Price Cap History: Every Level Since 2019 and When the Next Is Announced

The energy price cap sets the maximum a supplier can charge for each unit of gas and electricity, and for the daily standing charge, on a household's default tariff¹. It has been in place since 1 January 2019, and since summer 2022 it has been reset every three months rather than every six². The next cap period will be announced in late November 2026 and take effect on 1 January 2027³, and the current forecast puts the average annual bill at around £1,872⁴.

The history matters because it shows how far the cap has moved. It began as a modest protection around the £1,277 mark, rose by 54% in April 2022, peaked at an equivalent of £4,059 for January to March 2023 before the government's Energy Price Guarantee intervened, and has since settled back to levels in the £1,700s⁵. This page sets out that record, the law behind it, how the quarterly resets work, and when each announcement is due.

What the price cap covers and what it does not

The price cap is a cap on rates, not on bills. It sets maximum prices for a unit of energy and for daily standing charges, with separate caps for gas and electricity, and it does not limit annual bills, which depend on how much energy a household uses. Ofgem's own guidance puts it plainly: "It does not limit the cost of your total bill. The more energy you use, the higher your bill will be."¹

That distinction was there from the start. When the cap was introduced, Ofgem described it in the same terms: "The price caps are a cap on a unit of gas and electricity, with standing charges taken into account. They are not a cap on customers' overall energy bills."⁶ A household that heats a large, poorly insulated home will pay more than the headline figure even on a capped tariff; a small, efficient flat will pay less.

The headline numbers are also built on an assumed "typical household". Current cap figures assume typical consumption of 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas a year⁵. Previous figures were based on higher benchmarks, which is one reason cap levels from different eras are not directly comparable. What the cap does for a household is put a ceiling on the rates a supplier can charge when the household has not agreed a fixed deal; what it does not do is protect the household from its own consumption, from a supplier's exit fees, or from the parts of a bill that sit outside the cap. More on what makes up an energy bill, and on what the typical household figure actually means.

The law behind the cap: the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018

The cap exists because Parliament made it exist. The Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018 is, in its own words, "An Act to make provision for the imposition of a cap on rates charged to domestic customers for the supply of gas and electricity; and for connected purposes."⁷ It came into force on 19 July 2018⁸, and the default tariff cap was introduced under its provisions.

The Act does not set the level. It requires Ofgem to put in place and maintain the licence conditions that give effect to the cap⁹, and it constrains how Ofgem does it: "We must have regard to five matters, set out in section 1(6) of the Act, when setting the cap."¹⁰ Those matters frame the balance Ofgem must strike between protecting consumers and allowing suppliers to cover their costs, including a fair return.

The Act also gives Ofgem the power to keep the cap's methodology current. Changes to the benchmark consumption figures used in cap calculations were implemented through a modification under section 1(2) of the Act¹¹. In other words, the level you see each quarter is the product of a statutory duty, a licence condition, and a methodology Ofgem revises over time, not a number ministers choose.

The record: every cap level since the cap began

The price cap was introduced across all payment types in January 2019⁵, and its early years were relatively stable. The level that most people remember as the pre-crisis benchmark was an equivalent annual level of £1,277, which was the figure the cap was set at before the 2022 increases¹².

From mid-2021, wholesale energy prices rose rapidly, and the cap followed. The April 2022 cap rose by 54%⁵, taking the equivalent annual level from £1,277 to £1,971¹². The January to March 2023 cap increased to £4,059⁵, though households did not pay that level because the Energy Price Guarantee replaced it from 1 October 2022¹³.

After the guarantee ended, the cap resumed its role and the levels tell the story of the retreat from the crisis:

By February 2025 Ofgem described the level as £531, or 22%, lower than at the height of the energy crisis at the start of 2023, when the Energy Price Guarantee was in place¹⁴. That comparison is the clearest measure of how far bills fell from the peak, and of how much higher they remained than before the crisis.

The record high of £4,059, up 54%

The defining episode in the cap's history began in mid-2021. Rapid increases in wholesale energy prices from mid-2021 onwards led to a 54% increase in the price cap in April 2022⁵. The Welsh Government's cost of living statement at the time described it simply as "the 54% increase in the energy price cap rise"¹⁸, and the House of Commons Library records the same figure: "the price cap increased by 54% in April 2022."¹³

The pressure had been building earlier. In April 2021 Ofgem had already announced an increase that took the pre-payment cap up by £87 to £1,156 for 4 million pre-payment meter customers¹⁹, and it was announced in the summer of 2021 that from 1 October the cap would rise due to higher wholesale gas prices²⁰. The April 2022 rise then took the equivalent annual level from £1,277 to £1,971¹².

