Intelligent Octopus Go: Customer questions answered

Save £100s with Intelligent Octopus Go

Answer a couple of questions about your EV and home and we'll give you an estimate of how much you could save with the Intelligent Octopus Go savings calculator.

With Intelligent Octopus Go you'll save when charging your EV and on the energy use of your whole home with

• all smart charging at off-peak rates - no matter when
• 6 hours of cheap, green energy for your whole home every night

How much you'll save depends on how often you smart charge your EV and how much of your home's electricity you use during off-peak hours.

For example, considering energy prices in January 2025, an EV owner driving 7,000 miles/year could save £415 by switching to Intelligent Octopus Go.

That's based on:

• 2700kWh/year of energy usage for a typical 2-3 bedroom home
• 0.304 kWh/mile (last checked 01.11.24) for a typical EV
• Flexible Octopus rates in October 2024 (priced below the Government price cap)
• The EV is always charged at home
• 13.98% of energy used during off-peak hours. Based on the consumption behaviour of the typical Octopus customer

Most EV drivers could save by switching to Intelligent Octopus

Between 10th - 14th October 2024, YouGov Plc surveyed a sample of 2009 EV owners online. 58% of EV owners not supplied by Octopus use a standard tariff to charge their EV and 33% have solar and/or battery storage.

Based on their charging behaviour between October 2023 and September 2024, the majority of Intelligent Octopus Go customers (55%) drove at least 6,475 miles. With a similar annual mileage and electricity prices in January 2025, they’d save £386 on their energy bills with Intelligent Octopus Go compared to a standard tariff like Flexible Octopus. The top 20% drove 12,236 miles or more and would save £699.

Intelligent Octopus Go can be combined with Outgoing Octopus to export energy back to the grid. Some homes with solar and battery storage and low annual mileage might save more with Intelligent Octopus Flux.

Savings based on:

• 2700kWh/year of energy usage for a typical 2-3 bedroom home
• 0.304 kWh/mile for a typical EV
• Flexible Octopus rates in October 2024 (priced below the Government price cap)
• The EV is always charged at home
• 13.98% of energy used during off-peak hours. Based on the consumption behaviour of the typical Octopus customer

Intelligent Octopus Go is the UK’s most popular EV tariff

Since we launched the UK’s first EV tariff Octopus Go in 2018, more and more EV drivers have switched to Octopus to charge their car for less.

Between 10th - 14th October 2024, YouGov Plc surveyed a sample of 2009 EV owners online. 39% of owners with an EV-specific tariff, charged with Intelligent Octopus Go. More than with any other supplier.

You’ll save 87% vs public charging

A slow or fast charge (<50 kWh) with one of the UK’s public charging points costs an EV driver 53p/kWh on average (last checked January 2025). With Intelligent Octopus Go, you smart charge for only 7p/kWh and save 87%.

1 - 7/53 = 0.867 or 87%

You’ll save 70% smart charging with Intelligent Octopus Go compared to a standard tariff

With Intelligent Octopus Go you can smart charge for only 7p/kWh. The average rate of a standard variable tariff, based on the January 2025 energy price cap, is 24.86p/kWh.

1- 7/24.86 = 0.718 or 72%

The UK's most awarded energy supplier

We've won more awards for customer service than anyone else.

Intelligent Octopus Go is compatible with over 280 cars from top EV brands and selected chargers. You can check on the IO landing page if your EV or charger is supported.

Don't have a home charger yet? Our Octopus engineers can install a charger for you.

Since the start of Intelligent Octopus Go in 2022, we've added more and more devices. Find out more about the journey here.

If you were not eligible for Intelligent Octopus Go, this may be because:

• You don’t have an iPhone (iOS v14.0 or later) or Android (v7 or later)
• You are using a car or charger that we’re not yet compatible with
• You don’t have a smart meter, or you do, but we're not able to connect to your smart meter
• Your smart meter is sending us daily or monthly readings, instead of half-hourly
• You are not on supply with Octopus yet

Octopus customers can download our mobile app without being eligible for Intelligent Octopus Go.

