Battery prices
What a Tesla Powerwall 3 costs in California in 2026
Installed prices, how it stacks up against Enphase and FranklinWH, and the parts of the job that push the number up or down. Brand-neutral, with sources.
Checked . Sources linked in the text.
By the Golden Hour Energy editorial team. How we research and check our guides
A Tesla Powerwall 3 typically costs about $13,500 installed before incentives, according to EnergySage's marketplace data. That's a national average of $998 per kWh, updated May 15, 2026 (EnergySage). California runs a little higher: the all-brand average here was $1,037 per kWh in October 2026 (EnergySage California data). At that rate, a 13.5 kWh battery works out to about $14,000. Your price depends on your home, and only a licensed installer can give you a real one after a site review.
We're a referral service, not a Tesla dealer, and we don't earn more for one brand than another. This guide puts the Powerwall 3 next to the batteries California installers most often propose with it, so you can read a bid with some context.
What you get for the money
The Powerwall 3 is a battery and a solar inverter in one box. Tesla's datasheet lists 13.5 kWh of energy, 11.5 kW of continuous power, the ability to start motors rated up to 185 LRA (think AC compressors and well pumps), and up to 20 kW of solar input. It carries a 10-year warranty (Tesla Powerwall 3 datasheet), and EnergySage lists 70% capacity retained at 10 years (EnergySage). On a new solar plus battery install, that built-in inverter can mean one less box to buy and install.
Powerwall 3 vs Enphase vs FranklinWH
EnergySage lists the Powerwall 3 and Enphase's IQ Battery 10C and 5P among the most-quoted batteries in California (EnergySage). FranklinWH's aPower 2 is another common pick. They're built differently, and the differences matter more than the logos.
| Topic | Powerwall 3 | IQ Battery 5P | IQ Battery 10C | aPower 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 13.5 kWh | 5 kWh | 10 kWh | 15 kWh |
| Continuous power | 11.5 kW | 3.84 kW | 7.08 kVA | 10 kW |
| Warranty | 10 years | 15 years or 6,000 cycles | 15 years or 6,000 cycles | 15 years or 60 MWh |
| Inverter | Built in, and takes solar panels directly | Built-in microinverters | Built-in microinverters | Built-in battery inverter; solar needs its own |
Two things jump out. First, power: one Powerwall 3 can deliver about three times the continuous power of one IQ Battery 5P, which matters if you want central AC running in an outage. Enphase gets there by stacking units. Second, warranty: Enphase and FranklinWH both cover 15 years, Tesla 10. If you expect to stay in the home a long time, weigh that.
Enphase batteries use the same microinverter approach as Enphase solar systems, so they often come up for homes that already have Enphase. The aPower 2 is AC-coupled, meaning it connects on the AC side of your home rather than to the panels directly, which is a common way to add storage to existing solar. The Powerwall 3 makes the most of its built-in inverter when the solar and battery go in together.
Installed prices, compared
EnergySage publishes per-brand averages from installer pricing on its marketplace. They're the most consistent public numbers we found, but they're averages, not prices for your home.
- Tesla Powerwall 313.5 kWh, $998/kWh$13,473
- California average13 kWh, $1,037/kWh$11,460 to $15,504
- FranklinWH aPower 215 kWh, $1,177/kWh$17,655
The FranklinWH total is higher partly because the battery is bigger: 15 kWh versus 13.5. Per kWh, it ran about 18% above the Powerwall 3 in EnergySage's data (EnergySage). For Enphase, the newest brand average we found from EnergySage was $1,344 per kWh, from the first half of 2024 (EnergySage). That's too old to compare fairly with 2026 numbers, so ask installers for current Enphase pricing directly.
The useful habit is to divide any bid by the battery's usable kWh. A bid well above about $1,000 per kWh in California isn't automatically wrong, since panel work and whole-home backup add real cost, but it's worth asking what's in it.
What pushes your price up or down
- How many units
- The biggest lever. Each added battery adds its own equipment and labor. Tesla supports up to four Powerwall 3 units on one system.
- Backup equipment
- Keeping the lights on in an outage needs a device that disconnects your home from the grid. For Powerwall 3 that's a Gateway 3, a Backup Switch or a Backup Gateway 2. Whole-home and partial-home backup are wired differently and priced differently.
- Your main electrical panel
- Older or full panels sometimes need an upgrade or a new subpanel for backed-up circuits. Ask whether your bid includes one and what it costs on its own.
- New solar or existing solar
- Powerwall 3 has a solar inverter built in, so on a new solar plus battery install it can stand in for a separate inverter. Adding a battery to an older system is a different job, and it may affect an older net metering plan.
- Where it goes
- Distance from the panel, wall or floor mounting, trenching, and permit and inspection fees in your city all show up in the labor line.
The CPUC's consumer guide expects installers to size systems from your hourly usage data, and to walk you through how the battery will be set up (CPUC). If you want a rough feel for the size first, the solar calculator uses your bill and utility to estimate solar and battery size. Our home battery guide covers sizing in plain terms.
What's changed for incentives in 2026
The homeowner federal credit is gone
If you buy a battery, there's no federal homeowner credit for it anymore. The IRS says the residential clean energy credit isn't available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 (IRS). Older articles that subtract a credit from Powerwall prices are out of date for anyone installing now.
Leases and PPAs can still use a business credit
When a company owns the battery and you lease it or buy its power, that company can still claim the business credit under section 48E. Storage keeps the full credit under the 2025 law, subject to rules on how much of the equipment comes from restricted foreign suppliers (pv magazine USA). That can lower lease pricing. It can also come with escalators and transfer terms worth reading closely, which our lease vs buy guide walks through. The full federal picture is in our 2026 tax credit guide.
SGIP can help, if you qualify
California's SGIP rebate pays $1.10 per watt-hour of storage for income-qualified households, which works out to about $14,850 on a 13.5 kWh battery before program limits. The budgets for everyone else closed at the end of 2025, and the low-income budget was waitlisted at most Southern California utilities on October 26, 2026 (SGIP program metrics). Who qualifies and how the application works is in our SGIP guide.
Is it worth it?
On SCE and SDG&E, a battery earns its keep by covering expensive evening power, since exported solar earns little under current billing rules. On LADWP's standard plan the case is mostly backup. Whether a Powerwall or any other battery pays off for you is a household question, and our battery guide walks through it.