Outgoing Octopus Export Tariffs: Fixed, Agile & Flux (UK)

Outgoing Octopus is Octopus Energy’s export product family for solar and battery homes. The best tariff depends on your setup: Outgoing Fixed for simple solar-only export, Outgoing Agile when you can time exports, and Octopus Flux when a compatible battery can hit the peak window. Rates move, so treat the figures below as a July 2026 snapshot and confirm live prices on Octopus before you design payback around them.

Snapshot date: July 2026. Octopus can change product rates without much notice. Always re-check the product pages linked in the table.

Related forks: If your system is DIY and not MCS-certified, start with how to export from a DIY solar system with Octopus. If you have (or want) a battery without panels, the economics live on home battery storage without solar.

Key Takeaways

• Agile Outgoing or Flux for export? Flux guarantees a high 4-7pm peak price; Agile Outgoing tracks wholesale half-hourly, and can fall near zero without ever charging you to export.
• Intelligent Octopus Flux is closed to new customers as of July 2026; standard Octopus Flux and Agile Outgoing are still open.
• Outgoing Fixed pays a flat 12p/kWh (cut from 15p on 1 March 2026); Prime Outgoing pays 16p in the 4-7pm peak.
• Rates move, so model export income on the low side: use today’s rate, knock 0.5% off generation a year, and check live prices on Octopus first.

Agile Outgoing or Flux: which export tariff should you pick?

Pick a Flux-style tariff if you have a battery and want a high, guaranteed price in the 4pm to 7pm peak without watching prices. Pick Agile Outgoing if you will automate exports to chase wholesale spikes and can accept afternoons that pay almost nothing. The shape of the price is the real decision, not just the headline number.

One caveat sets the choice for anyone signing up now. Octopus paused Intelligent Octopus Flux, the fully automated version, to new customers in early 2026 because wholesale prices were volatile, and it had not reopened as of 16 July 2026 (Octopus product page). The manually scheduled Octopus Flux and the dynamic Agile Outgoing are both still open, so for a new battery owner the live contest is Agile Outgoing against standard Flux, with the flat 12p Outgoing rate as the no-effort baseline.

Flux guarantees one high fixed rate for everything you export between 4pm and 7pm, so you schedule the battery to empty into that window and you are done. Agile Outgoing sets a new price every half hour from the day-ahead wholesale market, uncapped on the upside, published by around 4pm the day before. On a cold, low-wind evening Agile can beat the Flux peak. On a sunny, breezy afternoon it can fall close to zero, though Octopus stops the export price just above zero rather than pushing it negative, so you are never charged to export. Flux trades away that upside for a known, guaranteed rate.

A worked half-hourly example. Say your battery holds 5 kWh to sell during the evening peak:

• Standard Flux pays its fixed peak rate on all 5 kWh across 4pm to 7pm. The payout is the same whether wholesale that evening runs high or low. That predictability is the whole point.
• Agile Outgoing pays the actual half-hourly price. Sell into a tight 5pm to 6pm slot on a still winter evening and you can clear the Flux rate. Sell on a windy July afternoon and the same 5 kWh might earn only a few pence a unit, unless you hold the charge and time the export to the day’s published peak.

Who should pick which:

• Battery, wants it hands-off: standard Octopus Flux. You get a guaranteed peak price and only set a charge and discharge schedule once.
• Battery, happy to automate and carry risk: Agile Outgoing. With inverter automation timed to the published half-hourly prices you can beat Flux on the best evenings, but you wear the low-price afternoons.
• No battery, or no appetite for tinkering: the flat 12p Outgoing rate. Prime Outgoing pays 16p in the 4pm to 7pm peak and 9p the rest of the day, but it only pays off if your export is concentrated in that window, which usually means a battery or a strong evening generation bias; a passive solar-only home generally does better on Fixed.
• Wanted the old automated Intelligent Flux: you cannot join it right now. Use standard Flux or Agile Outgoing until Octopus reopens it.

The March 2026 Export Rate Cut: What Changed

On 1 March 2026, Octopus Energy cut its Outgoing Fixed export rate from 15p/kWh to 12p/kWh. It was the first change in Outgoing Fixed pricing since 2022, and it surprised owners who had built payback plans around the old rate. The reason is simple enough: wholesale electricity prices during peak solar hours (midday in summer) have been sliding as more solar capacity comes online across the UK, so a flat 15p on power the grid values in single figures at those times was hard to sustain.

