Agile Octopus: today's and tomorrow's half-hourly prices
A new price every 30 minutes · Electricity
Agile Octopus sets a different unit rate for every half-hour settlement period, tracking day-ahead wholesale power. Tomorrow's 46, 48 or 50 prices are published each afternoon, usually just after 16:00.
Agile Octopus in London right now
- Unit rate now
- 20.02p/kWh
- Standing charge
- 37.65p/day
- Cheapest today
- 16.45p/kWh
- Dearest today
- 48.22p/kWh
- Tariff code
- E-1R-AGILE-24-10-01-C
Prices include VAT and are for London (region C). Change region · Full half-hourly view
How Agile pricing works
Every day at around 16:00 UK time, Octopus publishes a price for each half-hour of the following day. The prices follow the day-ahead wholesale market, so they are low when wind output is high and demand is low, and high in the 16:00-19:00 evening peak when the whole country switches its ovens on at once.
The rate you pay is the rate for the settlement period in which you use the electricity. Run a 2 kW heater from 03:00 to 04:00 and you pay two half-hourly rates, not a daily average. That is the whole point of the tariff, and it is why a timer or a smart plug is worth more on Agile than on any flat tariff.
Agile also has a cap, currently 100p/kWh including VAT, which limits how bad a genuinely awful evening can get. There is no floor: when wholesale prices go negative, so does Agile.
Plunge pricing: when electricity pays you
On windy nights the day-ahead market can clear below zero, because it is cheaper for a generator to pay someone to take the power than to shut down and restart. Agile passes that through: the unit rate goes negative and your meter earns you money for the half hours you use it.
Negative periods are not rare, but they are not predictable more than a day ahead either. They cluster in the small hours, in autumn and winter, and around storms. You can see them the moment they are published on the live Agile rates page, or have them pushed to you with a plunge alert.
Is Agile cheaper than a fixed tariff?
Only if you can move load. Agile's average unit rate over a year has often beaten the price cap, but the average is not what you pay — you pay your own consumption shape, weighted by price. A household that uses most of its power between 16:00 and 19:00 pays the peak rate for exactly the periods when Agile is at its worst, and can end up worse off than on Flexible Octopus.
The honest answer needs your own half-hourly readings, not a national average. If you connect your Octopus account, the compare page prices your last 28 days of actual readings against every tariff's actual rates, standing charge included, and ranks them by what you would really have paid.
Agile and regions
Agile prices differ by Grid Supply Point group — the same wholesale price, plus a different set of network charges depending on where you live. The spread between the cheapest and dearest regions is usually a few pence per kWh but widens in peak periods.
If you do not know your region, it is the first two digits of your MPAN, the long number on your electricity bill. Every region has its own page: see them all.
Common questions
What time are Agile prices released?
Tomorrow's Agile rates are published each afternoon, usually shortly after 16:00 UK time, and occasionally as late as 18:00. All 46, 48 or 50 half-hourly prices for the next day arrive at once.
Is there a cap on Agile prices?
Yes. Agile Octopus has a cap of 100p per kWh including VAT. There is no lower limit, so prices can and do go negative when wholesale power is oversupplied.
Do I need a smart meter for Agile?
Yes. Agile bills each half hour separately, which needs a smart meter sending half-hourly readings. A traditional meter cannot report the data the tariff is billed on.
Does Agile have a standing charge?
Yes. Agile has a daily standing charge like almost every domestic tariff, charged whether or not you use any electricity. It varies by region and is shown alongside the unit rates on every price page here.
Which tariff is cheapest for you? Headline rates cannot answer that. Connect your Octopus account and halfhourly.uk prices your last 28 days of real half-hourly readings against every tariff's real rates, standing charge included.