Agile Octopus

Agile Octopus is the tariff that gets energy nerds excited. Your electricity price changes every 30 minutes, tracking wholesale costs. When demand is low (overnight, sunny afternoons when solar generation is high), prices plummet. When everyone's cooking dinner at 6pm, they spike.

It's not for everyone. If you're willing to be a bit strategic about when you use electricity, the savings can be substantial.

How it works

Every day, Octopus publishes the next day's electricity prices by 4pm. Each price covers a 30-minute slot. You can check them in the Octopus app, or through various third-party apps and dashboards. The idea is that you shift energy use to the cheapest slots and avoid the expensive ones.

A typical day might look like this: rates of 5-10p/kWh between midnight and 6am, 15-20p from 6am to 4pm, then 25-35p from 4-7pm (the peak window), dropping back down afterwards. This varies enormously depending on wholesale market conditions.

There's a price cap of 100p/kWh to protect you from extreme spikes, but in reality rates very rarely go above 40p. On the flip side, prices can actually go negative. That means Octopus pays you to use electricity. This tends to happen on windy nights when there's a surplus of wind power on the grid.

What does it actually save?

That depends entirely on how much usage you can shift. If you run your dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer overnight instead of during the day, you'll save a decent amount. If you've got a home battery that can charge overnight and discharge during peak, you can save hundreds.

If you can't realistically shift much usage, though, you might not save anything at all. The peak rates on Agile are higher than on the Flexible tariff, so if you're using a lot of electricity between 4-7pm, you could end up paying more.

Who is it for?

• Households with home batteries. Charge when it's cheap, use stored power when it's expensive. This is where Agile really shines.
• People who work from home. More flexibility to run appliances at off-peak times during the day.
• Anyone who enjoys optimising things. If you like checking an app, planning ahead and feeling smug about your 4p/kWh dishwasher cycle, you'll love Agile.

Who should avoid it?

• People who want simplicity. Checking prices every day and scheduling appliances is effort. If you just want to forget about your energy, stick with Flexible.
• Heavy peak-time users. Big family cooking dinner at 5:30pm with the oven, hob and kettle going? Those peak rates will hurt.
• Anyone without a smart meter. You need one for Agile. Octopus will install one for free, but you do need it in place first.

What about gas?

Agile only covers electricity. You'll be on the Flexible tariff for gas, at the same rate everyone else pays. The gas side of your bill won't change.

Bottom line

Agile Octopus is genuinely brilliant for the right household. If you've got storage (battery, EV, or even just a willingness to be strategic), you can cut your electricity bills significantly. It's a tariff, though, that rewards engagement. If you're not going to check prices and adjust your usage, you'll miss out on most of the benefit.

Try the tariff comparison tool to see how Agile rates compare to other tariffs in your area.