Tariffs

UK Energy Tariffs: The Full Guide to Fixed, Tracker, Time-of-Use and Export Rates

An energy tariff is the contract that decides what you pay for every unit of gas and electricity you use, plus a daily standing charge for delivering it. Ofgem recognises three main types of tariff: fixed rate, standard variable and multi-rate¹. Around those sit the tracker, dynamic, time-of-use, EV, heat pump and export deals that a home with solar panels, a battery or an electric car will meet, and each of those is a variation on the same three structures.

The numbers that matter are set by the price cap, which Ofgem reviews every three months². From 1 January to 31 March 2026, a household on a standard variable tariff paying by Direct Debit paid on average 27.69p per kWh for electricity and 5.93p per kWh for gas, both including VAT at 5%³. From 1 October 2026 the cap for a typical dual-fuel Direct Debit home is £1,723 a year, up roughly £60 on the previous quarter⁴. Following a UK Government decision, VAT on domestic electricity in Great Britain falls from 5% to 0% on the same date².

What a tariff is, and the main types you will meet

A tariff is not the energy itself: it is the pricing structure your supplier applies to the energy that reaches your meter. Every bill is built from the same parts, a charge for each unit of energy measured in kilowatt hours, a daily standing charge, and VAT, with the rate depending on the type of energy you use, the type of meter installed and how you pay your bill⁸. What separates one tariff from another is how those unit rates are set and whether they can move.

Ofgem identifies three main types¹:

• Fixed rate: the unit rate and standing charge are locked for a set term, usually 12 months, protecting you from changes in energy prices during that period⁹.
• Standard variable (SVT): the supplier's default tariff, where your rate fluctuates depending on the price of energy⁵.
• Multi-rate: more than one unit rate applies across the day, as with Economy 7, so the price depends on when you use energy¹⁰.

On top of these sit the specialist structures covered elsewhere in this section: tracker tariffs that follow wholesale prices, agile and dynamic half-hourly tariffs that change every 30 minutes, EV tariffs and heat pump tariffs built around a single big load, and export tariffs that pay rather than charge. Time-of-use tariffs alter the price of your gas and electricity depending on the time you use them¹⁰, and they are the structure underneath almost all of the specialist deals.

Most households know roughly where they stand: 88% of gas and electricity customers told Ofgem's consumer survey they know what tariff type they are on¹¹. Knowing the type is only the start, though. The same survey work found considerably more people claiming to be on fixed tariffs, 38%, than the official data suggests, 11%¹², so a fair number of households believe they have price protection they do not have.

The cap sets maximum charges, not what you pay

The price cap sets the maximum amount suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity, and a maximum daily standing charge⁹. It came into force at the beginning of 2019 and applies where a customer has not signed up for a fixed-term contract with their supplier¹³. Its purpose is to protect people on standard variable tariffs, where the unit rate can go up or down depending on the energy market².

What the cap does not do is limit your total bill. It does not matter how much energy you use: the more energy you use, the higher your bill will be². A household that heats a large, poorly insulated home will pay far more than the cap's "typical" figure, and a frugal household will pay less. The cap is a ceiling on prices, not a ceiling on costs.

Nor does the cap cover everything. It does not apply if you have agreed a fixed tariff with your supplier, and it does not cover business energy contracts, heat networks or heating oil². It applies to default tariffs regardless of how you pay, whether by Direct Debit or prepayment¹⁴, but it leaves fixed, green and time-of-use tariffs to the open market¹⁴.

The cap's history explains why it dominates household thinking about energy. Rapid increases in wholesale energy prices from mid-2021 onwards led to a 54% increase in the cap in April 2022⁴, and it was forecast at the time to rise by a further 30 to 50% in October 2022¹⁵. The Q4 (October to December) 2022 price cap was £3,371⁴. Those figures are the backdrop to every fixed-deal decision a household makes today.

The numbers behind the cap: unit rates, standing charges and typical bills

The cap is expressed as maximum unit rates and standing charges, and then translated into a typical annual bill for a household using assumed typical consumption of 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas⁴. For 1 January to 31 March 2026, the typical dual-fuel Direct Debit bill in Great Britain was around £1,758¹⁴, with electricity at 27.69p per kWh and a 54.75p daily standing charge¹⁴. Ofgem confirmed that the cap for 1 April to June 2026 would fall by 7%¹⁴, and estimates suggested it would then stay roughly the same until the end of the year¹⁴. In the event, the cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 is £1,723 for a typical dual-fuel Direct Debit home, up approximately £60 on the July to September period⁴.

