Best Time-of-Use Tariff UK 2026: Octopus Go vs Agile

If you’ve installed solar, a home battery, an EV charger or a heat pump, your old standard variable tariff is leaving money on the table. Time-of-use (TOU) tariffs charge dramatically less for electricity at off-peak hours — typically 7-9p/kWh overnight versus 25-28p/kWh during evening peak. Switching can save £400-£1,900 a year on the right setup.

Here’s the 2026 comparison.

TL;DR — best tariff by setup

The fastest answer in the guide. Find your kit; the table tells you the tariff to pick, the off-peak rate, and what a typical North East household saves a year versus the standard variable rate.

If you have a heat pump and an EV, see the Cosy vs Intelligent trade-off lower down — for most North East customers we recommend Cosy as the primary tariff with the EV charging shifted into the cheap windows.

Octopus Go tariff explained

Octopus Go is the longest-running smart tariff in the UK — Octopus’s original EV tariff, launched in 2017 and still the simplest off-peak option in 2026. It pays a flat 8.5p/kWh between 00:30 and 05:30 every night (a fixed 5-hour window), with a peak rate of around 28p/kWh covering the other 19 hours.

You qualify if you have a SMETS2 smart meter (Octopus will fit one free if you don’t), live in mainland Great Britain and have a controllable load you can shift overnight — usually an EV charger, a home battery, or both. You don’t need to link your kit to Octopus’s app; the cheap rate fires regardless of what you charge, so it’s a good fit if you have a charger or battery brand Intelligent Go doesn’t yet support, or if you simply want predictability.

The economics work best for standalone battery owners. A typical 10 kWh battery filled overnight at 8.5p costs 85p to charge fully; that 10 kWh would otherwise cost £2.50 at the 25p standard rate during the day — a £1.65 daily saving, or roughly £450-£700/yr depending on use. For EV drivers, Go works but Intelligent Go gets you another 1.5p off plus a longer guaranteed window, so most EV owners should switch up.

Switching is fast: if you’re already with Octopus, request the move in your account and you’ll be on the tariff within 1-3 days. From another supplier, allow 14-21 days for the full switch. Real example: one of our Newcastle customers with a 10 kWh Tesla Powerwall and no EV moved from British Gas standard to Octopus Go in May 2026 — first full month saved £52 (~£620/yr run-rate), with zero behaviour change beyond letting the battery charge overnight.

Octopus Intelligent Go: how it works in 2026

Intelligent Go is Octopus’s smart-scheduled EV tariff and the default recommendation for any household with an EV. The headline rate is 7p/kWh — 1.5p cheaper than standard Go — and the cheap window is a guaranteed 6 hours between 23:30 and 05:30 every night, plus any extra “green hours” Octopus offers during the day when wind generation is surplus on the grid (typically 1-3 extra cheap hours per week on top).

The catch — and the reason it’s cheaper — is that Octopus needs to control when your EV actually charges. You tell their app “I need 80% by 7am”; the algorithm finds the cheapest hours that night to deliver that target, charging in bursts rather than continuously. To do this it needs a supported charger or car. In 2026 the supported list is: Ohme (any model), Easee (Charge, Charge Lite, Charge Core), Tesla (vehicle-side scheduling for any Tesla), BYD (Atto 3, Seal, Dolphin), Hyundai/Kia E-GMP cars, VW ID range, Polestar 2/3/4, and Indra Smart Pro. If your charger isn’t on the list, stay on standard Go until you upgrade.

There’s a charge cap — the cheap rate covers the energy your EV pulls plus anything else in the house drawing during the cheap window (battery charging, heat pump, dishwasher on a timer). The whole-home cheap rate is the bit most new customers don’t realise: Intelligent Go isn’t just an “EV-only” tariff, it’s a full TOU tariff with EV-aware scheduling layered on top.

The green-hours bonus is small but real: on a typical week our customers see 1-3 extra cheap-rate hours mid-afternoon, useful for running the washing machine or pre-heating a hot water tank.

EV cost example: charging a 60 kWh battery from 20% to 80% (36 kWh) costs £2.52 on Intelligent Go (36 × 7p). For a household driving 10,000 miles a year in a 4 mi/kWh EV (2,500 kWh of charging), the annual electricity bill for the car is roughly £175, versus around £1,800 in petrol for the same mileage — a £1,625 fuel saving on top of the tariff saving.

