Octopus Agile and Tracker

Agile Octopus and Octopus Tracker are dynamic import tariffs from Octopus Energy. Their unit rates respond to wholesale energy prices, but on different timescales.

Agile has a different electricity price for every half-hour. Tracker has one electricity or gas price for each day. That makes Agile a load-shifting tariff and Tracker a simpler way to accept day-to-day wholesale-price exposure.

Neither tariff has one permanent national price. The rate depends on the tariff version, region and relevant wholesale market data. A price seen in an article, app or neighbour’s account may not be the price that applies to a new customer.

Agile in practice

Agile is an electricity-only tariff. Octopus normally publishes the following day’s 48 half-hourly unit rates between 4pm and 10pm, usually nearer 4pm. The smart meter records how much electricity the home imports in each half-hour, and those readings are matched to the relevant rates.

Prices can be low or even negative when electricity is abundant. They can also rise sharply when the system is under pressure. The early evening is often expensive, so the tariff works best where substantial demand can be moved rather than merely where the household checks the prices.

Useful flexible loads include:

a home battery that can charge in cheaper periods and support the home in dearer ones
an EV that can charge when the rates justify it
an immersion heater, storage heater or heat pump with suitable controls and enough thermal flexibility
appliances that can be scheduled safely

Solar panels alone do not guarantee that Agile will be a good fit. Import may still be concentrated in expensive evening periods after solar generation has fallen. A battery can change that pattern, but its capacity, power limit, efficiency and warranty costs still matter.

Agile’s formula and standing charge are attached to a particular tariff version. For customers who joined or renewed after 11 December 2023, Octopus’s terms describe Agile as a variable-rate tariff with a fixed term: the half-hourly rates continue to change, while the standing charge and pricing formula are fixed for that tariff term. Older customers can be on different terms.

Tracker in practice

Tracker is available for electricity, gas or both. It uses independently published wholesale-market data and a published formula to set one unit rate for each day. For electricity, Octopus’s current terms identify N2EX as the pricing-data source; for gas, they identify Marex.

There is no cheaper half-hour to target within a Tracker day. Moving a washing machine from 6pm to midnight therefore does not change the unit rate paid for that day’s electricity. The exposure is between days rather than within them.

Tracker can suit someone who wants wholesale-linked pricing without scheduling the home around 48 rates. It still requires comfort with prices rising as well as falling. A spell of high wholesale prices can make it more expensive than an available fixed or standard variable tariff.

For current customers, Tracker is a 12-month tariff. Its daily rates change, but the formula and standing charge are fixed for the term. The contract can be left without an exit fee. A working compatible smart meter is required to join.

The important differences

	Agile	Tracker
Energy covered	Electricity	Electricity, gas or both
Unit-rate changes	Every half-hour	Every day
Main opportunity	Shift demand into cheaper half-hours	Take day-to-day wholesale prices without half-hour scheduling
Main risk	Expensive half-hours, especially if demand cannot move	Expensive days during wholesale-price rises
Meter data used	Half-hourly electricity consumption	Actual daily consumption where available, with stated estimation rules if data is missing
Best comparison method	Cost the home’s half-hourly usage against the tariff	Cost daily usage against the tariff

The right answer is not determined by an average unit rate. A household can have the same annual consumption as its neighbour and get a different result because its timing is different.

For Agile, use at least several months of half-hourly import data, including winter if the home uses electric heating. Multiply each half-hour’s consumption by the rate for that period, then add the applicable standing charge. Compare that total with realistic alternatives for the same dates. Any battery simulation should include conversion losses and should not assume perfect foresight.

For Tracker, compare actual daily consumption with the historic daily rates for the same dates. A flat annual-average calculation can hide the fact that a gas-heated home normally uses most gas in winter, when wholesale prices may be different from the annual average.

Historical modelling explains what would have happened. It does not predict what the tariff will cost next year. Octopus’s terms explicitly warn that forecasts are unreliable and that past prices do not predict future performance.

Current contractual snapshot

The following points are current as at 22 July 2026 and should be checked against the quote and terms before switching:

Agile and Tracker are part of Octopus’s smart-tariff beta programme.
Both require a compatible smart meter to join. Octopus says it can connect to SMETS2 meters and some SMETS1 meters.
Octopus advertises a maximum electricity unit rate of 100p/kWh for both tariffs. Tracker’s advertised maximum gas rate is 30p/kWh.
Those product limits are not the Ofgem price cap. They are much higher than a typical price-capped unit rate.
Tracker has no exit fee, but leaving it during the fixed term triggers a nine-month wait before rejoining Tracker.
Octopus’s general smart-import terms impose a 30-day wait before returning to a smart import tariff after leaving one.

The tariff information supplied during sign-up is part of the contract. That is the place to confirm the applicable cap, formula version, standing charge, term and any switching restriction.

Smart-meter data and billing

These tariffs depend on meter data, not only on the meter being physically installed. Confirm that Octopus can communicate with it before assuming a switch will complete.

For Agile, missing half-hourly readings can materially affect the bill. Octopus’s smart-tariff terms permit limited estimation using midnight readings; where it cannot estimate, it can apply Flexible Octopus rates and a standard consumption profile to the affected usage.

Tracker’s terms allow usage to be allocated between days using industry coefficients where the required readings are missing. Its FAQ also says a customer is not automatically removed from Tracker if the meter later stops communicating, because monthly readings can be used in its billing process. These fallbacks do not reproduce the result that complete actual data would necessarily have produced.

Keep copies of bills and meter data, particularly after a meter exchange, communications problem or tariff change. Third-party apps are useful for analysis, but Octopus’s terms say their data cannot be substituted for supplier meter data when calculating a bill.

Automation without handing over judgement

Octopus publishes pricing data through an application programming interface (API), which allows home-energy software to retrieve Agile rates. Automation can then schedule a battery, EV or flexible appliance against those prices.

The control rules still need sensible limits. A battery should retain any required backup reserve, an EV should meet its departure target and a heat pump should maintain safe indoor and hot-water temperatures. The controller should also have a fallback for missing prices, lost internet access or failed device communication.

Do not assume an optimiser’s headline saving includes standing charges, battery losses, battery wear, export income displaced by charging, or the cost of the alternative tariff. Those boundaries should be clear before relying on the number.

Before switching

Check five things against the current quote:

Which tariff version, standing charge and product cap will apply at the property’s postcode.
Whether the smart meter is communicating and supplying the data the tariff needs.
How the home’s actual consumption aligns with Agile half-hours or Tracker days.
Which import and export tariffs can be held together, including any requirements attached to an existing export rate.
Whether the household can tolerate a sustained expensive period without needing an immediate move back.

The core distinction is simple. Agile creates an opportunity by varying prices within the day; Tracker removes that half-hourly task but keeps exposure to daily wholesale movements. The better tariff is the one that fits the home’s measured demand and the household’s appetite for volatility, not the one with the best recent average.