At 2 a.m. on a windy Texas night, electricity is close to worthless. West Texas turbines pour more power onto the grid than anyone is awake to use, and wholesale prices sag toward zero — some nights, below it.
That’s the hour Green Mountain Energy’s All Nighter gives you for free.
Generous? Look at who’s giving. Green Mountain is owned by NRG Energy — the same parent as Reliant and Direct Energy — and the All Nighter is the third free-window plan in the family catalog. One parent, three brands, one playbook: give away the hours that cost the least, and price the other ones to cover the party.
The plan at a glance (checked August 6, 2026)
| Contract | 12 months |
| Early termination fee | $150, per the plan’s pricing sheet as published by Vault Electricity |
| Free window | 9 p.m.–6 a.m. nightly, per greenmountainenergy.com, August 2026 — older versions started at 8 p.m. |
| What goes free | The energy charge. On the last public pricing sheet, delivery charges kept billing all night. |
| Base charge | $0 from Green Mountain on that sheet — the wires company’s ~$4.39 meter fee still applies |
| Deposit | Credit-based; no prepaid option if you don’t pass |
| Renewable content | 100% wind, via Green-e certified renewable energy certificates |
| Gimmick level | High |
The night got an hour shorter
Start with the window, because it moved.
Older versions of the All Nighter — the ones still quoted on rate boards and third-party reviews — ran 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The free-nights offer on Green Mountain’s site as of August 2026 runs 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Same pitch, one less free hour, no announcement. Reliant made the identical trim to Truly Free Nights under the same corporate roof. When one NRG brand shortens the night, the siblings tend to follow.
Two more things worth noticing before the math. Green Mountain’s site sells the free-nights idea under a few names — Pollution Free Nights, the All Nighter, a Solar All Nighter aimed at EV drivers. Same architecture throughout. And the fine print reserves “the right to discontinue this plan without notice.” The window, the name, and the plan itself are all movable. Whatever your contract’s pricing fact sheet (the EFL) prints is what you actually own — read that, not the banner.
What “free” covers — and what keeps billing
Here’s the part most shoppers miss. Every electric bill in Texas has two halves: the energy charge from your electric company, and the delivery charge from the wires company that owns the poles — Oncor around Dallas, CenterPoint around Houston.
On the most complete All Nighter pricing sheet in public view — Vault Electricity’s copy, Houston area, undated and likely stale — the free window zeroes out only the energy charge. The delivery charge, about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour plus a $4.39 monthly meter fee on that sheet, billed all night long.
That’s a real difference from Reliant’s Truly Free Nights, which waives both halves inside its window. Same parent company, less free “free.” Green Mountain’s current sheet hides behind a ZIP code box on its site, so confirm this line on the EFL before you sign — it’s one sentence of fine print worth the whole read.
And what pays for the giveaway? The daytime rate. That same public sheet priced daytime energy at 27.7575 cents per kilowatt-hour — roughly double what an ordinary fixed plan charged at the time, before delivery. The free hours were never a gift. They’re a transfer, from the 15 hours you pay to the 9 you don’t.
Run the numbers on a real month
Everything in this table is our arithmetic, clearly labeled, built from two sources: Vault Electricity’s undated Houston-area pricing sheet (daytime energy ≈ 27.8¢, delivery ≈ 3.9¢ on every kilowatt-hour, $4.39 meter fee) and the roughly 15-cent all-in floor where the cheapest plain 12-month fixed plans sat in early August 2026, per Texas Electricity Ratings’ trackers. Treat the shape as gospel and the pennies as approximate — Green Mountain reprices, and that sheet has no date.
Say your home uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours in a month:
| Your overnight share | All Nighter | Plain fixed at 15¢ |
|---|---|---|
| 33% — typical family home | ≈ $230 | $150 |
| 42% — the share Vault figures you need just to hit the advertised average | ≈ $205 | $150 |
| 55% — serious night-owl household | ≈ $169 | $150 |
| ~62% — the break-even line | ≈ $150 | $150 |
Read the second row twice. Hit the share the pricing was built around — do everything the plan asks — and you’re still $55 a month behind the boring plan.
