Electrical Panel Upgrade Cost Calculator
Upgrading a 100 amp service to 200 amps costs about $3,398 in Atlanta. The breakdown is what makes a quote comparable: only $991 — 29% — is the panel everybody talks about. The rest is the service entrance: conductors, meter socket, mast, grounding, permit, and a day with the power off while the utility disconnects and reconnects. That is also why going to 150 amps instead saves so little — the service work is the same work at either size, so capacity is close to the cheapest thing on the invoice.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost to upgrade the electrical panel
$3,486
typical · range $2,235 to $4,738 · 100 A to 200 A · $1,017 of it is the panel · 20 trade hours
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 65% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
The one input that changes the answer for you.
The cheaper of the two to renew: the utility drops its wire, the electrician replaces the mast, the weatherhead and the conductors down to the meter, and the utility reconnects. The mast is the part that surprises people — it is a structural item bolted through the wall, not a bracket.
The normal case. Every existing circuit reaches, the service entrance stays where it is, and the utility does not have to move anything.
The run the heavy service conductors take, which is usually short: the panel is normally on the other side of the wall from the meter, or just inside it. Where it is not — a meter on the street and a panel in a basement at the back — this is one of the lines that grows fastest, because the cable is thick and expensive per foot.
Count the breakers in the existing panel. Each one has to be identified, landed on the right breaker in the new panel and labelled. A panel whose circuits were never labelled costs the next electrician an hour before they touch anything — ask for a directory as part of the job.
1 / 4
The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
The panel is 29% of what people call “a new panel”
Everything else is the service: the conductors, the meter, the mast or conduit, the grounding, and a day without power while the utility disconnects and reconnects.
| Upgrade to | The panel | The service | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 amp (like for like) | $707 | $1,159 | $1,867 |
| 150 amp | $807 | $2,307 | $3,114 |
| 200 amp | $1,017 | $2,469 | $3,486 |
| 400 amp | $2,017 | $2,982 | $4,999 |
Look at the middle column rather than the last one. From 150 to 200 amps the service work barely moves, because it is the same mast, the same meter, the same grounding, the same permit and the same day without power whichever size you land on. On this house the whole step from 150 to 200 is $373. The practical consequence: if the service is coming apart anyway, extra capacity is close to the cheapest thing you can buy that day. Going to 400 amps is a genuine step up, and on the utility side it can mean a bigger transformer on their timetable.
Overhead or underground
The same upgrade is $3,486 with an overhead supply and $4,168 underground — 120%. ⚠️ But that underground figure assumes a new trench, and the single question that decides it is whether the existing conduit is sound and large enough to pull new conductors through. If it is, the trench line disappears entirely and underground becomes the cheaper of the two. Establish that before accepting a number from anybody.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panelboard and breakers, 200 amp1 when the panel is 200 amps | 1each | $320–$980 | estimated±51% |
| Terminating and labelling existing circuits0.25 hours per circuit × relocation factor | 6hour | $354–$380 | sourced |
| Service entrance conductors, 200 ampfeet of service entrance, at 200 amps | 25linear ft | $275–$850 | estimated±51% |
| Mast and weatherhead, or conduit and trench fittings1 when the service is enlarged | 1each | $140–$620 | estimated±63% |
| Meter socket1 when the meter socket is replaced | 1each | $110–$340 | estimated±51% |
| Grounding electrodes and bonding1 when the grounding is renewed | 1each | $90–$260 | estimated±49% |
| Service work: mast, meter, conductors and utility coordination14 hours overhead, 18 underground, 8 for a like-for-like panel swap | 14hour | $826–$887 | sourced |
| Electrical permit and inspection1 when the job is permitted | 1each | $120–$420 | estimated±56% |
| Total | $2,235–$4,738 | ±36% |
Where these numbers come from
- Why the size you choose barely matters, and when it does
- 150 amps is $3,026 here and 200 amps is $3,398 — a difference of $373 on a job of $3,398. The reason is that the service work is the same work at either size: the same mast, the same meter, the same grounding, the same permit and the same day without power. Only the panel and the conductors change. The practical consequence is worth stating plainly: if the service is coming apart anyway, capacity is close to the cheapest thing you can buy that day. 400 amps is a genuine step at $4,911, because it is usually two panels and a service disconnect — and on the utility side it can mean a larger transformer, on their timetable.
- The question that decides the underground price
- With a new trench, underground comes to $4,063 against $3,398 overhead — 120%. ⚠️ But that figure assumes digging, and it very often is not needed: where the existing conduit is sound and large enough, new conductors are pulled through it and the trench line disappears entirely, at which point underground becomes the cheaper of the two. This is the single question to settle before accepting a number from anybody, and it is answerable in five minutes by somebody standing at the meter. Through a lawn a trench is cheap; under a driveway it is not, and that is the width of the band in the breakdown.
