Agile Octopus prices

The line is the average price for each day; the shaded band is the cheapest and most expensive price within it.

How Agile Octopus works

Each afternoon Octopus takes the next day’s wholesale prices and converts them into a retail price for each half hour, adding network costs and margin and applying VAT. The result is published for the following day, so you always know tomorrow’s prices before tomorrow arrives.

Prices are capped, so a bad day has a ceiling. They can also go below zero: when there is more generation than demand — typically windy nights — the wholesale price goes negative and so does the Agile rate, meaning you are credited for the electricity you use rather than charged.

Because the price changes every half hour, the tariff rewards moving consumption rather than reducing it. The cheapest continuous window shown above is the stretch of the day when running the dishwasher, the washing machine or a car charger costs least.

Agile Octopus compared with the alternatives

Against Octopus Tracker

Both follow wholesale costs, but Tracker moves once a day and Agile moves every half hour. Tracker suits someone who wants wholesale pricing without timing anything; Agile suits someone who will actually shift usage. If you would not change when you run appliances, Tracker is the better fit of the two.

Against Flexible Octopus

Flexible is the standard variable tariff, tracking the Ofgem cap. It is the safe comparison: if Agile’s average sits below the cap line on the chart above and you can shift usage, Agile is ahead. If you cannot shift usage, Flexible is more predictable for similar money.

Against Octopus Go

Go gives one guaranteed cheap window overnight and a higher rate the rest of the time. Agile gives cheap periods that move around. For overnight EV charging Go is simpler and more certain; for a household that can shift usage across the whole day, Agile has more upside.

Getting the most out of Agile Octopus

How to switch to Agile Octopus

1. Both new and existing Octopus customers can take Agile. You need a smart meter sending half-hourly readings; if you do not have one, Octopus can arrange an installation, and you wait on the standard tariff until it is fitted.
2. A domestic switch should take up to five working days, though the timing varies. Octopus then checks your meter is sending half-hourly data, emails you to accept the Agile terms, and moves you across automatically.
3. There are no exit fees. If dynamic pricing does not suit you, you can leave at any time without penalty — but leaving locks you out of every smart import tariff for 30 days, so it is not a decision to reverse on a whim.

Our verdict on Agile Octopus