By our math, the All Nighter doesn’t beat a 15-cent fixed plan until roughly 62% of your usage lands between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. — nearly double what a typical Texas home actually uses overnight.
And that bar was computed on the old 10-hour window. The current 9-hour version makes it harder still.
Check it yourself in 30 seconds
Don’t take our arithmetic on faith — the pricing fact sheet hands you everything:
- Find the advertised average price at 1,000 kilowatt-hours.
- Find the fine-print line stating what share of usage the plan assumes is free. Green Mountain’s own site confirms the free-night hours “are included in the average price calculation.”
- Divide the average by (1 minus that share).
That’s the real rate on your daytime hours. If it’s double what a plain fixed plan charges, you know exactly who’s funding the free window. The marketing page won’t lead with that number. The EFL can’t hide it.
The premium on top of the premium
Here’s what makes the All Nighter different from every other free-nights plan in Texas: it stacks two markups.
Green Mountain charges more than almost anyone as a baseline. Its plain fixed plan listed at 17.2 cents in Houston and 18.1 cents in Dallas on Texas Electricity Ratings as of August 6, 2026, while budget companies sit around 12 to 13 cents — a premium the company’s profile puts at $700 to $1,300 a year for a typical home. That’s the green premium, and Green Mountain earns the label honestly: 29 years of nothing but renewable plans, audited annually by Green-e.
But notice what the wind label costs NRG on this particular plan: almost nothing extra. Texas wind generates hardest overnight — exactly the hours being given away, exactly when wholesale power is cheapest. The renewable energy certificates behind “100% wind” are an accounting layer, not a power line to your house; the electrons at your outlet come off the same grid as your neighbor’s. You’re paying a green premium and a gimmick premium, and they’re both funded from the same place: your daytime rate.
One more family fact. NRG also owns Discount Power, which routinely undercuts Green Mountain by 5 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, per our profile’s April 2026 data. Same parent collects either way — see Green Mountain vs Discount Power for that head-to-head. And the free-window play itself runs three deep: Reliant Truly Free Nights, Direct Energy Twelve Hour Power, and this one. Three logos, one pricing desk.
Is it ever a good deal?
Honestly: at the extremes, and for one buyer nobody else can claim.
- An EV charging every single night, in a house that’s quiet all day. A car pulling 300+ kilowatt-hours a month entirely inside the window, plus a night-shift schedule, can clear the 62% line. This is the profile Green Mountain’s Solar All Nighter markets to, and it’s not fiction — just rare.
- A verified night-dominant home. Not “we run the dishwasher late” — actual interval data from Smart Meter Texas showing most of your power draws after 9 p.m.
- The green-first buyer who was paying the premium anyway. If you’d already chosen Green Mountain at 17-plus cents for the certification and the track record, a heavy overnight tilt can pull your effective rate back toward what everyone else pays. That’s the only case where the two premiums partially cancel.
Credit where due: Green Mountain’s 90-day guarantee lets new customers switch to another Green Mountain plan with no termination fee. If two bills come in ugly, take the exit while it’s free — their plain Pollution Free plans keep the green label without the schedule test.
What to do instead
Ten minutes, in order:
- Pull your overnight share. Smart Meter Texas or any recent bill’s usage detail shows when you actually use power. Under half after 9 p.m.? Stop here — no free-nights plan can win for you.
- Run the 30-second EFL test on any plan that survives step 1. Green Mountain’s site produces the document once you enter a ZIP code; Power to Choose, the state’s official shopping site, lists the same paperwork.
- Compare total yearly cost at your usage — including Green Mountain’s own plain fixed plans and every other company’s — on ComparePower.
- Weighing the brand itself? Start with Green Mountain vs Reliant — a family matter, as you now know — or Green Mountain vs TXU.
The full pattern behind these plans is in our guide to free nights and weekends electricity. Short version: the grid’s cheapest hours make a great gift, because they were nearly free to give.
Why this page exists
This page answers: “Is Green Mountain’s All Nighter free-nights plan a good deal?”
It doesn’t answer: “What’s the cheapest plan in your ZIP code today?” Prices change weekly. For that, compare actual prices on ComparePower.
We don’t sell plans on this site — enrollment happens on ComparePower, and our methodology page spells out the relationship. What we sell is the fine print, read for you.