Any usage during a bump period will be charged at whatever rate is active during that time, i.e. off-peak between 11.30pm - 5.30am, and your peak rate for any charging outside those hours.

Don’t worry, you’ll always get the off-peak rate no matter when the smart charging happens.

Of course, Outgoing Octopus and Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) are both compatible with Intelligent Octopus Go.

You’ll receive a payment for your export (price is dependent on the tariff you choose) and will still be able to benefit from our smart charging schedules.

Your monthly statements are the best way to keep track of your charging costs.

We’re also working on adding your charging costs to the Octopus app. In the meantime, you can find this information in third party apps like Octo-Aid.

IHDs don’t always work with our smart tariffs like Intelligent Octopus Go - you can read more about why here.

One of the ways we’re able to offer you a really good rate to charge your EV is because we enrol you in a flexibility service when you join Intelligent Octopus Go. This means you won’t be able to join any other flexibility service whilst on the tariff.

We connect to your car or charging equipment through the Octopus app. You tell us what time you need your car by and how much charge you need. Then, across all the hours you’re plugged in we’ll charge your car when it’s cheapest for you, and greenest for the grid.

Use the “bump charge” button, which will start a charge immediately. If you bump charge, or charge your car without smart charging, during peak hours, then you will be charged the peak rate.

You can stop this charge from the app at any time.

Please check the following:

• Check the charge cable is properly connected to both car and charger - unplug at each end and try plugging in again.
• Check the car and charger used are the ones you’ve registered for Intelligent Octopus Go.
• Make sure any other charging services aren’t controlling your car.
• We might think your car isn’t at home. We currently identify ‘home’ as your car’s location when you signed up to Intelligent Octopus Go. If your car was not at home during your onboarding, then you will need to disconnect your car in the app and reconnect it while your car is at home.

The 11.30pm-5.30am window is the time that we can aim to smart charge your car within. Smart charging schedules can be made up of multiple shorter charges between 11:30p - 5:30am, with some charges happening outside this off-peak window (don’t worry, as long as you don’t bump charge you’ll always be on the off-peak rate).

When Intelligent Octopus Go smart charges your car you will always receive the off-peak rate. If you Bump charge, or charge your car without smart charging, during peak hours, then you will be charged the peak rate.

After plugging in your EV, it will charge for a short period before the Intelligent Octopus Go smart charging schedule takes over.

There are a few reasons why your car might continue to charge for longer after plugging it in:

1. The charging plan has started when you plug in, so all is according to plan! You can check the charging schedule in the app to check if this is supposed to happen.
2. Something else is causing the car to charge, such as a charging schedule in the car, or smart charging features on the charger. You should turn these off in order to guarantee smart charging.
3. Intelligent Octopus Go may not be stopping your charge because it believes your car isn’t at home. We currently identify ‘home’ as your car’s location when you signed up to Intelligent Octopus Go. If your car was not at home during your onboarding, then you will need to log out of your car in the Intelligent Octopus Go app and go through the process again while your car is at home.
4. Intelligent Octopus Go checks in on your car at regular intervals to monitor your charging status. If the car is plugged in just after one of these checks, it could mean up to 30-minute delay in us stopping the charge.

Intelligent Octopus Go only works for home charging. If you charge your car away from home, then you will pay for charging like you normally would. With Intelligent Octopus Go you get 8% off charging on the go when charging on the Electroverse network.

You can turn off smart charging from the app from the settings page. This means Intelligent Octopus Go won’t wake up your car, or create smart charging schedules. Remember to switch smart charging back on when you’re using your car again.

Our charging plan won’t impact your battery any more than regular charging. Car batteries are designed to handle this pattern of charging, and should also be covered by your car's battery/warranty.

To smart charge your car we’ll need to wake it up. We let your car go back to sleep (to avoid battery drain) as often as possible. We recommend keeping your car plugged in at home to help it go to sleep more often and for longer periods.