The 7.3-cent headline
Sort almost any Texas rate chart by price at 1,000 kWh and a 4Change Energy plan sits near the top. As of August 2026, in Oncor territory, Maxx Saver Value 12 shows an average price of 7.3 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh. The cheapest plan in the entire market that day was 7.0 cents. On the chart, Maxx Saver looks like one of the best deals in Texas.
The number is real. It is also the only point on the usage curve where the plan looks like that. The same plan, the same month, averages 20.2 cents if you use 500 kWh and 13.4 cents if you use 2,000. A plan whose price triples depending on how hot your month was is not a 7.3 cent plan. It is a bet, and this review prices the bet.
Unlike some offers we have reviewed, 4Change publishes everything: the Electricity Facts Label, the Terms of Service, and the credit mechanics are all public, and every number in this review comes from our live rate feed or those documents. The plan family comes in three terms, Maxx Saver Value 8, 12, and 24, and shoppers also search older names like Maxx Saver Select 12 and Select 24. The structure we describe here is the current Value 12; the 8 and 24 run the same engine at slightly different rates.
Claims vs. fine print
Four claims on the front. Four footnotes on the back. Here they are, side by side.
The mailer says
An advertised average price around 7.3 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh (Oncor, August 2026).
The fine print says
The energy charge you pay on every kWh is 13.4 cents. Add Oncor delivery and the all-in cost before any credit is about 19.8 cents. The 7.3 cent figure appears only after a $125 bill credit lands, and that credit requires 1,000 kWh or more in the billing cycle. At 500 kWh the same plan averages 20.2 cents.
Source: Live feed pull, August 6, 2026; Maxx Saver Value 12 EFL pricing components (Oncor)
The mailer says
"$125 bill credit when you use 1000 kWh" (listed as the plan's lead feature).
The fine print says
The credit is all or nothing, month by month. A billing cycle at 1,000 kWh gets $125 off; a cycle at 999 kWh gets nothing. In our Oncor math that is a $73.41 bill versus a $198.21 bill, a $124.80 swing on one kilowatt-hour. You do not control your billing-cycle dates or the weather, so you do not fully control which side of the line you land on.
Source: Live feed pull, August 6, 2026; plan feature list and EFL pricing components
The mailer says
"4% of our annual profits support Texas charities" (4changeenergy.com, August 2026).
The fine print says
The charitable program is real, it is 4Change's founding pitch, and it costs you nothing extra. It also has nothing to do with how this plan is priced. The credit-cliff structure is the same one used by 21 competing Oncor plans in our feed with no charity attached. Judge the plan on the rate math; the giving rides along either way.
Source: 4changeenergy.com homepage, August 2026
The mailer says
"60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee" (listed as a plan feature).
The fine print says
The feature appears across the Maxx Saver family in our feed. Its exact conditions live in 4Change's Terms of Service, linked below, and we have not tested a cancellation under it. What the EFL states plainly: after any guarantee window, canceling costs $20 for every month left on the contract, which tops out at $240 on the 12-month term and $480 on the 24-month.
Source: Live feed plan features; 4Change Terms of Service (linked in sources)
The real rate structure
Credit where due: this plan hides nothing. The Electricity Facts Label is generated on demand from 4Change's own site, and our feed carries the full pricing components. Here is the whole machine for Maxx Saver Value 12 in Oncor territory, as of August 2026: an energy charge of 13.4 cents per kWh on every kilowatt-hour, no monthly base charge from 4Change, Oncor delivery at $4.06 per month plus 6.0 cents per kWh, and a $125 bill credit in any billing cycle where you use 1,000 kWh or more.
Run it at the three standard disclosure points and you get the plan's signature: 20.2 cents at 500 kWh ($101.23 for the month), 7.3 cents at 1,000 kWh ($73.41), and 13.4 cents at 2,000 kWh ($267.75). That V shape is the fingerprint of a bill-credit plan. The advertised number lives at the bottom of the V, and your real year is spent moving along both sides of it.
Note what the shape means at high usage too. Even with the credit, a 2,000 kWh month averages 13.4 cents, which is more than the cheapest flat, no-gimmick Oncor plan charges at that same usage; that plan averaged 13.0 cents at 2,000 kWh on the day we published. The credit does not scale. It is $125 whether you use 1,000 kWh or 3,000, so the 13.4 cent energy charge quietly takes over as usage climbs. For the fuller picture of how this structure plays out across a real year, see our breakdown of usage-credit traps.
Maxx Saver Value is sold online with fully public documents; the EFL, Terms of Service, and Your Rights as a Customer generate on demand from 4Change's own site, and the plan appears in our live comparison feed. No phone call is required to see the price. Before enrolling, check twelve months of your own usage history against the 1,000 kWh threshold, because the entire value of this plan depends on how many of your months clear it. Our <a href="/texas/providers/4change-energy/" class="text-green-700 underline hover:text-green-800">4Change Energy provider page</a> lists the brand's current plans, and our <a href="/blog/4change-energy-reviews-analysis/" class="text-green-700 underline hover:text-green-800">4Change customer-review analysis</a> covers how the company treats people after signup.
How the $125 credit works
The mechanics are simple and unforgiving. Each billing cycle, your smart meter reports your usage. If the cycle totals 1,000 kWh or more, 4Change applies a $125 credit to that bill. If it totals 999 kWh or less, no credit, no partial credit, no rollover. The test repeats every cycle, so a home that qualifies in August can miss in October and pay the no-credit price that month.