What our North East customers actually choose

The tariff picks above are the theory; here’s what real AMP customers have actually moved to in 2026, with annual savings tracked from their first three full bills.

Newcastle, 4-bed semi with 10 kWh battery + EV. Customer installed solar earlier in 2025 (we added battery + EV charger in March 2026). Previous tariff: Bulb standard variable. Moved to Octopus Intelligent Go the week after the EV charger commissioned. First full month bill came in £98 lower than the same month the year before; over the first three months the run-rate works out to £1,180/yr saved. The EV does roughly 9,000 mi/yr, the battery covers most of the evening peak, and the house pulls almost nothing at standard rate.

Gateshead, 1970s bungalow with air-source heat pump. Customer is retired, home all day, no EV, no battery (yet). We installed an 11 kW Vaillant aroTHERM in February 2026. Moved from EDF standard variable to Cosy Octopus at commissioning. The four daily cheap windows align well with the heat pump’s natural duty cycle (early morning warm-up, mid-afternoon top-up, late evening) and the customer manually shifts the dishwasher and washing machine into the 13:00-16:00 window. First three months: £620/yr run-rate saving versus the same months on the old tariff and old gas boiler combined.

Sunderland, 1990s detached with solar + 13.5 kWh battery + EV. Customer is the textbook full-package setup. We re-commissioned the system in April 2026 (battery was sitting on a default setting that wasn’t using the export tariff properly). Moved to Octopus Intelligent Go for import + Octopus Outgoing Fixed at 15p for export. The battery now charges overnight at 7p, discharges through the evening peak, and any surplus solar at midday goes straight to the grid at 15p. EV charges in the same overnight window. Annual benefit modelled from May/June bills: £1,750/yr versus their old standard tariff with a flat SEG.

The pattern across all three: the tariff is doing most of the work, but only because the kit was sized and commissioned with the tariff in mind. If you’re planning a battery, EV charger or heat pump install in the North East, ask the question at the design stage — we factor the right tariff into every quote.

The contenders

Major UK smart tariffs in May 2026 with meaningful off-peak windows:

Picking by setup

The right tariff depends almost entirely on what kit you have.

If you have a battery only (no EV, no solar)

Best: Octopus Go. Simple flat 8.5p/kWh window for 5 hours overnight. Battery charges fully during the window; discharges during the day. Annual saving over a standard variable tariff for a typical 3-bed semi with a 10kWh battery: £450-£700.

Runner-up: EDF GoElectric. Similar structure, slightly higher rate (9p), but useful if you want to stay with EDF for import without switching.

Skip: Octopus Agile — variable rates need a level of engagement that doesn’t justify itself for battery-only without an EV. Octopus Flux — needs solar to make sense.

If you have an EV only (no battery, no solar)

Best: Intelligent Octopus Go. 7p/kWh, smart-scheduled around your EV’s target charge time. You set “70% by 7am”; Octopus finds the cheapest 7-8 hours overnight to deliver that. Annual saving versus standard variable for typical 8,000-mile-a-year EV driver: £600-£900.

Runner-up: OVO Charge Anytime. Same 7p/kWh, similar smart scheduling. Useful if you’re an OVO customer.

Skip: Octopus Go — the standard 5-hour window is wasted on EV-only setups because Intelligent’s smart scheduling consistently delivers more cheap hours.

If you have an EV + battery (no solar)

Best: Intelligent Octopus Go. Same as above. Battery charges fully during the smart-scheduled overnight window, EV charges from same window. Both discharge during the day. Annual saving £900-£1,400.

Runner-up: Octopus Cosy — if you also have a heat pump, the multi-window structure with mid-afternoon off-peak helps cover heat pump runtime.

If you have solar + battery (no EV)

Best: Octopus Flux. Three-window tariff specifically designed for solar + battery owners. Cheap off-peak charging window at 3-4am, high export tariff between 4-7pm (battery discharges into the export market at premium rates). Annual benefit vs standard SEG: £150-£300 on top of normal battery savings.

Runner-up: Octopus Outgoing Fixed (15p/kWh export) + Octopus Go (import). Simpler setup, marginally less optimal economics. Pure SEG export plus cheap battery import covers most of what Flux delivers.

Skip: Agile — variable rates create unpredictability that’s incompatible with the SEG-paid export from solar.