Ofgem requires every Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) rate to sit above zero, but sets no useful floor beyond that, so suppliers pick the p/kWh. As of mid-2026 many plain SEG tariffs pay somewhere around 3-6p. At 12p, Octopus Fixed still sits well above a typical SEG rate, and with more solar capacity coming online at midday the pressure on flat export rates is downward.

What This Means for Solar Owners

The rate cut makes self-consumption more important than ever. Every kWh you use in your home instead of exporting now saves you 17-30p (depending on your import tariff) instead of earning you 12p. If you do not already have a battery, the maths for adding one just got stronger. If you do have a battery, time-shifting your exports to peak evening hours via Agile Outgoing or standard Octopus Flux becomes the smarter play.

For a deeper look at how a managed battery package compares to DIY solar with export tariffs, see our Octopus Zero Bills vs DIY Solar comparison.

The Main Octopus Export Tariffs

This is each Outgoing tariff in detail, building on the snapshot table above. Octopus also runs a fourth variant, Prime Outgoing, which pays 16p in the 4pm to 7pm peak and 9p the rest of the day on a 12-month term with no exit fee. It suits a home whose export already lands in the evening but that does not want a fully dynamic price.

1. Outgoing Fixed: Simple and Predictable

Rate: 12p per kWh (reduced from 15p on 1 March 2026)

Best for: Homeowners with solar panels but no battery storage.

The Outgoing Fixed tariff is the most straightforward option. You get paid a flat 12p (July 2026 snapshot) for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you export to the grid, regardless of when you export it. There’s no need to monitor wholesale prices or time your exports. Just generate solar power, use what you need, and export the rest. Fixed can lag the wholesale market: after a reprice (for example the March 2026 cut from 15p to 12p) the flat rate stays put until Octopus revises it again, even if wholesale moves the other way.

Pros:

• Predictable income
• No complexity, works 24/7
• Two to four times a typical SEG rate

Cons:

• You can’t take advantage of higher peak rates
• Less lucrative if you have a battery

2. Outgoing Agile: For the Energy Trader

Rate: Varies every 30 minutes (tracks wholesale prices)

Best for: Tech-savvy users with battery storage who can optimize export timing.

Outgoing Agile is Octopus’s dynamic pricing tariff. The export rate changes every half-hour and follows the day-ahead wholesale market more closely than Fixed. Octopus publishes the next day’s 48 half-hourly rates by 4pm each afternoon. That is why Agile can spike on tight evenings and fall near zero on sunny, windy afternoons.

This tariff rewards you for exporting during peak demand (usually 4pm-7pm on weekdays) when wholesale prices spike. On a typical day, you might see rates ranging from 5p/kWh in the afternoon to 25p+ during the evening peak.

Averaged across a year the untimed half-hourly price has generally run below the flat 12p rate, because it follows day-ahead wholesale. Agile only beats Fixed if you can hold export in a battery and release it into the day’s priced evening peak. You can see the next day’s 48 prices in the Octopus app or your online account once they publish at around 4pm, which lets you decide the night before whether the coming evening is worth targeting.

Requirement: You need a smart meter (SMETS2 or most SMETS1 meters work).

Pros:

• Potential to earn 20–25p/kWh during peak times
• Suits a battery: charge during the day, export into the priced evening peak
• Directly benefits from high-demand days (cold snaps, low wind)

Cons:

• Rates can drop to near zero on sunny, windy days
• Requires active management (or automation) to maximize earnings
• Not ideal if you don’t have battery storage

3. Octopus Flux: The Battery Owner’s Option

Peak export (4pm-7pm): a high guaranteed rate that is set by region. In most areas it sits in the high-20s p/kWh. The exact figure shows when you enter your postcode on the Octopus Flux page.

Off-peak/day export: a lower flat rate, commonly around 10p/kWh, plus a cheap overnight import window (roughly 2am-5am) for topping the battery up.

Best for: Homeowners with solar panels and a compatible battery system.