The threshold does not care why you missed. A mild October, a two-week vacation, a billing cycle that happens to run 28 days instead of 33, any of these can leave you at 900-some kilowatt-hours. At 999 kWh the bill is $198.21, an average of 19.8 cents. At 1,000 kWh it is $73.41. That is the cliff: one kilowatt-hour, $124.80. A home that ends its cycle at 990 kWh would save about $123 by deliberately burning ten more kilowatt-hours before the meter read, and when wasting energy is the rational move, the problem is the plan design.
There is no ceiling on the other side, but there does not need to be. The credit is a flat $125, while the 13.4 cent energy charge grows with every kilowatt-hour. By 2,000 kWh the credit is worth about 6.3 cents per kWh of relief; by 3,000 it is worth about 4.2. The plan gets more expensive per kWh the further you climb past the threshold, which is exactly backwards from how most families experience summer.
The band where it wins
We compared Maxx Saver Value 12 against the cheapest flat, no-gimmick Oncor plan on the market the day we published, 13.2 cents all-in at 1,000 kWh, as of August 2026. Below the threshold there is no contest. A 600 kWh month costs $120.67 on Maxx Saver, about 20.1 cents average, versus about $81 on the flat plan. Every under-1,000 month hands back roughly $40 of whatever the credit months saved you.
Inside the band, Maxx Saver genuinely wins. At exactly 1,000 kWh it beats the flat benchmark by about $58.59 for the month. At 1,500 kWh the bill is $170.58, an average of 11.4 cents, still about $25 ahead. The advantage shrinks as usage grows because the flat $125 credit dilutes while the 13.4 cent energy charge compounds. The lines cross at roughly 1,900 kWh. At 2,000 kWh the flat plan is already cheaper by about $7.80, and it pulls further ahead from there.
So the honest description of Maxx Saver Value 12 is this: a plan that wins between 1,000 and roughly 1,900 kWh and loses everywhere else. If your home reliably lives in that band all twelve months, the math works and nothing in this review should stop you. If your usage swings the way most Texas homes swing, low spring, brutal August, low November, you will collect the credit some months, miss it others, and your real average will land far from 7.3 cents. This structure is not unique to 4Change: our feed shows 25 Oncor-market plans running a credit that unlocks at the same 1,000 kWh line, 19 of them with the identical $125 amount.
$124.80
Bill swing between a 999 kWh month ($198.21) and a 1,000 kWh month ($73.41), Oncor, August 2026
20.2¢ / 7.3¢ / 13.4¢
Average price at 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh, the signature V of a bill-credit plan
1,000-1,900 kWh
The monthly usage band where Maxx Saver beats the cheapest flat Oncor plan (13.2¢, August 2026)
25 plans
Oncor-market plans in our feed running a bill credit that unlocks at 1,000 kWh (August 2026)
Fine print, decoded
The five footnotes on the back of the mailer, translated into plain English.
| What the footnote says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Energy charge 13.4 cents per kWh (Maxx Saver Value 12, Oncor); Oncor delivery $4.06 per month plus 6.0 cents per kWh; no provider base charge. The EFL states these components to four decimal places; the bill figures in this review use those exact values. | Before any credit, you are paying about 19.8 cents all-in per kWh. The credit is the entire discount. There is no cheap underlying rate here. |
| Bill credit of $125 applies in billing cycles with usage of 1,000 kWh or more. | All or nothing, every single month. 999 kWh gets zero. And your billing cycle dates are set by the meter-read calendar, not by you. |
| Termination fee, per the EFL disclosure chart: $20 multiplied by the number of months remaining on the contract. Maximums: $160 on the 8-month term, $240 on the 12-month, $480 on the 24-month. | Leaving early costs $20 for each month you have left. Walk away from a fresh 12-month contract and that is $240; halfway through, $120. Milder than a flat fee, but never zero. |
| Renewable content: 3%, with an option to upgrade to 100% during enrollment. The EFL lists the statewide average at 37%. | Despite the name 4Change, the default plan is not green; 3% is less than a tenth of the state average. A 100% renewable upgrade exists, but you have to choose it at enrollment. |
| "60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee" listed as a plan feature; conditions defined in the Terms of Service. | There is a window to change your mind. Read the Terms of Service for what qualifies before you count on it, because after the window the cancellation fee applies, $20 for every month you have left. |
| This is a paperless product. All bills and contract notices are sent by email, and failing to maintain a valid email address may subject the customer to fees described in the Terms of Service, including an e-Docs Breakage Fee. | No paper bills, ever. Let your email address lapse and 4Change can charge you a fee for having to send paper instead. |
Why this plan tops the rate charts
Texas standardizes electricity price disclosure at three usage points: 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. Those numbers come from the state's Electricity Facts Label rules, and they are why powertochoose.org, the PUCT's shopping site, and every commercial comparison site, ours included, can show you an apples-to-apples average price. The default sort on most of those lists is the price at 1,000 kWh.
Now look at where this plan's credit unlocks: exactly 1,000 kWh. A $125 credit at that threshold drops the advertised average at the exact point the market sorts on, from 19.8 cents to 7.3. The plan design and the disclosure rule line up too precisely to be coincidence, and 4Change is far from alone; our feed counts 25 Oncor plans with a credit tied to the same line. The chart position is the marketing. The EFL is where the price lives. Read the EFL.
What to do instead
For contrast, here is the live Oncor market on the day we published (August 2026). The cheapest all-in plan at 1,000 kWh was 7.0 cents per kWh, earned the same way this plan earns its 7.3, with a bill credit that punishes low-usage months; bill-credit plans cut both ways. The cheapest flat plan with no credits and no tiers was 13.2 cents at 1,000 kWh. If your usage is steady inside the 1,000 to 1,900 kWh band, a credit plan like this one can win; if it is not, the flat plan costs less over a year. Every plan below publishes its full Electricity Facts Label before you enroll.