What came next outstripped the cap's ability to protect. The January to March 2023 cap increased to £4,059⁵. Cornwall Insight's forecast at the time was around £3,580, or 80% above the then current cap¹³. Faced with those numbers, the government stepped in with the Energy Price Guarantee, a cap on domestic electricity and gas prices over the period 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2024¹³, laid under the Energy Prices Act²¹. The guarantee meant the £4,059 level was calculated but not charged; households were held at the guarantee's lower level instead²². More on the Energy Price Guarantee and how it worked.

Quarterly resets: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October

For its first three and a half years the cap was set every six months. That changed with the crisis: "In summer 2022, we moved from setting the cap every six months to every quarter in response to the high and volatile wholesale energy prices."² Since then, Ofgem reviews and sets a level every 3 months, covering how much an energy supplier can charge for each unit of energy and the daily standing charge²³.

The quarterly cycle means the cap now takes effect on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October each year. The wholesale element is calculated on a 12 month forward view of gas and electricity prices², so each level reflects the market's expected costs over the coming year rather than a single spot price. This is why the cap moves in steps rather than continuously, and why a sharp market move in one quarter shows up in the cap a period later.

The move to quarterly resets cuts both ways for households. It means falls in wholesale prices reach bills faster than under the six-monthly system, but it also means rises do. It was not the first time the mechanism had been tuned to the market: in April 2021 Ofgem noted that a temporary wholesale adjustment would be removed for the next price cap period starting on 1 April¹⁹. The announcement dates that go with the quarterly cycle are covered below.

Why there is no single UK wide cap figure

The single number quoted in the news is an average. In reality the capped rates differ across the country: some regions, such as Merseyside and North Wales, pay substantially more than others, such as London¹. There is no breakdown below regional level, so two households in the same region on the same tariff and payment method face the same capped rates, but a household in Devon and one in North Wales do not.

The regional differences are not trivial. For the period 1 October to 31 December 2025, the gas cap for a standard credit customer using 12,000 kWh a year was £893.82 in the Eastern region, with a nil-consumption level of £145.17, while in the Northern region the equivalent figures for a customer paying by another payment method were £837.33 and £118.70²⁴.

Within a region, the cap also varies by payment method, whether a household pays by direct debit, standard credit or prepayment meter, by fuel type, and by meter type¹. Standing charges follow the same pattern: for 1 January to 31 March 2026 the gas standing charge was 35.09p per day, alongside a unit rate of 5.93p per kWh²⁵. More on regional unit rates and on standing charges and what they pay for.

Which households fall under the cap

The cap protects households on default tariffs, the standard variable tariffs a supplier moves a customer onto when a fixed deal ends or when the customer has never agreed one¹. It does not matter how the customer pays, whether by direct debit or prepayment²⁵.

Coverage extends into some situations households may not expect. If a supplier goes out of business and the household is moved to a new supplier, the household is put on a deemed contract, and "You are still covered by the energy price cap even if you are put on a deemed contract."²⁶

The exclusions are just as important:

• Business energy customers are not protected by the price cap²⁷.
• Heat networks are outside it: the existing energy price cap is not applicable to heat networks²⁸.
• Heating oil is not regulated by Ofgem and is not covered by the energy price cap²⁹.
• Northern Ireland sits outside the cap entirely: energy prices were not capped there, and suppliers have the flexibility to set their tariffs independently to reflect their costs of operating²².

For households heating with oil, or on a shared heat network, the quarterly Ofgem announcement changes nothing, and support has to come through other routes. More on energy bills in Northern Ireland's separate market.

How fixed deals relate to the price cap

The cap's protection and its limits both flow from the same rule: the cap applies to households on variable tariffs, while a household on a fixed tariff has agreed rates for a set period. The quarterly cap changes do not touch those fixed rates, whether the cap rises or falls.

The cap protects standard variable tariffs¹, which is why it is sometimes called the default tariff cap. Fixed tariffs, green tariffs and time-of-use tariffs are not covered by it²⁵. This means a household on a fixed deal that beats the cap is benefiting from the market rather than from the cap's ceiling, and a household on a fixed deal that is worse than the cap is not rescued by it.

The practical consequence is that the cap is best understood as a backstop, not a guarantee of the lowest price. When a fixed deal ends, the household is normally moved onto a standard variable tariff, and from that moment the cap sets the maximum rates. More on fixed and standard variable tariffs and on how a fixed deal compares with staying on the cap.

