MMBtu to MWh Conversion

What an MMBtu and an MWh Measure

If you want to turn an MMBtu figure into MWh, divide your MMBtu amount by about 3.412, or just multiply it by about 0.293. An MMBtu stands for one million British thermal units, which is an energy measure you'll see in US gas markets. MWh means megawatt-hour and it's the standard in much of Europe for electricity or gas. Put simply, a single MWh is around 3.412 MMBtu.

A British thermal unit (Btu) itself is small: it's the energy to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. Scale that up to an MMBtu and you have a million of them, or about 1.055 gigajoules. When you see an MWh, it refers to using one megawatt of power for one hour. That's exactly 1,000 kilowatt-hours, if you need to cross-check your calculations.

If you want to see where these figures appear in the market, our natural gas price page lists the main contract quotes.

How therms fit into the conversion

Gas in the UK is often quoted in pence per therm, not MMBtu or MWh. A therm is 100,000 Btu, which works out to 0.1 MMBtu. This means one MWh contains about 34.12 therms, so you multiply a price per therm by 34.12 to get a price per MWh.

The physical energy in your contract stays the same, whatever label you put on it. This is only about the number in your quote, not the energy you receive. If you're also switching between euros and pounds, that's a currency conversion, and it's outside the scope of the energy calculation.

Why gas units differ between markets

Tradition shapes which units you’ll meet. US and UK markets stick with Btu-based units such as MMBtu and therms, while most of Europe sticks with metric ones such as MWh. Some contracts also price gas by its volume, in either cubic meters or cubic feet. The catch: the energy in a unit of volume varies with the gas mix, so unless you know the precise energy per volume, you'll need more than just arithmetic to convert.

This local preference is why you’ll see different screens showing prices that look hard to compare until you convert everything to one unit. For a broader explanation of gas hub contracts, visit natural gas price hubs. Oil, just to be clear, gets quoted in its own unit; the details are in our guide on barrels of oil.

Worked example: comparing three gas quotes

Imagine you have a US gas price of $3.00 per MMBtu. You'll get about $10.24 per MWh (3.00 times 3.412), because each MWh holds about 3.412 MMBtu.

Now suppose you’re reading EUR 40 per MWh on a European contract. Divide by 3.412 and you’ll see EUR 11.72 per MMBtu. Just remember to use the same currency before any true comparison between the US and EU quotes.

For a UK case, if the quote is 80 pence per therm, multiply by 34.12. The result is 2,729.6 pence per MWh or, in pounds, roughly GBP 27.30 per MWh. These are sample numbers, meant to show the method, not live rates.

Frequently asked questions