Octopus Flux is the joinable high-peak tariff for battery owners. It pays a high guaranteed rate for everything you export in the 4pm to 7pm peak and a lower flat rate the rest of the day, and it doubles as your import tariff with a cheap overnight window to charge the battery.

What Flux needs: solar panels, a compatible battery, a smart meter sending half-hourly readings, and your Octopus import supply. Octopus also needs your installation’s MCS certificate to complete the switch to Flux, so a DIY system that is not MCS-certified cannot join it. If that is you, the non-MCS Outgoing route covered in our DIY export guide is the path to take instead.

Availability note (July 2026): Octopus has paused Intelligent Octopus Flux to new customers while wholesale prices settle, with no reopening date announced. If you want an automated battery export tariff today, the manually scheduled Octopus Flux is still open, or use Agile Outgoing. Existing Intelligent Flux customers keep their tariff, which historically paid a peak rate in the low-30s p/kWh; anyone signing up now is comparing standard Flux against Agile Outgoing.

On standard Flux you set the schedule yourself: charge the battery during the cheap overnight window, then discharge into the 4pm to 7pm peak. The paused Intelligent version did that automatically by handing battery control to Octopus; without it you point your inverter or battery app at the same windows.

Batteries: any battery whose inverter or app lets you set charge and discharge times works for standard Flux. The automated Intelligent tier required a specific compatible model (Givenergy, Tesla Powerwall and similar).

Pros:

• A high guaranteed peak export rate, region-specific (check your postcode)
• Works as both an import and export tariff, with a cheap overnight charging window
• Open to new customers, unlike the paused Intelligent tier

Cons:

• Needs a battery, and you schedule the charge and discharge yourself
• Import rates during the 4-7pm peak are higher, so avoid drawing grid power then

Is Battery Storage Worth It with Octopus Flux?

It depends on your export volume and your region’s Flux peak rate. Here is a worked scenario.

The Math: A Battery System on Flux

Let’s say you have:

• 4kW solar array generating an average of 12 kWh per day in the UK
• 5kWh battery (e.g., Givenergy or Pylontech)
• Standard Octopus Flux tariff (Intelligent Flux is closed to new customers)

Scenario:

On a typical summer day, your panels generate 15 kWh. You use 8 kWh throughout the day. That leaves you with 7 kWh of excess energy.

Without a battery (Outgoing Fixed at 12p):

• 7 kWh exported at 12p = £0.84 on a good summer day
• Across a real UK year, exportable surplus collapses in winter, so a 4kW array on Fixed more realistically earns somewhere around £120-£180 a year from export, not the £300 a flat summer-day figure would imply

With a battery on standard Flux (illustration at a 27p peak rate, region-specific, so check your postcode):

• Your battery stores 5 kWh during the day
• You discharge 5 kWh into the 4-7pm peak at ~27p = £1.35
• You still export 2 kWh at ~10p the rest of the day = £0.20
• Summer-day total: about £1.55
• Seasonally weighted, that is more like £250-£320 a year of export once shorter winter days are counted, not £1.55 every day

Extra export earnings with the battery: on these seasonally weighted figures, roughly £130-£160 a year over the flat-rate baseline, before you count the self-consumption savings, which are usually the larger prize.

A 5kWh battery costs around £1,500-£2,000 for a DIY install. On export arbitrage alone the payback is long, well into double-digit years, which is exactly why arbitrage should never carry the case on its own. The battery earns its keep from the import you avoid by using stored solar instead of buying grid power at 17-30p a unit. The export figures above turn on your region’s Flux peak rate and on a real seasonal export pattern, so treat them as an illustration, not a promise, and run them again on your own postcode rate.

How to Sign Up for an Octopus Export Tariff

Signing up is straightforward:

1. Import from Octopus on a compatible tariff: Outgoing needs you to be an Octopus import customer on an import tariff it lists as compatible. Keeping another supplier limits you to the lower SEG route instead.
2. Ensure you have a smart meter: Most SMETS2 meters work, and many SMETS1 meters are now compatible.
3. Register your solar/battery system: You’ll provide details about your system size and battery. A DIY, non-MCS system needs the extra documentation set out in our DIY export guide.
4. Choose your tariff: If you have a battery, standard Octopus Flux is the joinable high-peak option (Intelligent Flux, the automated version, is paused to new sign-ups as of July 2026). Without a battery, start with Outgoing Fixed, switch to Prime Outgoing if your export lands in the evening, and consider Agile if you like to tinker.
5. Set your battery schedule: on standard Flux you point your inverter or battery app at the cheap overnight charge window and the 4-7pm export peak yourself.

