Electrical panel upgrade and replacement cost, explained

Ask what a new electrical panel costs and the internet hands you a range wide enough to park a truck in. The range is honest; the explanation usually is not. Panel work varies because the panel is only part of the job: the meter, the mast, the grounding, the location, and the code requirements that come with new equipment all ride along, and each one moves the number. This guide separates the jobs, names the cost drivers, and gives you working market ranges, so a quote reads like an itemized story instead of a mystery figure.

Replacement and upgrade are two different jobs

A like-for-like replacement swaps a failing, obsolete, or unsafe panel for a modern one at the same service size: 100 amps stays 100 amps. The usual reasons are a recalled or failure-prone brand, heat damage, corrosion, or a panel simply out of room and out of trust. A service upgrade, most commonly 100 to 200 amps, replaces the panel and resizes what feeds it, which pulls the utility, the meter, and often the service conductors into the project. The second job contains most of the first job plus real additional work, which is why the ranges overlap but the upgrade runs higher.

What the work is priced at

Rather than a market range pulled from the air, here is what the two jobs price at in our own book, each quoted flat before work starts and confirmed on site once a technician has seen your panel, your meter, and your service. The add-ons below are what carry a job past the starting number.

A like-for-like 100 amp panel replacement is from the Panel replacement, 100A like-for-like task, from $3,409, assuming the panel stays where it is and the service entrance is reusable. Starting price. Your tech confirms the final number on site before any work.

A like-for-like 200 amp panel replacement is from the Panel replacement, like-for-like 200A task, from $3,499. Starting price. Your tech confirms the final number on site before any work.

A 100-to-200 amp service upgrade, which resizes what feeds the panel rather than just swapping the box, is from the Service upgrade, 100A to 200A task, from $5,149. Each is approved before work starts; the meter, mast, and service-entrance condition are what move it, which is why a technician confirms the number on site. Starting price. Your tech confirms the final number on site before any work.

What moves the number

• The meter and mast. If the meter can, the mast, or the service entrance conductors are corroded, damaged, or undersized for a 200 amp service, they get replaced, a common add that requires utility coordination.
• Location. A panel that must move, out of a closet code no longer allows, or from inside to outside, means extending every circuit to the new spot, which is a significant add on its own.
• Grounding and bonding. Older homes often need the grounding electrode system brought to current standards, driven rods, water pipe bonding, and connections, a modest add that shows up on most older-home quotes.
• The breaker load-out. A new panel takes new breakers, and current code requires AFCI and GFCI protection in far more locations than the 1980s did. Those breakers cost several times what standard ones do, and a full load-out is real money inside any honest quote.
• Brand replacements. Federal Pacific and Zinsco jobs are usually ordinary replacements at heart, but heat damage behind them, and rework of past quick fixes, can add scope once the panel opens.

Do you need the upgrade, or just the replacement?

Honest sizing is load math, not vibes. A 100 amp service still fits some homes fine: gas heat and cooking, no EV, no pool, modest square footage. The upgrade earns its cost when the loads are real: an EV charger, electric heat or a heat pump, a large addition, a shop, a pool. If your panel is failing but your loads are modest, a like-for-like replacement is the honest recommendation, and a contractor who quotes every house a 200 amp upgrade without asking what you run is selling capacity, not sizing it.

If an EV is the load pushing you over, read whether your panel can carry a charger before assuming the upgrade, because load management sometimes buys the headroom cheaper. And if the panel wears a Federal Pacific or Zinsco label, that story is the deciding factor on its own.

How to read a quote

A trustworthy panel quote names the service size, states whether the meter, mast, and service conductors are included or excluded, addresses grounding, includes the permit and inspection, and gives you one flat number you approve before work starts. The red flags are the mirror image: a suspiciously low figure that goes silent on the mast and grounding, hourly open-ended pricing on a job this well understood, or any suggestion of skipping the permit. Panel work is permitted and inspected work, everywhere we operate, no exceptions.

The San Antonio version of this breakdown, with local permitting and CPS Energy coordination, is in what a panel upgrade costs in San Antonio, and the work itself is our panel upgrade service: permitted, inspected, and quoted flat after we see your panel, your meter, and your service.