The October 2025 quarter shows how the pieces move together. Ofgem announced a 2% rise from October 2025¹⁶, taking the typical Direct Debit total to £1,755, up from £1,720, standard credit to £1,890, up from £1,855, and prepayment to £1,707, up from £1,672¹⁷. The rise was driven by increases to the costs of transporting energy in Great Britain and costs towards government schemes and essential support⁶. The electricity standing charge for a Direct Debit customer on the default tariff was 53.68p per day for that quarter⁶.

Ofgem sets the cap level every 3 months², and it will be closely monitoring supplier compliance and will continue to take firm action against suppliers who fall short of their requirements¹⁷. For a household, the practical reading is that the default rate moves four times a year, and the only way to stop it moving is to fix.

Fixed deals: price certainty for twelve months or longer

A fixed tariff locks the unit rate and standing charge for a set term. Fixed tariffs usually last for a year¹⁸, though the fixed period is usually somewhere between 12 and 24 months¹⁰, and some suppliers offer two or three-year fixed rate tariffs⁷. The protection is real: your supplier cannot increase the price you pay, unless the government has raised VAT¹⁸.

That single sentence is the whole case for fixing. Whatever the wholesale market does, and whatever the cap does in its quarterly reviews, the fixed rate holds to the end of the term. The trade-offs are set out on our fixed-rate energy tariffs page: the rate may sit above or below the cap at the moment you sign, and you may have to pay your previous supplier an exit fee if you were on a fixed rate tariff and chose to leave before it ended¹⁹.

Two rules govern the end of the term. Your supplier will automatically move you onto the standard variable tariff when the fixed deal has ended, and should remind you when the contract is about to end¹⁸. And if your fixed tariff has already ended, you can still switch supplier or tariff¹⁸, with no exit fee. Our pages on what happens when a fixed deal ends and exit fees and contract terms cover the mechanics.

Confidence in what you are on is its own problem. Among consumers who say they are on a fixed tariff for electricity, 55% report being "very confident" this is the case, while 38% say they are "somewhat" confident¹². Given that far more people believe they are fixed than actually are¹², checking the tariff name on your bill before assuming protection is worthwhile.

Standard variable tariffs: the fallback you're moved to

The standard variable rate tariff is usually the energy supplier's default tariff, and it is likely to be what you are moved onto at the end of any fixed rate tariff⁷. Its defining feature is exposure: your rate fluctuates depending on the price of energy⁵. When wholesale costs fall, the rate falls; when they rise, it rises, within the ceiling the cap provides.

Because the cap protects standard variable tariffs specifically², the SVT is not the expensive trap it once was. It is, however, the rate the cap's typical bill figures describe, and it moves every quarter. A household that does nothing after a fixed deal ends, or that has never switched, sits on the SVT indefinitely.

The SVT is also the tariff most households actually hold, whatever they believe. Official data puts fixed tariff customers at 11%, against 38% who claim to be fixed¹². The gap is worth pausing on: several million households think they have price protection they do not have, and are exposed to every quarterly cap movement as a result.

If your gas or electricity supplier increases its prices, they should tell you in a reasonable amount of time before the increase takes place¹⁸. Beyond that notice, the SVT offers no certainty, only the cap's ceiling. Our fixed vs variable tariff comparison sets out when that uncertainty is worth accepting and when it is not.

Time-of-use and Economy 7: off-peak savings with a catch

Economy 7 is the oldest multi-rate structure still in wide use. It gives seven hours of cheaper electricity overnight²⁰, offering a low-cost rate for electricity for 7 hours each night¹⁰. In exchange, the daytime rate is higher than a single-rate tariff, so the deal only pays if a large share of your use lands in the night hours. As a working rule, you need to use at least 30% of your electricity during the cheaper night-time hours for Economy 7 to be worth it²⁰.

The same logic scales up to the modern time-of-use structures. Time-of-use tariffs alter the price of your gas and electricity depending on the time you use them¹⁰, and they now come in several grades: static night windows like Economy 7, EV tariffs with a cheap charging window, heat pump tariffs with a cheap heat window, and dynamic half-hourly tariffs where the price changes every 30 minutes. You won't typically find them on price comparison websites, so you'll need to check energy providers' websites²⁰.

