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Octopus EnergyOctopus Agile: half-hourly import pricing, explained
Agile Octopus is Octopus's dynamic import tariff: your unit rate is set every half hour from the wholesale market, published the afternoon before, with a ceiling so a single day can never run away from you.
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What Agile Octopus is
Agile Octopus is an import-only, fully dynamic tariff. Rather than a fixed unit rate or a small number of time bands, your price for each half-hour period is set the afternoon before, based on wholesale electricity market prices for that slot, and published so you can see the next day's shape in advance.
Two features make it usable rather than risky. Price Cap Protect puts a published ceiling on the tariff - Octopus's own commitment is that you will never pay more than 100p/kWh for electricity on Agile, whatever the wholesale market does. And Plunge Pricing is the other direction: during periods when wholesale prices turn negative, typically when renewable generation is high and demand is low, Agile can pay you to use electricity rather than charge you for it.
The rate, as checked today
Half-hourly unit rates, published daily in advance (typically 4pm-8pm for the next day), tracking day-ahead wholesale electricity prices.
Price Cap Protect: never more than 100p/kWh, per Octopus's own page.
No single average rate is published or quoted here; the whole point of Agile is that the rate changes by time of day and by day. Octopus's own historical example (Winter 2022-23) is too old to present as a current figure and is not repeated on this page.
Source: octopus.energy, checked 25 September 2026. Not linked: suppliers are named factually, this is not a partnership or endorsement.
Who can get it
- A SMETS2 smart meter, or a first-generation SMETS1 meter made by Secure
- Connection to the half-hourly reading network typically takes around 14 days once switched, per Octopus's own page
- Must be an Octopus Energy customer
Who it suits: A household that can shift meaningful load - a battery charging window, an EV, a heat pump, appliances - toward cheaper half-hour periods, either manually or through automation. Households that cannot shift usage at all are the ones most exposed to Agile's more expensive windows without capturing its cheaper ones.
Does this pair with a Clearline installation?
Yes. Agile Octopus is an import tariff with no installation condition attached; it is available to any eligible Octopus customer regardless of who installed their solar, battery or EV charger.
Every installation is carried out by our teams, who hold:
How Agile pairs with each route
Solar
Indirect. Agile prices import, not export, so a solar household would typically pair it with a separate export tariff (Outgoing Fixed or Agile Outgoing) for what the panels send back to the grid.
Battery
The strongest pairing on this page. A battery can charge automatically during the cheapest, or negative, half-hour windows and discharge during the most expensive ones, turning Agile's volatility into an advantage rather than a risk - the exact kind of arbitrage the battery calculators on this site model, using the site's own off-peak assumption as an illustrative stand-in below.
EV charging
Strong pairing for a car that can charge flexibly overnight or whenever a cheap window appears, either manually timed or through the vehicle or charger's own scheduling.
Heat pump
Workable if the heat pump or its buffer/hot water cylinder can pre-heat during cheap windows, but Cosy Octopus's fixed, predictable off-peak windows are usually a simpler fit for heating specifically.
Shifting 10 kWh off-peak, illustratively
Agile publishes no current average rate, so we have not invented one. To show the shape of the saving instead, the figures below use the site's own off-peak assumption (8p/kWh, the same figure used across Clearline's calculators, sourced from a supplier's published EV-tariff off-peak rate) as an illustrative stand-in for a cheap Agile window, against the current Ofgem price cap unit rate (26.32p/kWh, Oct-Dec 2026) as the alternative cost of that same unit imported at the standard rate.
| Scenario | Rate | Cost, 10 kWh |
|---|---|---|
At the current price cap unit rate | 26.32p/kWh | £3 |
At the site's illustrative off-peak rate | 8p/kWh | £1 |
Illustrative saving on this 10 kWh: £2. If stored in a battery first, round-trip losses (this site's own 90% assumption) mean roughly 9.0 kWh comes back out. Illustrative only, not an Agile rate. On the day, Agile can be cheaper than this illustrative 8p or more expensive than the 26.32p cap rate; the published 100p/kWh ceiling is the worst case. Your free design call can talk through how a battery or EV charging schedule would actually behave against Agile.
Talk it through on your free call
We confirm your postcode's actual rates and run your real numbers, not an illustrative example.
Related tariffs and guides
Octopus Energy Agile questions, answered
How does Octopus Agile pricing work?
Your import rate is set for each half-hour period the afternoon before, based on wholesale electricity market prices, and published so the next day's shape is visible in advance. Rates change continually rather than following two or three fixed bands.
Is there a limit to how high Agile prices can go?
Yes. Octopus's own Price Cap Protect commitment states you will never pay more than 100p/kWh on Agile, whatever wholesale prices do.
What is Plunge Pricing?
Periods when wholesale electricity prices turn negative, usually when renewable output is high and demand is low. On those half-hours, Agile can pay you to use electricity rather than charge you for it.
What is the current average Agile rate?
Octopus does not publish a current single average, and the only figure we found on a supplier or comparison page was from Winter 2022-23, which is too old to present as today's typical price. Agile's average moves with the wholesale market; check the live day-ahead rates directly before switching.
Does Agile Octopus suit a home without a battery or EV?
It can still work, but the saving depends on being able to shift some usage toward cheaper half-hours, manually or through smart appliances. A household that cannot shift usage at all captures little of Agile's upside while still being exposed to its more expensive windows, within the 100p/kWh ceiling.
Is Agile Octopus the same as Agile Outgoing?
No. Agile Octopus prices what you import. Agile Outgoing is a separate, export-side tariff that prices what you send back to the grid, also half-hourly against wholesale rates. A solar-and-battery household could in principle run both, one for import and one for export.
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