- The tax credit that used to be part of this, and is not
- IRS, Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit covered this work: the IRS states that “panelboards, sub-panelboards, branch circuits, and feeders, also qualify for the credit if they meet the National Electric Code and have a capacity of 200 amps or more. There is a limit of $600 per item”. It also states that the credit is allowed for property “The credit is allowed for qualifying property placed in service on or after Jan. 1, 2023, and before December 31, 2025”. Work placed in service in 2026 falls outside that window. We flag it because the 200 amp threshold in that provision is still quoted as a reason to choose 200 over 150, and the reason has expired. Nothing on this page is netted against any incentive. We are not tax advisers. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- What a new panel does not fix
- Nothing behind the walls. Knob-and-tube wiring, ungrounded two-wire circuits and aluminium branch wiring survive a panel upgrade untouched, and all three are separate and much larger jobs. This matters because “your electrical system is unsafe” and “your service is too small” are different findings that get delivered in the same sentence. A 100 amp panel feeding sound modern circuits is undersized; a 200 amp panel feeding sixty-year-old cloth-covered cable is a new box on an old problem. Establish which you have before spending $3,398.
- The commonest reason people end up here
- An electric car. US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center — Charging Electric Vehicles at Home states that “Some homes might have insufficient electric capacity for Level 2 equipment”, and that an electrician can tell you whether yours does. ⚠️ Before assuming the answer is a service upgrade, there is a cheaper one worth pricing: a load management device that throttles the charger when the rest of the house is busy, which on our car charger page comes out at a fraction of this job. It does not always win — if a heat pump or an electric range is coming too, the upgrade was going to happen anyway — but it deserves to be in the conversation, and it usually is not. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Moving the panel, and why it doubles the labour
- Relocating the panel takes this job to $3,739 from $3,398, because every branch circuit has to reach the new position — extended individually, or run to a junction box and fed forward. It is sometimes not optional: a panel in a clothes closet or over a stairway is not a legal location and an inspector will say so. Note that the figure here covers the electrical work only. Opening and repairing the walls that get opened is excluded, and on a finished house it can be the larger half.
- Labour rates, and what this page will not tell you
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for electricians, adjusted to your metropolitan area. Retrieved 2026-08-20. Benefit load from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. ⚠️ This page prices the work. It does not describe how any of it is done, and that is deliberate: parts of a panel remain live with the main breaker off, and the service conductors are live until the utility disconnects them. There is no procedure anywhere on this site and there is not going to be one.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- Rewiring the house
- A new panel does not renew what is behind the walls. Knob-and-tube, ungrounded two-wire circuits and aluminium branch wiring all stay exactly as they were, and all three are separate and much larger jobs.
- A load calculation
- Deciding what service size a house actually needs is a calculation under the National Electrical Code, which is licensed material this site does not reproduce or derive from. What is priced here is the work, not the design.
- Utility-side charges
- Some utilities charge for a service upgrade, a larger transformer or a new drop, and some do not. It is set by their tariff, it varies enormously, and it is worth one phone call before getting quotes.
- Repairing drywall and finishes
- Moving a panel means opening walls to extend circuits. The electrical work is priced here; making the wall good again is not.
- Any federal, state or utility incentive
- Nothing here is netted against anything. The federal credit that covered panels of 200 amps or more closed to property placed in service after 31 December 2025.
- Solar, battery or EV charger equipment
- Frequently the reason for the upgrade, and separate work. The car charger is priced on its own page.
Questions people actually ask
How much does it cost to upgrade your electrical panel from 100 to 200?
About $3,398 in Atlanta with an overhead supply, ranging $2,150 to $4,646. The split is the useful part: $991 of that is the panel and reconnecting the circuits, and $2,407 is the service — conductors, meter socket, mast, grounding, permit and a day without power while the utility disconnects and reconnects. Underground it is $4,063 if a new trench is needed, and less than the overhead figure if the existing conduit is sound and big enough to pull new conductors through. That is the first question to settle.
How much do electricians charge to change a panel?
On this model 20 trade hours go into a 100 to 200 amp upgrade, at the BLS regional wage for electricians. A like-for-like panel swap with no service work — which is what you buy when the old panel is failing rather than too small — is $1,805 and about eight hours. What inflates the labour on a real upgrade is not the panel: it is the service entrance and the waiting. The power comes off for the day, the utility arrives inside a window rather than at a time, and the inspection has to pass before they will reconnect.
Can you upgrade an electrical panel without rewiring the house?
Yes, and that is exactly what this page prices — every existing circuit is disconnected, landed on a new breaker and labelled, at about a quarter of an hour each. What a new panel does not do is renew anything behind the walls. Knob-and-tube, ungrounded two-wire circuits and aluminium branch wiring all stay precisely as they were. That distinction matters because the two are often confused when people are told their electrics are "unsafe": undersized and unsafe are different problems with different prices. Establish which one you have before spending $3,398 on the one that may not be it.
Does upgrading to 200-amp service increase home value?
We do not publish resale value estimates and will not guess at one — we have no measured source for it and it varies by market in ways a national model cannot capture. What we can say is factual and narrower. A permitted upgrade leaves a record, and unpermitted electrical work is one of the things that surfaces awkwardly during a sale. A 100 amp service is a constraint a buyer with an electric car or a heat pump will notice. And the federal tax credit that once covered panels of 200 amps or more closed to property placed in service after 31 December 2025, so it is no longer part of the arithmetic either way.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 23 August 2026, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- EV charger installation cost
Prices a charger by the route the cable takes, and compares load management against a service upgrade when the panel has no capacity.
- Whole house generator cost
Publishes how many cubic feet of gas an hour each size demands beside its price, which is what decides whether your supply can feed it.
- Interior painting cost
Converts your floor area into the wall area that actually gets painted, and then into gallons, which is the one line on a painting quote you can check afterwards.
- The full electrical panel upgrade cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.