For a household with storage heaters or a hot water tank, Economy 7 is a natural fit, and our Economy 7 tariffs and Economy 10 pages cover the detail. For a household with a home battery, the same night window becomes a charging opportunity, which is the subject of our page on home batteries with time-of-use tariffs. The energy-efficient house of the future is expected to combine a smart time-of-use tariff with an export tariff²¹, which tells you where the market is heading.

Dual fuel: one provider, one payment, occasionally cheaper

A dual fuel tariff means you get your gas and electricity from the same supplier⁹. Dual fuel tariffs provide both gas and electricity from the same supplier¹⁰, and the practical benefit is administrative: it's less admin as you only deal with one energy company⁷.

The financial case is thinner but real. Some suppliers offer a reduced rate for dual fuel customers⁹, and energy providers might offer a discount if you get both gas and electricity from them, which could result in some savings¹⁰. The discount is a commercial choice, not a rule, so it appears on some deals and not others, and it should be weighed against the possibility that the cheapest gas deal and the cheapest electricity deal come from different suppliers. Our dual fuel vs separate tariffs comparison works through that trade-off, and the dual fuel tariffs page covers the market in detail.

For a household thinking about energy independence, dual fuel is a mixed proposition. One supplier means one relationship to manage and one bill to check, but it also means one point of failure: if that supplier struggles, both fuels are affected at once. Gas itself is the deeper dependence, and a home moving towards electrification, with a heat pump, solar and a battery, will find the gas side of a dual fuel deal shrinking until it can be dropped altogether.

The Smart Export Guarantee and how batteries affect export payments

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) enables small-scale generators to receive payments from electricity suppliers for electricity which they export back to the National Grid, providing certain criteria are met²². Households with solar panels receive a payment known as the Smart Export Guarantee in return for their exported power²³. Suppliers can set their own SEG tariff rates, provided they offer more than £0 per unit of metered exported power²⁴: there is no floor beyond zero, so rates vary widely between suppliers, and our SEG rates page tracks them.

The entry requirement is metering. In order to qualify for the Smart Export Guarantee, generators must have a smart meter to monitor exports²⁵. Payments are made on metered exported power²⁴, not on estimates, so the export meter is not optional. Our pages on SEG eligibility and applying for an export tariff cover what is involved.

A battery changes the economics in one decisive way: every kWh stored and used later is a kWh you do not have to buy at the daytime rate, and stored power is almost always worth more at home than the export rate pays. The choice between exporting and self-consuming is set out in our page on exporting from a home battery, and the interaction with import tariffs on our solar and battery import tariffs page. Households on the older Feed-in Tariff scheme have a different set of export payments, covered in our Feed-in Tariff guide.

Supplier product lines and tariffs no longer available

The tariff market is not static, and ranges open and close around the household. Octopus Flux, one of the best-known tariffs designed for solar and battery homes, closed to new customers in March 2026²⁶. Intelligent Octopus Flux was also paused for new signups in March 2026, though existing customers keep their tariff²⁶. A household that read about those deals a year ago and acts today will find them shut, which is why our closed and withdrawn tariffs page exists.

The wider lesson is that tariff availability is time-limited and household-specific. What is open depends on your meter, your region and sometimes on the equipment you own. Our supplier pages track the current ranges: Octopus Energy tariffs, British Gas tariffs, EDF tariffs, E.ON Next tariffs, OVO Energy tariffs, ScottishPower tariffs, So Energy tariffs, Good Energy tariffs, Ecotricity tariffs, SSE tariffs and Utility Warehouse tariffs.

When a tariff closes to new customers, existing customers keep their terms²⁶, so being on a withdrawn deal is not itself a problem. The problem is assuming a deal you have read about is still available, or assuming the deal you are on is still the best fit after your circumstances change. Checking the supplier's current range, rather than its archive of press coverage, is the only reliable method.

Breaking down the unit rate: wholesale, network and policy costs

Every unit rate, fixed or variable, is built from the same components. Ofgem's breakdown of what goes into a bill lists wholesale costs, the cost a supplier pays to buy energy; network costs; operating, debt and industry costs; EBIT, the supplier's earnings; policy costs; and VAT at 5%⁸. The same components feed the price cap's calculation, which is built from wholesale costs, network costs, policy costs, operating costs, EBIT, headroom, a levelisation allowance making sure prepayment and Direct Debit customers pay the same standing charge, and VAT².