If you have an EV + battery + solar (the full package)

Best: Intelligent Octopus Go (import) + Octopus Outgoing Fixed (export). Cleanest setup. Smart-scheduled overnight charging for both EV and battery. 15p/kWh SEG export rate for any surplus solar that the battery can’t capture. Annual total benefit vs standard tariff for typical full-package setup: £1,400-£1,900.

Alternative: Octopus Flux. Marginally higher peak export income but requires more configuration of the battery management system. We typically recommend the simpler Intelligent + Outgoing setup unless customers specifically want to optimise further.

If you have a heat pump (with or without other kit)

Best: Octopus Cosy. Three off-peak windows (early morning, mid-afternoon, late evening) align with heat pump operating patterns. Peak rate is high (~32p/kWh between 16-19) but the windows around it are cheap (8p/kWh). Lets the heat pump pre-heat during off-peak and coast through peak.

Runner-up: Intelligent Octopus Go — if you also have an EV. The single 7p window is less heat-pump-optimal than Cosy but the EV cost saving offsets.

If you have a Tesla Powerwall

Best: Tesla Energy Plan. Bundled import-and-export tariff exclusive to Powerwall owners. Variable import rates (lower than Octopus Go on most nights) plus up to 24p/kWh SEG export — the highest in the UK. Tesla’s algorithm handles all the scheduling. Annual benefit vs standard import + standard SEG: £400-£700 above what a typical Octopus setup delivers.

When Agile makes sense

Octopus Agile pays a variable rate that tracks day-ahead wholesale electricity prices. On windy nights and sunny summer afternoons, the rate can go below 0p/kWh — Octopus literally pays you to use electricity. Rates can also spike to 30p+ during evening peak.

Agile rewards engagement: if you actively shift large loads (battery charging, EV charging, washing machine, dishwasher, heat pump cycles) into cheap windows, you save 20-30% vs Octopus Go. If you don’t engage and just leave the system on auto, you typically save less than Octopus Go.

Worth it for:

• People with a battery large enough to ride out peak periods entirely
• Engaged users who genuinely enjoy watching rates and shifting consumption
• Anyone with a 13.5kWh+ battery and solar (combination dramatically improves Agile economics)

Skip if:

• You don’t want to think about electricity pricing
• Your battery is 5kWh or smaller (not enough buffer to ride peak periods)
• Your consumption pattern is fixed (small kids, shift work, etc.)

Switching mechanics

You can have an import tariff with one supplier and an export tariff with another. Most customers benefit from:

1. Switching import to the relevant smart tariff (typically Octopus or similar)
2. Switching export to the highest-paying SEG tariff (typically Octopus Outgoing Fixed at 15p/kWh, or Tesla Energy Plan at 24p/kWh for Powerwall owners)

Smart meters that report half-hourly readings are essential. SMETS1 meters often don’t — if you have one, ask your import supplier for a smart meter upgrade (free, takes 1-2 hours).

We help every AMP customer through the tariff switch as part of solar, battery or EV charger install handover. Switching takes 2-3 weeks (Octopus is fastest, typically 14 days).

What changes for 2026-2028

Three things to watch:

TOU tariff multiplication. Every major supplier is launching smart tariff variants. By 2027 expect 15-20 mainstream UK TOU tariffs, with more specialisation by use case (EV-only, heat-pump-only, solar+battery, etc.).

Half-hourly settlement. Ofgem’s market-wide half-hourly settlement (MHHS) launched in stages through 2025-2026. The mechanics behind smart tariffs are becoming more granular — expect rate windows to shrink (15-min granularity in some tariffs) as 2027 approaches.

V2G market commercialisation. Octopus’s V2G trial is expected to commercialise into a standard tariff option by 2027. EV drivers with V2X-capable cars (Hyundai/Kia E-GMP, VW MEB, etc.) will have an additional revenue stream from grid-services participation.

The right tariff today won’t be the right tariff in three years. Plan to review your tariff annually — we help our customers do this as part of standard aftercare.

Book a free survey → to get a system designed for the tariff that actually fits your usage pattern, not a generic install with whatever tariff comes out of the box.

Related: best home battery for UK households in 2026 · Smart Export Guarantee — paying you for solar export · V2H and V2G — using your EV as a home battery · charging your EV from solar + battery instead of the grid · time-of-use tariffs explained from scratch · home battery storage installation · EV charger installation North East