Tariffs and grants / Supplier-specific tariffs / Octopus Go and Intelligent Go

T-025·Tariffs and grants / Supplier-specific tariffs

Octopus Go and Intelligent Go

Go, Intelligent Go and managed EV charging tariff mechanics.

Tariff availability, rates and terms were checked on 22 July 2026. They are a dated snapshot, so confirm the address-specific quote before acting.

Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go are two EV tariffs from Octopus Energy. Both charge a low unit rate overnight and a higher rate during the day, so the saving comes from moving car charging and other flexible loads into the cheap hours. Octopus Go launched in 2018 as the UK’s first dedicated EV tariff and gives a fixed off-peak window every night that works with any car and any charger. Intelligent Octopus Go is the managed version: rather than a fixed window, it takes control of when the car charges and slots it into the cheapest half-hourly periods, which is why it needs a car or charger it can talk to.

Go gives you a set of cheap hours and leaves you to use them. Intelligent Go schedules the car for you and often finds a lower rate, in exchange for connecting a compatible device.

Octopus Go: the fixed overnight window

Go has one off-peak window, 00:30 to 05:30, five hours every night. The off-peak rate applies to the whole house during those hours, not only to the car, so a dishwasher, a hot-water immersion or a home battery charging in that window all get the cheap rate. The rest of the day is charged at a higher peak rate.

Because Go does nothing clever with the car, it works with every EV and every charger, including a three-pin “granny” lead. No smart charger, connected car or app control is required. Off-peak rates vary by DNO region, and as of mid-2026 a typical Go off-peak rate is around 8.5p per kWh against a peak rate near 30p. Go is offered as both a variable-rate and a fixed-rate tariff, though by mid-2026 only the fixed version was open to new customers. Go customers also get 5% off public charging through Octopus Electroverse.

Intelligent Octopus Go: managed charging and the whole-house rate

Intelligent Octopus Go has a guaranteed off-peak window of 23:30 to 05:30, six hours, which applies to the whole house in the same way Go’s does. The managed part sits on top of that window. You set a target charge and a ready-by time anywhere between 04:00 and 11:00, and Octopus schedules the charging into the cheapest half-hourly wholesale periods it can find, usually overnight but sometimes in the day when prices are low. Every unit of that scheduled charging is billed at the off-peak rate whatever time it actually runs, so a slot that lands at two in the afternoon still costs the off-peak rate. When a scheduled slot falls outside the core 23:30 to 05:30 window, the whole home gets the off-peak rate for as long as that slot lasts, not just the car.

A bump charge button forces an immediate top-up at the daytime rate, and it can be stopped again from the app. Typical off-peak rates for Intelligent Go sit around 7 to 8p per kWh in mid-2026, a little below Go, though the exact figure depends on region and on when it was quoted.

Octopus describes Intelligent Octopus Go as the UK’s most popular EV tariff. Ofgem, the energy regulator, reported 653,000 domestic customers on smart time-of-use EV tariffs in July 2025, more than half of them with Octopus and most of those on Intelligent Go. The scheduled cars form a virtual power plant of around 150,000 vehicles that Octopus shifts against wholesale and grid signals. Intelligent Go customers get 8% off public charging through Octopus Electroverse.

The six-hour smart charging cap

From March 2026, after an announcement in December 2025, Intelligent Go limits smart charging to a maximum of six hours a day at the off-peak rate. The six hours are counted from midday to midday rather than by calendar day. If a household’s scheduled charging runs past six hours, only the first six are billed at off-peak and the rest falls to the peak or boost rate. The core 23:30 to 05:30 whole-house window is not affected by the cap and continues as before.

The cap is applied per household, not per vehicle, so a home charging two cars shares the same six hours. A Charge Cap toggle in the app decides what happens at the limit: leave it on to stop at six hours and hold the cost down, or turn it off to keep charging to the target with the overrun at the higher rate. Octopus has said around 80% of Intelligent Go charging sessions were already under six hours before the cap came in, so for a single car on low to medium mileage it usually makes no difference.

Off-peak rates and the April 2026 cuts

Both tariffs price by DNO region, so the day rate and standing charge differ across Great Britain and move over time. At this review Octopus advertised Intelligent Go smart charging at 8p per kWh, with the guaranteed six-hour window from 23:30 to 05:30. Go retained its five-hour 00:30 to 05:30 window, but its live rate requires a postcode. Octopus was offering fixed versions only during the current period of volatile pricing. Earlier spring 2026 regional rates were lower after policy-cost reductions, but they should not be presented as the current offer after the July price change.

