Last updated: May 2026. Rates and tariff availability change quarterly, so check the Octopus website for the current figures in your postcode before you switch.
Choosing the right time-of-use tariff can transform a solar-and-battery setup from a novelty into a genuine money-saving powerhouse. An energy tariff determines how much you pay for every unit of electricity you import, and what you receive for every kilowatt-hour you export. While most standard plans charge a flat rate, Octopus Energy's smart tariffs use time-of-use pricing to reward off-peak consumption and peak exports. That suits households with solar panels, home batteries, EVs, or heat pumps. Rates vary regionally (London tends to be around 10% higher than Yorkshire), but the principles below apply across the UK.
A note on availability: Octopus Flux and Intelligent Octopus Flux were paused for new signups in March 2026 in response to wholesale price volatility. Existing customers stay on those tariffs, but new applicants need to look elsewhere for now. We have flagged the affected tariffs below.
Quick Guide to the Right Tariff
- Default champion: Intelligent Octopus Go. Best for solar plus battery plus EV households, especially with a Tesla Powerwall 3, Sigenergy SigenStor, or Enphase battery system.
- Plan B: Octopus Go. Still cheap if you do not have smart-API integration with your battery.
- Pure solar plus storage (existing Flux customers): Flux for manual control, Intelligent Flux for API-driven optimisation. Both closed to new customers as of March 2026.
- Active market timing: Agile Octopus.
- Heat pump homes: Cosy Octopus, for structured off-peak windows to minimise heating costs.
Intelligent Octopus Go
Intelligent Octopus Go offers a low, fixed overnight rate (currently around 7p/kWh in most regions, with some regions dropping closer to 5.49p after the April 2026 rate cuts) for six hours every night between 23:30 and 05:30. Octopus schedules charging for your battery or EV automatically when electricity is cheapest and greenest. Daytime import sits around 28p/kWh on average, varying by region.
This is the strongest all-round option for homes that have a battery, solar, and an EV. By integrating with Octopus's Smart Charging API, compatible systems including Tesla Powerwall 3, Sigenergy SigenStor, and Enphase can schedule charge and discharge cycles around your real usage profile.
Pair it with the Outgoing Octopus export tariff (12p/kWh flat, reduced from 15p on 1 March 2026) and your battery becomes a useful arbitrage tool: charge cheap overnight, run the house off the battery during the day, and export surplus solar at 12p.
Octopus Go
Octopus Go is the simpler, older EV tariff. From April 2026 the off-peak rate sits at around 6.99p/kWh in most regions (down from 10.5p before the cuts), available between 00:30 and 05:30. It is a five-hour window rather than six, and there is no automated smart charging.
Octopus Go remains a strong Plan B if your battery does not have the Smart Charging API integration that Intelligent Go requires. Most modern home batteries can simply be scheduled to charge in the 00:30 to 05:30 window manually through their own app. Pair it with Outgoing Octopus at 12p/kWh for export.
Octopus Flux
Note: Octopus Flux closed to new customers in March 2026. The section below is for reference and for existing Flux customers.
Octopus Flux is an import-and-export tariff designed for solar-and-battery households who want manual control. It uses three rate bands:
- Off-peak charging window (02:00 to 05:00): cheapest import, lowest export.
- Standard day (05:00 to 16:00 and 19:00 to 02:00): mid-range rates.
- Peak export window (16:00 to 19:00): highest export rate, but also highest import rate.
Rates flex with the wholesale market, so the exact pence figures shift every quarter. The headline strategy stays the same: charge your battery in the off-peak slot, then discharge to the grid during the late-afternoon peak. Existing Flux customers with a well-sized battery and a smart inverter can still deliver meaningful savings compared to a flat-rate tariff.
Intelligent Octopus Flux
Note: Intelligent Octopus Flux was also paused for new signups in March 2026. Existing customers keep their tariff.
Intelligent Octopus Flux is the hands-free version of Flux. Import and export rates always match, so the grid effectively becomes an infinitely large, loss-free battery. Octopus controls the battery centrally as part of a virtual power plant: charging when wholesale prices and carbon intensity are lowest, then discharging during the 16:00 to 19:00 peak.
For Southern England the current rates are 21.15p/kWh off-peak and 28.20p/kWh during the day and peak window. Eligible battery systems include Tesla Powerwall, Enphase, SolarEdge, GivEnergy, and more recently Sigenergy and FoxESS. Connection is via API, with overrides and firmware updates handled through the Octopus app.
For existing customers with a compatible battery, Intelligent Flux has historically been the highest-value export option on the market. Octopus reports that around a third of Intelligent Flux customers paid less for their imported energy than they earned in export payments over the last 12 months. New solar-and-battery customers should treat it as legacy for now and check whether Octopus has reopened the tariff before relying on it in any savings calculation.
Octopus Agile
Agile Octopus tracks wholesale prices every 30 minutes. Import rates can go negative during high-renewable, low-demand periods, and are capped at £1/kWh (100p) to protect against extreme spikes. From 1 April 2026, every half-hour rate is 3.5p/kWh lower than it would have been previously, reflecting the government's decision to remove certain levies from energy bills.
The 2026 average sits at around 20p to 22p/kWh, which beats a typical flat-rate tariff comfortably for households that can shift load. Exports can be paired with either:
- Outgoing Octopus: flat 12p/kWh.
- Agile Outgoing: half-hourly export rates that follow wholesale prices, with the same upside (and volatility) as the import side.
Agile suits homeowners who actively chase plunge pricing and use automation to avoid the evening peak. Combined with a battery, the timing is largely automated through the inverter app.
Cosy Octopus
Cosy Octopus is built for heat pump homes, but it is also relevant for batteries. For Southern England the current rates are:
- Cosy rate (04:00 to 07:00, 13:00 to 16:00, 22:00 to 00:00): 14.50p/kWh
- Peak rate (16:00 to 19:00): 51.56p/kWh
- Standard day rate: 33.21p/kWh
Pair Cosy with Outgoing Octopus at 12p/kWh to export surplus solar or stored battery energy. Three off-peak dips look attractive on paper, but most batteries limit cycling to one or two full cycles per day to preserve lifespan, so Cosy is most compelling for homes with a heat pump that can take advantage of multiple charge windows.
Which tariff should you choose?
For most solar-plus-battery households with an EV, Intelligent Octopus Go is still the right starting point in 2026, paired with Outgoing Octopus for export. Households without an EV can use the same combination by scheduling overnight battery charging in the cheap window. Heat pump owners should look at Cosy. Active managers with a tolerance for volatility should look at Agile.
If you are buying a battery now and care about Intelligent Flux compatibility for when it reopens, Tesla Powerwall 3, Sigenergy SigenStor, and Enphase are all supported by Octopus's API and are systems we install routinely.
Tariff choice is the final step in getting full value out of solar and battery storage. The right battery and the right tariff matter as much as the panels themselves. Our team can size your system, talk through tariff trade-offs for your usage pattern, and integrate with Octopus's smart APIs.
Get a quote for solar and battery storage or read more about Tesla Powerwall 3 and Sigenergy SigenStor systems.
