There is no single answer — but there is a method
Whether gas or electricity is cheaper to run depends on what you are running, how efficient your appliances are, and the rates you pay for each fuel. A blanket claim that "gas is cheaper" was closer to true a decade ago; today, efficient electric appliances have changed the maths for many households.
The honest way to answer it is per unit of useful heat delivered, not per unit of energy bought. Gas is sold in megajoules and electricity in kilowatt-hours, and the appliances that turn each into heat vary wildly in efficiency. Comparing the sticker rate of gas against the sticker rate of electricity tells you almost nothing until you account for that.
Heating: the efficiency gap is huge
A gas heater turns most — but not all — of the gas it burns into heat in the room. A reverse-cycle air conditioner (heat pump) does something different: it moves heat rather than making it, so for every unit of electricity it draws it can deliver roughly three units of heat. That efficiency multiplier is why a modern reverse-cycle system is often cheaper to run than gas ducted heating, even when electricity costs more per unit of energy than gas.
The catch is upfront cost and the state of your existing system. If you already have gas ducted heating installed and working, the running-cost saving from switching to reverse-cycle has to pay back the installation. If you are replacing an old system anyway, the calculus tilts strongly toward electric.
Hot water and cooking
For hot water, a heat-pump electric system is usually the cheapest to run, followed by gas, with conventional electric-resistance (element) storage the most expensive per litre heated. Solar hot water and a heat pump paired with daytime solar generation can push running costs lower still.
Cooking is a smaller load, so the running-cost difference between gas and induction is minor in dollar terms — the choice there is more about preference, kitchen setup and whether you want to keep a gas connection at all.
- Coefficient of performance (COP)
- How many units of heat a heat pump delivers per unit of electricity it uses. A COP of 3 means three times more heat out than electricity in.
- Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
- The unit electricity is billed in. Roughly 3.6 megajoules of energy, though appliance efficiency changes how much useful heat that becomes.
The supply charge factor people forget
If you keep a gas connection just for cooking or a single appliance, you keep paying the daily gas supply charge all year. Over twelve months that fixed fee can outweigh the running-cost benefit of the appliance itself. For some low-gas-use households, disconnecting gas entirely and going all-electric saves money simply by removing a standing charge — even before running costs are counted.
This is why the gas-versus-electricity question is really a whole-household question. EnergySorted costs your gas and electricity plans on your real usage, so you can see what each fuel actually contributes to your bills before deciding whether it is worth keeping both connections.