A comparative study is performed to design an optimal PID controller for an automatic voltage regulator system using different optimization techniques. The presented approaches are referred to as particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, cuckoo search optimization (CSO) algorithm, moth flame optimization (MFO) algorithm, water cycle optimization (WCO) algorithm, teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm, and hill climbing optimization (HCO) algorithm. Transient response parameters, which are rise time Tr, settling time Ts, and percentage overshoot Mp, are used as comparison criteria. The integral time absolute error ITAE is the used performance index. All the proposed optimization techniques improved the transient response of the AVR system in a different way and gave good preliminary results.