You can sign up directly through the Octopus Energy website.

My Personal Take: Which Tariff Should You Choose?

After running my own solar setup for years, here’s my advice:

• If you’re solar-only (no battery): Start with Outgoing Fixed. It’s simple, predictable, and pays well above a typical SEG rate.
• If you have a battery: take standard Octopus Flux for its high guaranteed peak rate, and schedule the discharge into the 4-7pm window yourself. The fully automated Intelligent Flux is paused to new customers, so it is not on the table right now.
• If you like to tinker and optimize: Try Outgoing Agile with a battery. You can manually time your exports to catch price spikes, but be aware it’s more hands-on.

Common Questions

Do I need to be an Octopus Energy customer for my import electricity?

Yes, for the Outgoing tariffs. Octopus requires you to be an Octopus import customer on a compatible import tariff to take Outgoing Fixed, Prime Outgoing or Agile Outgoing, and it lists which import tariffs can be paired with export. If you keep another supplier for your import, you cannot take Outgoing at all: you are limited to the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) route, which pays far less (around 4.1p/kWh as of July 2026) than the Outgoing rates. Flux goes further still, since it is a single combined import-and-export tariff, so it has to be your Octopus import tariff too.

Can I switch tariffs later?

Yes. Octopus lets you move between export tariffs and there are no exit fees, even on the 12-month fixed-term Agile Outgoing and Prime Outgoing. If you start on Outgoing Fixed and later add a battery, you can move to standard Flux or Agile Outgoing (Intelligent Flux is closed to new sign-ups for now).

What happens on cloudy days?

If you have a battery on Flux, it can still charge from cheap off-peak grid electricity overnight and then export during the 4-7pm peak, so a dull day need not cost you the peak payment. You are arbitraging the wholesale market: buy low overnight, sell into the priced evening window.

Final Thoughts

Octopus Energy’s export tariffs have changed the economics of home solar in the UK. Whether you run a simple solar-only setup on Outgoing Fixed or a battery on standard Flux or Agile Outgoing, you are likely to earn two to four times a typical SEG rate. Model it on the rate you can actually get today, not the one a headline quotes.

Octopus also offers Octopus Zero Bills, a managed package that aims to cover your household electricity use in exchange for letting Octopus manage a qualifying solar, battery and heat-pump setup. It has its own eligibility and system requirements and is a fundamentally different model from the export tariffs above. I break down the trade-offs in a separate article.

Why I model export income conservatively

When I first modelled my Outgoing Octopus payback, I ran the numbers on the Fixed rate at the time: 15p/kWh. Then on 1 March 2026 it dropped to 12p, a 20% cut, and my payback maths needed redoing. The lesson stuck: export income is the softest number in any solar ROI.

The rate is only part of it. Your panels make a little less every year, and the weather doesn’t read your spreadsheet. Crystalline silicon modules lose output at around 0.5% a year, the NREL median across 11,000 measured systems, and annual yield swings year to year by roughly 8 to 10% across northern Europe (JRC), with the UK sitting further north still. Put a rate cut, a low-sun year and a few years of degradation together, and a flattering model falls apart fast.

So model it low. Use today’s rate, not last year’s. Knock half a percent off generation each year. Treat a sunny year as a bonus, not the baseline. If the system still pays back on conservative numbers, it’s a good buy. If it only works on optimistic ones, it isn’t.

If you’re serious about getting the most out of your solar panels, take 10 minutes to review your current export arrangement. If you are still on a plain SEG rate, moving to Outgoing can lift your export income noticeably. After setting up Solar Assistant automation rules, my annual export jumped from 1,766 kWh to 3,914 kWh. That kind of increase translates directly into higher earnings on any of the tariffs above.

Related: Check out our guide on choosing the right battery for your solar system and exporting solar energy from a DIY setup.

Nikola Nedoklanov

UK-based solar DIY enthusiast with 5+ years hands-on experience.

About the author

Published: April 1, 2026

Last updated: July 16, 2026