoria | 40¢ | 34¢ | 23¢† | Gas |
| Queensland | 42¢ | 35¢ | 22¢† | Gas |
| South Australia | 51¢ | 43¢ | 27¢† | Gas |
| Western Australia | 45¢ | 38¢ | 44¢ | Induction |
| Tasmania | 39¢ | 33¢ | 49¢‡ | Induction |
| Australian Capital Territory | 37¢ | 31¢ | 40¢‡ | Induction |
| Northern Territory | 43¢ | 36¢ | N/A* | Induction (no gas sold here)* |
What the numbers are. Cost per kWh-equivalent of heat actually delivered to the pan: each fuel’s own raw energy price divided by its own conversion efficiency. Electricity is already priced per kWh, so that division is the whole sum. Gas is priced per megajoule, so its column is the state’s c/MJ rate times 9: the 3.6 MJ in a kilowatt-hour, divided by the 40% of it that reaches the pan.
Where the efficiencies come from, and the conflict in that. 74% ceramic, 88% induction and 40% gas, all three from one industry guide (InductionCooktop.com.au), which sells and promotes induction and supplies induction’s own figure here. No independent regulator or laboratory source has been checked against it, so read all three as estimates.
Why 88%. It sits just above the 87.5% midpoint of the 85–90% range cited elsewhere on this page, rounded whole so the table carries one number per fuel. Using 85% or 90% moves induction’s figure by about a cent, which changes no state’s winner.
* The Northern Territory has no gas figure to rank. There is no household reticulated supply. Applying the 3.0¢/MJ typical rate published in our own tariff data would put it at 27¢, but that is a reference calculation, not any state’s rate and not a price a household there can buy, so it stays out of the ranking column.
† and ‡ mark how each gas rate was sourced. † is an average across published market plans. ‡ is one retailer’s published rate (Tasmania) or one market scan (the ACT). Western Australia carries no marker because it is the only state with a regulated household gas tariff, and electricity rates carry none because all eight are regulated reference tariffs. Your row is highlighted once you set your location.
Ceramic is the one type that never wins anywhere
Ceramic and induction are both electric, both billed at the same rate per kilowatt-hour, and both sitting in the same kitchen. The only thing separating them is how much of that kilowatt-hour lands in the pan: roughly 74% through a radiant element that heats glass which then heats the pot, against 85 to 90% for induction, which skips the glass and induces the heat in the pan's own base. That gap is fixed and owes nothing to any fuel price, which is why ceramic finishes behind induction in all eight rows above instead of most of them. Ceramic's case is the price on the box and the pans already in the cupboard, and neither of those is a running cost.
What the running-cost numbers don't cover
This is a cost-to-run comparison, not a cost-to-switch one. An induction cooktop typically costs more upfront than an equivalent ceramic model. Induction cookware also needs a magnetic base (a fridge magnet stuck to the underside of a pan is the easy test), so aluminium, copper or some stainless steel pots and pans that fail that test need replacing. Swapping a gas cooktop for either electric type can also mean an electrician running a new circuit if the existing wiring wasn't sized for it, on top of the appliance itself. None of that changes which fuel is cheaper to run once it's installed, covered above, but it does change how long any running-cost saving takes to pay back the switch, and that payback period comes down to your own quote, not a number this page can give you.
Common questions
Can I still connect gas to a new home in Victoria?
Often not, which settles the question before the running cost does. Victoria restricted new residential gas connections from 1 January 2024 for developments and home builds that need a planning permit and had not already been submitted or approved by that date, per its own gas distributor's connection rules. If your build falls inside that restriction, the table above stops being a choice and induction is simply the cheapest cooktop you can install.
How much would gas prices have to rise before induction wins on the east coast too?
Between about 45% and 60% above today's rates, on the same efficiency-adjusted maths as the table. Gas would need to reach roughly 3.8¢/MJ in Victoria and 4.8¢/MJ in South Australia before induction overtakes it, against the 2.58¢ and 3.05¢ those states pay now. That is a large move, though smaller than the gap Western Australia and Tasmania already sit on the wrong side of.
Tasmania and the ACT run on a single gas quote. How safe is the induction verdict there?
Safer than the single quote makes it look. Tasmania's gas would have to come in 33% below the rate used here, and the ACT's 23% below, before gas overtook induction in those two rows: roughly 3.6¢/MJ in Tasmania and 3.5¢/MJ in the ACT against the 5.47¢ and 4.50¢ this table applies. A single retailer's rate is a real limitation, and it would have to be wrong by a lot to flip the answer.
If induction always beats ceramic, is there any reason to buy ceramic?
Only reasons that sit outside the running cost. A ceramic cooktop is usually the cheaper of the two to buy, and it heats whatever pans you already own, while induction needs a magnetic base and will not heat aluminium, copper or some stainless steel at all. Those are one-off costs against a permanent running-cost gap, so the longer you expect to keep the cooktop, the weaker the ceramic case gets.
Sources
Cooktop conversion efficiency (roughly 40% gas, 74% ceramic/radiant, 85–90% induction): InductionCooktop.com.au's efficiency guide, the same figures our oven and cooktop running cost calculator cites. Declare the conflict plainly: that publisher sells and promotes induction, and one of the three figures it supplies is induction's own. No second independent source has been checked against it, so all three constants are flagged as estimates in the table and this page should be read as showing the direction and rough size of the gaps rather than settled laboratory numbers. Electricity rates: AER Default Market Offer, the Victorian Default Offer and each remaining state's regulated tariff, current for 2026–27. Gas rates: EnergyPlans state-average published market plans (June 2026, NSW/VIC/QLD/SA), the WA Government regulated gas tariff and Origin ATCO plan (July 2026, WA), Solstice Energy Tasmania (January 2026) and a WATTever market scan (2026, ACT estimate). The Northern Territory has no household reticulated gas, so the 3.0¢/MJ typical rate published in our own tariff data stands in for it in the table above as a reference figure only. The efficiency figures above come from a single industry publisher rather than a regulator or an independent laboratory, and the table footnote says so. Victoria’s restriction on new residential gas connections, in force from 1 January 2024 for builds needing a planning permit: AusNet, Restrictions on new gas connections, the Victorian gas distributor’s own connection rules (fetched August 2026). All other figures fetched July 2026.