Future cap predicted at about £1,872

The next price cap period will be announced in late November 2026 and take effect on 1 January 2027³. The forecast is for a rise: Cornwall Insight predicts a further cap rise in January 2027, putting the average annual bill at £1,872, a rise of £149¹⁰, and the same forecast is reported as an 8.6% rise in January, or a 12.6% rise over six months⁴.

Initial predictions are that gas prices will rise a further 12%, though the price monitoring period has only just opened³⁰, so these figures are forecasts rather than set levels. Forecasts have been wrong before: in 2022 Cornwall Insight's estimate was around £3,580¹³, and the level actually charged was held down by the Energy Price Guarantee instead.

For a household planning a winter budget, the honest position is that the direction of travel points up, the size of the rise is not yet fixed, and the confirmed number arrives in late November 2026. Until then, any figure quoted is a forecast, and forecasts move with the wholesale market between now and the monitoring period closing.

Timing of the next announcement

The announcement dates follow a fixed pattern, roughly five weeks before each cap takes effect. The levels for the period 1 January 2026 to 31 March 2026 were published by 25 November 2025¹⁶. The levels for the period 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026 were published by 25 February 2026²³.

Looking forward, the next price cap period will be announced in late November 2026 and take effect on 1 January 2027³. Beyond that, Ofgem's review for the April to June 2027 cap is due on 23 February 2027, and the review for the July to September 2027 cap is due on 26 May 2027³¹.

So the calendar a household needs is simple: late February for the April cap, late May for the July cap, late August for the October cap, and late November for the January cap. Each announcement covers the maximum unit rates and standing charges for the following three months, set separately for each region and payment method.

Other charges on your bill, including VAT

The cap levels themselves are set before tax: "All values are exclusive of VAT which is applied by suppliers to consumers bills."²⁴ VAT then lands on top. On gas, a 5% VAT rate applies for 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027¹. On electricity, a temporary zero rate of VAT for qualifying domestic electricity in Great Britain ends on 31 March 2027³², and the VAT rate on domestic electricity is due to return to 5% from 1 April 2027 unless the government extends the zero rate or makes it permanent³³.

Levies and policy costs also move around the cap rather than through it. The Carbon Price Support mechanism, held at £18 per tonne since 2018, is due to be abolished in April 2028³⁴. The 75% domestic Renewables Obligation cost reduction runs until scheme close on 31 March 2029³⁵. Ofgem is also reviewing how historical debt-related costs are recovered, with a consultation published on 25 March 2026 and a response deadline of 16 June 2026, and one proposal on the table is to include costs and revenues across all tariff types, not just customers on variable tariffs³⁶. Energy pricing rules more broadly sit in Ofgem's programme of work for 2026 and 2027³⁷.

The practical point for a household is that the cap figure in the headlines is not the whole bill. VAT, levies and network costs all form part of what is actually charged, and changes to any of them can move a bill even in a quarter when the cap itself is unchanged. More on policy costs and levies and on VAT on energy bills.

Does the cap deliver energy independence?

The price cap is a shield against being overcharged on a default tariff, and nothing more. It does not limit the total bill¹, it does not apply in Northern Ireland²², and it leaves fixed tariffs, heat networks, heating oil and business customers outside its protection²⁵. It is a regulator's ceiling on rates in a market the household cannot see or influence, and its level is driven by wholesale gas and electricity prices² that the UK increasingly cannot meet from domestic supply: official data shows the UK will no longer be able to meet national heating demand using domestically extracted gas from 2027³⁸.

The cap's history makes the dependence plain. Every major move in the record, the 54% jump, the £4,059 peak⁵, the retreat since, was driven by wholesale prices, not by anything a household did or could have done. Meanwhile the debt built up during those years has not gone away: Ofgem figures show combined domestic energy debt and arrears rose 5%³⁹ from £4.55bn to £4.79bn between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026¹⁰, up 15% on Q1 2025².

The cap also concentrates households' reliance on a small number of suppliers. Data collected for Ofgem's wholesale costs review came from 11 suppliers representing 96% of the retail market⁴⁰. For a household serious about energy independence, the lesson of the cap's history is that a regulated rate is not the same as a controlled cost: the only levers that reduce exposure to the quarterly announcements are using less energy, generating more of it yourself, or storing it. More on energy bills and energy independence, and the full guide to energy bills and the price cap.