💡 Why There Is No Single Utility Bill in Georgia

Someone arriving from Russia or Belarus usually expects one piece of paper with every line item and a total at the bottom. In Georgia, that piece of paper doesn't exist and never will.

Here, every utility lives on its own. Electricity comes from one company, gas from another, water from a third, and rubbish is billed by the municipality. Each has its own account number, its own bill, its own payment history. It's irritating at first, and then you get used to it, and eventually you even find the upside: go away for two months, switch off what you don't need, and pay only for what you actually used.

Here's who bills you for what, and what it all costs.

🔌 Who sends the bill

The first thing to nail down when you move in is the names of your providers. They differ by city.

Electricity. In Tbilisi that's Telasi, a company now also operating under the name Telmico, so don't be thrown if you see both. In the regions, Energo-Pro Georgia and local distribution networks.

Gas. In Tbilisi, household customers are served by Tbilisi Energy. In most of the rest of the country, SOCAR Georgia Gas and regional operators.

Water. In the capital, Georgian Water and Power, GWP for short. In Batumi and Adjara, Batumi Water. Elsewhere, municipal water utilities.

Rubbish. Billed as its own line item, with the rate set by the municipality.

Stairwell cleaning. Another separate line, and in Tbilisi it might be Tbilisi Cleaning or another company entirely.

Rates, though, are set for the whole country by a single body, the National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission. So the price per kilowatt is the same in Tbilisi as in Kutaisi, it's just a different company sending you the bill.

⚡ Electricity, and the trick to the tiered rate

There's a detail here worth knowing, since it saves you money.

Electricity rates are split into three brackets based on usage: up to 101 kilowatt-hours a month, up to 301, and above 301. The more you use, the more each additional kilowatt-hour costs.

Being honest about the figures. Open sources disagree. One set puts the brackets at roughly 15, 19 and 23.5 tetri per kilowatt-hour. Another at roughly 18, 22 and 26.5. The gap between them looks suspiciously close to VAT, so one set is possibly quoted before tax and the other after. I can't confirm that for certain, so treat the lower figures as a baseline and the higher ones as what you might actually see on your bill.

What that means in practice. Crossing the 300 kilowatt-hour mark gets noticeably more expensive. A regular apartment without electric heating won't get anywhere near it, but if you're running convector heaters through winter, the bill will surprise you.

A rough example. A household of two using around 200 kilowatt-hours pays roughly 44 GEL a month.

🔥 Gas: where the winter shock comes from

This is where budgets actually get tested.

In summer, the gas bill is modest: the stove and hot water, if the boiler runs on gas. Come winter, if you're heating with gas, the picture changes.

By one account, a boiler heating a hundred-square-metre apartment with four radiators runs 160-180 GEL a month in winter. That's more than every other utility combined.

The gas rate as of 2026 sits around 55 tetri per cubic metre.

What this means when picking an apartment. Ask about the heating setup before you sign, not after. The gap between a gas boiler and electric heaters shows up hard in the winter bill, and both cost more than summer would have you believe.

A small detail about meter readings. Tbilisi Energy staff sometimes ask you to send a photo of your gas meter instead of having someone come by. Easier for everyone, and you don't have to wait around at home.

💧 Water: it comes down to the building

Here's an odd one: what you pay for water depends less on how much you use and more on which building you live in.

With a meter, you pay by usage, around 0.5 GEL per cubic metre at GWP's rate. Usually comes out low.

Without a meter, common in older buildings, you pay a flat amount per registered resident, around 4.5 GEL per person a month. Also cheap, but it has nothing to do with how much water you actually use.

Oddly enough, tenants in older buildings on the flat rate often come out ahead. So no meter isn't necessarily a downside.

🗑️ Rubbish and the stairwell: small line items, one surprise

Two small charges worth knowing about separately.

Rubbish collection is billed per registered resident, around 2.5 GEL. A token amount.

Stairwell cleaning is billed separately, with the rate depending on the building. And here's a warning that circulates in expat communities: according to them, not paying this can get your electricity cut off. There's only one source for this claim, and it's not especially recent, so we couldn't confirm it officially. Given how small the amount is, though, it's easier to just pay it on time than to find out the hard way.

And a word on lifts. In Georgia, lift maintenance is usually not included in what the building management fee covers, and it's billed separately. For buildings above five floors, that's one more line to budget for.

🔑 What to ask when you move in

The important part happens right when you get the keys. Ask your landlord three things, and you won't run into trouble later.

Provider names. Who supplies the electricity, who supplies the gas, who supplies the water. Without these you won't find your account, not in a banking app, not at a terminal.

Account numbers. For each utility separately. Ask for them in writing, so you're not copying digits off a crumpled piece of paper.

Whether there's an outstanding balance. This one matters most. A debt is tied to the account, not the person, and sorting out someone else's unpaid bill becomes your problem. Ask to see the last few paid receipts, or screenshots from the app.

While you're at it, ask about heating too: gas boiler, electric heaters, or central. The answer shapes your winter budget.

What else is worth checking before signing a lease is covered in common mistakes with long-term rentals. For finding a place and what to look for, there's long-term rentals in Tbilisi and Batumi.

Living in Georgia? Tell us on Madloba what your utilities actually run in your city, in summer, in winter, and what turned out pricier than expected. Numbers like that are worth more than any rate table.

Information is current as of September 2026 and is meant as general guidance. Rates are set by Georgia's National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission and get revised from time to time. The figures here are pulled from open sources and, for electricity in particular, don't fully agree with each other, likely due to VAT being included in some and not others. Check your provider's portal or your actual bill for current amounts.