Why is my gas bill so high when I barely used any gas?

Because a large part of a Georgia gas bill does not depend on usage. The Atlanta Gas Light base charge and the marketer's monthly customer service charge are both flat: you pay them in July having used nothing. On the PSC's September 2026 assumptions the AGL base charge alone is about $39.71 a month, before any gas.

What is the AGL base charge?

Atlanta Gas Light's charge for delivering the gas, passed through on your marketer's bill. It covers the pipes, the meter reading and a capacity component AGL calls the DDDC, which is recalculated each August from your own home's usage during the previous winter's coldest days. It is the same whichever marketer you buy from.

Which charges change if I switch marketer?

Only two: the per-therm rate you pay for the gas itself, and the marketer's monthly customer service charge. The AGL delivery charges and taxes are identical whoever bills you.

A unit of heat, 100,000 BTU, which is roughly 100 cubic feet of natural gas. Your meter measures volume and AGL converts it to therms on the bill, because the energy in a cubic foot of gas varies slightly.

Why did my base charge change in the autumn?

AGL recalculates the capacity part of the base charge each August using your home's gas use during the prior winter's coldest days. A cold winter with heavy use can raise it for the following year even if you have not changed anything since.

Guide · Last updated September 18, 2026

How to Read a Georgia Natural Gas Bill

Illustration: a bill torn in two, one half by a delivery pipe and the other by a gas burner.

A Georgia natural gas bill arrives from your marketer, but only part of it is your marketer’s. The rest is Atlanta Gas Light’s delivery charge, passed straight through. Knowing which half is which tells you what shopping around can and cannot change.

The two halves

The half you chose is the marketer’s:

The gas itself: your therms used, multiplied by your per-therm rate.
The customer service charge: a flat monthly fee the marketer sets, typically $3 to $10.

The half you did not choose is Atlanta Gas Light’s, and it is the same whichever marketer you use:

The base charge, covering the pipes, the meter reading and a capacity component.
Taxes and state surcharges.

Switching marketer changes the first half only. This is the single most useful fact about a Georgia gas bill, and it is why a headline rate is a poor guide to what you will pay.

How much of it is fixed

On the Georgia PSC’s September 2026 chart, the AGL base charge works out to $580.53 a year, about $39.71 a month. The standard 12-month fixed plans that month estimated out between roughly $1,073 and $1,227 a year in total.

So a little over half of a typical annual bill is a delivery charge you cannot shop for, and it is charged whether you burn any gas or not. That is why a July bill is never zero.

It also means rate differences move the total less than they appear to. At the PSC’s assumed 641 therms a year, one cent per therm is worth $6.41 a year. One dollar on the monthly service charge is worth $12 a year, nearly twice as much.

The base charge is not flat forever

The capacity part of the AGL base charge, which AGL calls the DDDC, is recalculated each August from your own home’s usage during the previous winter’s coldest days. A hard winter can raise your base charge for the following year even though you have changed nothing and switched nothing.

This catches people out, because it looks like a marketer’s price rise on a bill from the marketer. It is not, and switching will not undo it.

Therms, not cubic feet

Your meter measures volume in cubic feet. The bill is in therms, a unit of heat equal to 100,000 BTU, roughly 100 cubic feet of gas. AGL does the conversion, because the energy content of gas varies slightly.

Every rate you compare is per therm, so no conversion is needed when shopping. The PSC’s own comparison assumes 641 therms a year for a typical household. Your own use may be far from that: a small apartment with gas only for hot water uses much less, a large house with gas heat, range and dryer much more. Your last twelve bills are the best guide you have.

Reading your bill against the filed rate

Your marketer files its rates with the PSC every month, and we publish them. To check that you are being charged what you think:

Find your per-therm rate on the bill.
Find your marketer on the current comparison or its own marketer page.
Compare.

They can legitimately differ. You may be part-way through a fixed term at a rate filed months ago, which is what a fixed rate is for. But if you are on a variable plan and the number is drifting upward with no corresponding move in the filed rates, that is worth a phone call. Every month we have published since 2019 has its own page, so you can look up what your marketer filed in the month you are querying.

The charges worth questioning

A service charge higher than you remember. Some marketers file a range and charge the high end under conditions in their own filing, such as credit assessment. Both ends are published in rates.json.
A variable rate climbing month on month. Variable means it can move, including upward, and a promotional first-month rate rolling into a standard variable rate is the most common unpleasant surprise in this market.
An early termination fee you did not expect. It should have been in the contract, and it is on the PSC chart. Ours are shown beside every plan.

If a figure on our site disagrees with the PSC chart it links to, the chart is right and we want to know: [email protected].

The Georgia Public Service Commission does not rank or endorse marketers.

Common questions

Why is my gas bill so high when I barely used any gas?: Because a large part of a Georgia gas bill does not depend on usage. The Atlanta Gas Light base charge and the marketer's monthly customer service charge are both flat: you pay them in July having used nothing. On the PSC's September 2026 assumptions the AGL base charge alone is about $39.71 a month, before any gas.
What is the AGL base charge?: Atlanta Gas Light's charge for delivering the gas, passed through on your marketer's bill. It covers the pipes, the meter reading and a capacity component AGL calls the DDDC, which is recalculated each August from your own home's usage during the previous winter's coldest days. It is the same whichever marketer you buy from.
Which charges change if I switch marketer?: Only two: the per-therm rate you pay for the gas itself, and the marketer's monthly customer service charge. The AGL delivery charges and taxes are identical whoever bills you.
What is a therm?: A unit of heat, 100,000 BTU, which is roughly 100 cubic feet of natural gas. Your meter measures volume and AGL converts it to therms on the bill, because the energy in a cubic foot of gas varies slightly.
Why did my base charge change in the autumn?: AGL recalculates the capacity part of the base charge each August using your home's gas use during the prior winter's coldest days. A cold winter with heavy use can raise it for the following year even if you have not changed anything since.

More guides

How to switch marketer: What switching gas marketer in Georgia actually involves: the 19th-of-the-month deadline, what it costs to leave a contract early, and what does not change at your house.
Pool groups and availability: Atlanta Gas Light's system is split into nine geographic pool groups, and marketers restrict some of their best plans to the Atlanta ones. Here is how to tell whether a rate is open to you.
Which plan type to choose: The six kinds of natural gas plan a Georgia marketer can sell you, what each one actually commits you to, and who each is genuinely for.