These are fixed-term or variable Octopus tariffs rather than default tariffs governed directly by the price cap. Their value depends on mileage, region, the standing charge and how much household electricity remains at the daytime rate. Compare the address-specific tariffs against the same half-hourly consumption profile rather than relying on a supplier model-household saving.

Compatible cars and chargers

Intelligent Go needs the Octopus app to set charge targets and control charging, which means an iPhone on iOS 14 or later or an Android phone on version 7 or later. Octopus does not publish a fixed list of compatible cars and chargers, so the reliable way to check is the compatibility tool on its website before joining. Intelligent Go connects in one of two ways: through the car’s own online connection or through the charger. Only one should be connected, because linking both the car and the charger produces two schedules that conflict.

Compatibility can change by model, model year, software and account region. A previously supported brand name is not enough evidence for a new application, so use Octopus’s live compatibility check for the exact vehicle or charger before switching.

When a car or charger first joins Intelligent Go, Octopus runs a short test charge to confirm the connection works. Because the scheduling depends on that connection staying up, a dropout on the car’s modem, the home network or the charger can mean a schedule is not created, in which case the car may not charge overnight unless it is started manually at the daytime rate.

Joining and leaving the tariff

You have to be an Octopus Energy customer already to move onto Go or Intelligent Go; neither can be joined as a direct switch from another supplier. Both need a smart meter sending half-hourly readings, which means a SMETS2 meter (the second-generation Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications) or a SMETS1 meter carrying the Secure logo. Up to four days a month of readings may be estimated rather than metered. Getting the meter set up and connected typically takes around 14 days. An EV is a condition of the tariff, either a fully electric car or a plug-in hybrid, and Octopus can move a household onto another tariff if it no longer has one.

Octopus classes its smart tariffs, Intelligent Go included, as still in testing and development, so the service can change and depends on the smart-meter data network working. On leaving, the fixed-rate version of Intelligent Go carries a £25 exit fee while the variable versions have none. After leaving any smart tariff, a household cannot rejoin a smart tariff for 30 days.

Pairing an export tariff

For homes with solar panels or a battery that export to the grid, Go and Intelligent Go only pair with three Octopus export tariffs: Outgoing Octopus, Outgoing SEG and Agile Outgoing. Outgoing Octopus pays a flat 12p per kWh. Agile Outgoing tracks half-hourly wholesale prices. Outgoing SEG pays a flat 4.1p per kWh. A solar-and-battery home may instead look at Octopus Flux, which bundles import and export in one tariff rather than pairing an EV import tariff with a separate export one.

Home battery and solar coordination

Go’s fixed 00:30 to 05:30 window is straightforward for a home battery: set it to charge in that window once and leave it, and the car charges in the same hours, so there is nothing to coordinate. Intelligent Go is harder to combine with a battery. Its scheduled slots can land in the daytime, and a battery that cannot see the schedule reads the car’s charging as ordinary household demand and discharges into it. That sends stored solar through the battery’s round-trip losses, roughly 10 to 15%, and can leave the battery flat for the evening peak, which then has to be covered by peak-rate grid import. The value lost that way can cancel out Intelligent Go’s lower rate over Go.

The fix is to make the battery aware of the schedule. Netzero does this for a Tesla Powerwall by setting the backup reserve to 100% during Intelligent Go slots so it cannot discharge; Predbat and EMHASS do similar work through Home Assistant, and 1app.energy sells a coordination service. The six-hour cap makes the daytime slots more predictable but does not remove them, so the coordination problem stays for any slot outside the core window.

Which tariff suits which driver

Intelligent Go tends to give the lower rate and adds the whole-house discount on daytime smart slots, which suits a driver with a compatible car or charger who charges regularly. Go suits a driver who wants a predictable fixed window, has a home battery they would rather not coordinate around dynamic slots or simply has a car or charger Intelligent Go cannot manage. For a low-mileage driver either tariff can work out worse than a standard tariff, because the higher daytime rate can outweigh a small amount of cheap overnight charging, so the break-even is worth checking against actual usage.

Applies to

EV charging

Last reviewed

22 Jul 2026