The cheapest tariffs for an electric home in the UK in 2026

The right tariff depends on what you are running, not who your supplier is. If you have an EV, a heat pump, or solar with a battery, the cheapest electricity on the UK market right now is a time-of-use (TOU) tariff, and the cheapest TOU tariff for you depends on which combination of those you have. This guide compares the four tariffs that matter, tells you which suits each common setup, and is honest about where Octopus is the best choice and where it is not.

The four main TOU tariffs

Intelligent Octopus Go

Six hours of 8p per kWh electricity overnight, every night, for the whole home. Peak rate is around 27p per kWh, roughly the Ofgem cap. The tariff is designed around smart EV charging: you plug in the EV and Octopus's app schedules the charge into the cheap window. You do not have to set timers. If you are not charging, you can still use those six hours for dishwasher, tumble dryer, battery charging, hot water.

Eligibility: an EV, a compatible charger, and a smart meter. Some heat pumps also qualify. Octopus is generally pragmatic about the "EV" requirement; a plug-in hybrid counts.

Cosy Octopus

Built around heat pumps. Three cheap windows per day: early morning, midday, and late evening. Peak rate sits between the cheap and the super-peak. This matches a heat pump's natural daily rhythm better than a single overnight block. Hot water heats in the cheap windows, the house gets a pre-warm before peak times.

Eligibility: a heat pump and a smart meter.

Octopus Flux

A solar-and-battery tariff. Electricity is cheap at night (around 16p per kWh), expensive in the late-afternoon peak (around 36p), and the export rate mirrors that. You charge the battery overnight, use it through the day, export whatever is left during peak for a premium rate. Designed to make a solar-plus-battery household roughly zero-cost on a good year.

Eligibility: a solar system, a battery with Octopus-compatible integration, a smart meter.

OVO Charge Anytime

An EV tariff with a different twist: instead of a fixed cheap window, OVO manages the charge session-by-session, pulling the EV from the grid at whatever hour is cheapest that night (sometimes 1am, sometimes 4am). You pay a flat rate for the EV kWh (8p) and the cap rate for the rest of the home. Better for the household that wants simplicity and has only an EV. Worse if you want the cheap window to cover other appliances.

Honest comparison table

For a typical household using 3,500 kWh a year plus specific upgrades, at April 2026 rates:

Default Ofgem cap tariff (no EV, no heat pump, no solar): about £863 per year
Intelligent Octopus Go (with EV, 7,100 miles): about £865 on the house plus 8p EV charging equals roughly £1,080 total, which compares to £1,700 on the default tariff for the same household
Cosy Octopus (with heat pump, 3-bed semi on gas previously): broadly similar total to Intelligent Octopus Go if you have only a heat pump
Octopus Flux (with solar plus 10 kWh battery): net cost of £100 to £500 per year depending on solar size and self-consumption, or even negative for large systems with a lot of summer export
OVO Charge Anytime (EV only): similar to Intelligent Octopus Go for EV costs but no whole-home cheap window

Which suits you

EV only, no heat pump, no solar

Intelligent Octopus Go. You get 6 hours of 8p electricity every night; the EV takes what it needs; the rest of the window is free for dishwasher, washing machine, immersion heater, battery. If you have no time to manage any of it, OVO Charge Anytime is slightly simpler but leaves money on the table.

Heat pump only, no EV

Cosy Octopus, usually. The three-window pattern matches how a heat pump naturally runs. If you also set the cylinder to reheat in the cheap windows, running cost drops 15 to 25 per cent versus the cap.

EV plus heat pump

Intelligent Octopus Go wins for most households. The 6 hours of cheap electricity is wide enough to cover both a full EV charge and a heat pump cylinder reheat, plus some extra daytime shifts. Cosy Octopus is a close second for heavy-heating, low-mileage households.

Solar plus battery, no EV, no heat pump

Octopus Flux. The export differential is where the real money is, and Flux prices exports high during the afternoon peak. If your battery is not Octopus-compatible, Agile Octopus is the nearest equivalent, but Flux is the designed match.

Everything (EV, heat pump, solar, battery)

Intelligent Octopus Go is usually still the winner because of the scale of the overnight window, with solar export at the standard Outgoing rate (15p per kWh). Running Flux with an EV and heat pump is possible but you are left managing three schedules.

What changes the answer

Export rate. If your solar system is large enough that export is a significant share of the economics, Flux wins even with an EV. The break-even is usually around a 5 kWp array with a battery, with light household consumption.
Smart meter status. Every TOU tariff needs a smart meter. No smart meter means you are stuck on the cap.
Charger compatibility. Intelligent Octopus Go needs a compatible smart charger, which most recent Zappi, Ohme, Hypervolt, and Octopus-provided chargers satisfy. Older non-smart chargers do not qualify.
Battery compatibility. Flux needs a battery inverter that Octopus can dispatch. Currently supported: GivEnergy, Tesla Powerwall 2, SolarEdge, some Solax and Fox.
Living in Northern Ireland. Separate market, separate rules. None of the above applies directly. Click Energy and Power NI have different TOU products.

The Octopus advantage

Not a paid opinion. Octopus Energy has:

The largest customer base on TOU tariffs, which means the products get iterated on faster than competitors'.
The best app in the UK market. The Octopus app tells you, per day, what you paid and what the cheapest next window will be.
A referral programme that gives £50 to both the new customer and the referrer. If you are switching anyway, using a referral link is money on the table.
A Smart Export Guarantee rate (Octopus Outgoing) of 15p per kWh for most customers, which is the best widely-available rate.

Where Octopus is not automatically best: if you want a fixed tariff (EDF, Ovo, and British Gas occasionally offer competitive fixed deals when wholesale prices are low), or if your home has no smart infrastructure (in which case TOU is off the table anyway).

FAQ

Do I need a smart meter to get these tariffs?

Yes. Every TOU tariff requires a working smart meter reporting half-hourly readings. If your smart meter is in "dumb" mode (common after a supplier switch), contact your current supplier to reconnect it.

Can I switch tariff without switching supplier?

Yes, within a supplier. Intelligent Octopus Go is a tariff change within Octopus. Octopus Flux is another. If you are already with Octopus you can switch online in a few clicks.

How long does the switch take?

Energy switches now take about five working days under the Faster Switching programme. Your old supplier gets a final reading; your new supplier takes over. No interruption to supply.

What about fixed tariffs?

Fixed tariffs lock a unit rate for 12 to 24 months. They are useful if you think prices will rise, but they are usually 5 to 10 per cent above the cap at the point of signing, and they remove the ability to exploit TOU pricing. For a fully electrified home, fixed tariffs almost never win versus a well-used TOU tariff.

Is the Octopus referral link worth it?

Yes, if you were already going to switch. The referral credits £50 to the new account and £50 to the referrer. It does not change the unit rate you pay. Using any referral link is better than using none.

Ready to see how a TOU tariff changes the maths on your upgrade decisions? Open the calculator, toggle on the EV or heat pump, and see how the combined bill drops. Then, if it makes sense, switch via the Octopus referral on the results page.