Pizza Oven Fuel Cost Comparison: Wood, Gas, Pellets & Electric (2026)

Wood is the cheapest fuel if you already have a supply — scrap lumber, a fallen branch, or a cheap bundle from the hardware store goes a long way, often just a few pieces per pizza session. If you're buying bundled kiln-dried pizza-oven wood, costs creep up a little, but it's still one of the lightest hits to your wallet.

The catch isn't the price, it's the sourcing and storage — you need dry wood on hand, kept dry, which is more logistics than the other fuels require.

Wood pellets cost about as much as a fancy coffee for a full night of pizzas — a small hopper-full covers several pies, and a bag of pellets lasts a long time. It's a great budget fuel that also brings real smoky flavor along for the ride.

Propane gas is neck-and-neck with pellets on cost. A standard 20-lb tank runs a gas pizza oven for many, many pizza nights before it needs a refill, so the per-pizza cost works out to just a few cents of gas. The convenience (instant on, steady heat) makes gas the fuel most people land on.

Electric ovens pull power straight from your wall outlet, and running an oven at full blast for 20-30 minutes does show up on your power bill — typically the highest per-session cost of the bunch, though still a small one, usually well under a dollar in most areas.

The upside: there's no propane tank to swap, no wood to chop, no pellets to buy. You're paying a little more per use for total convenience, which is exactly the trade an electric oven like the Ooni Volt 12 or Cuisinart Indoor is built around.

Dad's bottom line: don't pick your fuel based on cost alone, since the difference between the cheapest and priciest option is pocket change, not real money. Pick the fuel that matches how you actually want to cook — the savings from switching fuels won't fund your next vacation, but a good pizza night sure feels like one.