ChargePoint Cost per kWh in California: Who Sets the Price, the Fees and What Home Charging Costs

There is no single ChargePoint price per kWh. Each station owner sets its own, by the kWh, the hour, the session or free, and the ChargePoint app shows it before you plug in. On paid sessions ChargePoint adds a service fee: $0.25 for Level 2 or $0.49 for DC fast charging with an account, as of June 16, 2026.

That is why two ChargePoint stations a block apart can cost very different amounts. This page explains how the price is built, what California law requires a charger to show you, and how public charging compares with charging at home on your utility's rates, which is the part we track closely. For home electricity prices across the state, see the California utility rate tracker.

How a ChargePoint price is built

ChargePoint says stations on its platform are independently owned and each owner, or roaming partner, decides what to charge; ChargePoint processes the payment. A session's cost can combine several parts, all of which appear in the app for that station:

• Energy rate: charged per kWh while your car is actually taking energy. ChargePoint says U.S. energy rates are per kWh.
• Time rate while connected: charged per minute or hour whether or not energy is flowing.
• Session fee: a flat fee set by the owner when a session starts.
• Minimum and maximum fees: a floor or cap on the session, before taxes and fees.
• Overstay rate: a time charge that starts after a grace period once charging finishes, or after a maximum connection time.
• ChargePoint's own fees: the service fee, a guest fee when you tap a card without an account, and a convenience fee when driver support starts a session for you.

Owners can also charge one price for the first hour or two and another after, offer discounts on some connections, or charge nothing; the app can filter for free stations.

What California requires a public charger to show you

Commercial EV chargers in California are measuring devices, like gas pumps, and the state's Division of Measurement Standards applies weights-and-measures rules to them. Its guidance for charger makers says:

• The charger must continuously show both the kWh delivered and the price during a session.
• Tiered pricing is allowed, but every price that could apply must be displayed before you start the session.
• The display must start at zero for price and energy for at least 15 seconds.
• A receipt, paper or electronic, must identify the charger's location; a link you have to type in does not count.
• Chargers used commercially must accept a credit or debit card from customers without an account, under a California Air Resources Board regulation.

If a charger's screen does not match the price in the app, ChargePoint lists that as a separate support question, and your county weights-and-measures office registers commercial chargers.

Public charging vs. home charging, per kWh

Home charging on a utility EV or time-of-use plan is usually the cheaper benchmark. These are the lowest-priced hours on EV-friendly plans at four large California utilities, for customers who buy their power from the utility:

A worked example, using a hypothetical public price: 40 kWh at $0.45 per kWh plus the $0.49 DC service fee comes to $18.49. The same 40 kWh at PG&E's EV2-A off-peak price is about $9.02. Both are below what the Public Advocates Office calculates as gasoline parity for a 100 MPGe EV, 48.7 cents per kWh at $4.60 a gallon, so either beats gas per mile in that comparison; home charging simply beats it by more.

For the utility details behind those numbers, see PG&E time-of-use and EV rates, SCE rate schedules and LADWP EV charging rates. If you are thinking about charging from your own roof, read solar panels for EV charging in California, and for what solar exports earn when the car is not home, see selling electricity back to the grid.