The shares matter for understanding why bills move. Network costs are the next most important component of the price cap after wholesale energy, making up around one quarter of the total¹³. Policy costs, the levies that fund renewable support and efficiency schemes, are the component governments can most directly change: the government cut these costs in April 2026 by ending a levy-funded scheme for energy efficiency and shifting funding for the largest renewable generation support scheme to general taxation¹³.

For a household, the breakdown explains two things. First, only part of your bill is exposed to the wholesale market, so wholesale price swings move your bill less than the headlines suggest. Second, a large share of your bill, network costs and much of the policy costs, is charged regardless of how much energy you use, which is why the standing charge has become such a contested item. Reducing consumption cuts the wholesale-driven share but leaves the per-day charges largely intact.

Why your cap may differ by region and payment method

The cap is not one number. A separate price cap is set for each of the 14 regions and applies throughout the region, with no breakdown below regional level¹³. The cap also varies by payment method, Direct Debit, standard credit or prepayment meter, by fuel type and by meter type². So two households with identical usage can face different maximum rates because one lives in Merseyside and one in Cornwall, or because one pays on receipt of a bill and the other by Direct Debit.

The regional spread is visible in Ofgem's own tables. For 1 July to 30 September 2026, the maximum annual electricity charge at 2,500 kWh on a single-rate meter ranged from £801.74 in the Southern region, with a £172.77 standing charge, to £843.39 in London, with a £181.21 standing charge²⁷. The Southern Western region sat between them at £829.48, with a £201.24 standing charge²⁷. A quarter earlier, for 1 October to 31 December 2025, the same measure ranged from £936.78 in the Southern region to £978.21 in the North West²⁸.

Payment method adds a further layer. For 1 October to 31 December 2025, the typical totals were £1,755 for Direct Debit customers, £1,890 for standard credit customers and £1,707 for prepayment customers¹⁷. Prepayment standing charges are held level with Direct Debit through the levelisation allowance², but the unit rates differ, and standard credit customers pay a premium that reflects the higher cost of collecting their payments.

Northern Ireland stands apart entirely. The Ofgem energy price cap doesn't apply to households in Northern Ireland⁷; energy prices there were not capped, and energy suppliers have the flexibility to set their tariffs independently to reflect their costs of operating²⁹. Our tariffs in Northern Ireland page covers that separate market, and our tariffs in Scotland page the Scottish specifics.

Which tariff suits which household: fixed, variable or time-of-use

Tariff types differ in what they ask of a household rather than in any single one being better. Ofgem's research on tariff choices tested three options, a 12-month fixed term, a 24-month fixed term and a standard variable tariff¹², which reflects the choice most households actually face. The fuller market adds time-of-use, and the difference between them is when energy costs the most: on a fixed or standard variable tariff, energy costs the same each day, at any time of day¹³, while time-of-use tariffs alter the price of gas and electricity depending on the time they are used¹⁴.

For a home that uses most of its electricity in the evening and cannot shift it, the choice is between fixing and floating. Fixing buys certainty at a known rate for 12 to 24 months¹⁰; floating on the SVT buys flexibility, with the cap as the ceiling and quarterly movements as the price of that freedom². Our should I fix my energy tariff page works through the decision.

For a home that can shift, the arithmetic changes. A household with an electric car can charge overnight on an EV tariff; a household with a heat pump can heat into a cheap window on a heat pump tariff; a household with a battery can buy cheap and use dear, the strategy behind shifting electricity use to cheap rates. Ofgem's survey work found 44% of owner-occupier households on time-of-use tariffs intended to upgrade their energy efficiency³⁰, which points the way: time-of-use and efficiency reinforce each other.

For a generating home, the export side completes the picture. The energy-efficient house of the future is expected to run on a smart time-of-use tariff and an export tariff²¹, and the SEG makes that possible today²². What no tariff can remove is the standing charge and the network share of the unit rate¹³: even a home that generates, stores and exports most of its own electricity remains connected to the grid, pays to stay connected, and buys from the market when its own supply runs short. Tariff choice manages that dependence intelligently; it does not end it.

If working through the options feels heavy, free help exists. Local advice programmes can help you check if you are on the cheapest tariff³¹, and Home Energy Scotland offers equivalent support north of the border⁹. The pages below cover every tariff type in this section in detail.