Octopus Energy

Octopus Energy is just five years old in 2021, but in that short time it has grown to supply energy to two million homes and repeatedly achieved our coveted Which? Recommended Provider award.

It's a Which? Recommended Provider again in 2021.

It says it provides 'great value for the long term' and aims to make everything as simple and easy as possible for its customers.

Its range of deals include one designed for electric vehicle drivers, and a smart tariff with rates that track wholesale energy prices every half hour so customers can adapt their use to when electricity is cheapest. All of its tariffs match customers' electricity use with renewable sources. Additionally, its Super Green tariff has full carbon offset for gas.

None of its tariffs have exit fees.

Octopus Energy supplies gas and electricity to Affect Energy, Co-operative Energy, Ebico, M&S Energy, Qwest Energy and Roar Power customers. 

It also acquired customers from several energy suppliers - including Avro Energy, Engie, Flow Energy, GB Energy Supply, Gen4U and Iresa - when the firms stopped trading or Octopus bought them.

Read on to find out how Octopus Energy measures up to more longstanding firms.

Compare gas and electricity prices using Which? Switch to see if you could save money with Octopus Energy.

Octopus Energy customer score

Octopus Energy is one of the best energy companies, as rated in the latest annual Which? customer survey of 7,460 members of the public. It's a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) for the fourth year in a row, after passing all of our tough assessments. 

It narrowly missed out on the top spot in the customer survey, by two percentage points. Since our scores are based on the feedback of thousands of energy customers, you can trust them to reveal which energy suppliers are worth considering – or avoiding.

Find out more about how firms qualify to become a Which? Recommended Provider for energy, or read on to see what Octopus Energy’s customers think of it and if it's the best energy firm for you. 

Or, read about brands supplied by Octopus Energy, including Affect Energy, Co-operative Energy and M&S Energy.

Octopus Energy score breakdown

The graphic below shows the breakdown of Octopus Energy’s score in our latest survey.

Scroll down to read our full verdict on Octopus Energy and to find out more about its prices.

Find out how Octopus Energy compares with other energy firms in our guide to the best and worst energy companies.

Which? verdict on Octopus Energy

Octopus Energy has been a high-achieving firm from the start. It has succeeded in keeping customers happy while it has grown from a techy start-up to an established brand supplying energy to 5% of homes in Britain. It's the only energy firm we've awarded WRP status to more than twice. 

It gets strong ratings across the board, from its bills to its customer service. Its customers were among the least likely to have had problems with their supplier in our survey.

Octopus Energy also passed our assessment of its procedures, was better than average for its customer response times and complaints handling, and passed our pricing check, putting it in line to be a Which? Recommended Provider for 2021.

Out of the suppliers in our survey, it had the highest proportion of customers who rated the accuracy of its bills as 'excellent'. 

It didn't stand out from other suppliers as much for customer service this year, being one of five firms in the survey to achieve a four star rating (no firms managed the full five stars).

Octopus Energy also scored four stars for how it resolves complaints - again it was among a small number of firms to achieve this in our survey and no firms scored five stars.

Besides being highly rated by its customers, it gets relatively few complaints, although it’s not the fastest at resolving them. In the first six months of 2020, it received fewer than five complaints per 1,000 customers, solving around six in 10 on the same or next working day. A few firms manage to solve more than 80% in that time.

Octopus Energy prides itself on being affordable and customers in our survey tend to agree. Its four star rating is very respectable, though one firm achieved five stars on this measure.

It took us 2 minutes 4 seconds, on average, to get through to a human on the phone to Octopus in our energy company response times undercover investigation in September and October 2020. This is significantly faster than the average (5 minutes 57 seconds) and Octopus was the sixth fastest firm overall, out of 31 firms we called.

The slowest firm this year, Boost, had a median average pick up time of more than 40 minutes, and three other firms had wait times of more than 20 minutes.

We also emailed Octopus to see how quickly it responded. Our snapshot research found it took 1 hour 23 minutes to respond on average, which was the second fastest among companies in our email test. However, there were some occasions where our email wasn't responded to at all within the seven-day cut-off period.

Octopus Energy is owned by Octopus Investments, which funds solar panel sites, wind generation and anaerobic digestion. It claims its solar farms make up nearly 40% of the large-scale solar generation in Great Britain.

Pros: A Which? Recommended Provider; relatively fast to respond to phone calls; customers say its bills are very accurate

Cons: Not as speedy as some at resolving complaints

Can you join Octopus Energy with a prepayment meter?

Yes, Octopus Energy can supply customers with traditional prepayment meters. You'll need to email it with your details to get a quote and sign up. 

It doesn't yet supply customers with smart prepayment meters but is installing 'prepay compatible' smart meters and plans to have its smart prepayment services up and running in the second half of 2021.

Prepayment customers can get emergency credit of £5 (£10 for gas between October and April) when less than £1 electricity credit or £2 gas credit is left on the meter. You'll repay it in full next time you top up.

If you run out of credit between 4pm and 10am on weekdays, at weekends on bank holidays, your electricity won't shut off. Instead the cost of any electricity you use will be added onto your meter as debt and you'll pay it off next time you top-up. This is called 'friendly credit'. It doesn't apply to gas. 

Does Octopus Energy sell renewable energy?

Octopus Energy sells 100% renewable electricity, some of which it generates itself, some of which it buys directly from generators and some of which it backs with renewable energy certificates.

Octopus Energy Generation (part of Octopus Group) manages renewable electricity projects across six countries, including solar, onshore wind, hydro, biomass and landfill gas. Octopus buys some renewable power directly from its generation arm. Some is sold on the open market. 

It also owns two wind turbines, in East Yorkshire and Caerphilly, which produce enough electricity for 800 homes. 

Customers who live near the turbines can get 20% cheaper rates when they’re generating power, by signing up to the ‘Fan Club’ tariff. When the wind is strong, the discount rises to 50%.

Octopus Energy also buys energy from the open market alongside REGO certificates. It also buys Guarantees of Origin (GoOs) certificates which match customers’ electricity use with renewable power generated in Europe.

Octopus Energy does not sell green gas. It says ‘our focus is on electrifying the world so we can ditch natural gas for good, and run on affordable 100% green electricity’. It’s investing in electric heating and transport.

Find out more about the differences between energy companies’ renewable electricity.

Octopus Energy also offers a time-of-use tariff with changes prices depending on wholesale costs, vehicle to grid charging and has set up a research centre to look at the future of energy.

Octopus Energy in the news

Octopus Energy in 2021

September: Octopus Energy was chosen as the supplier of last resort for Avro Energy's 580,000 customers when the smaller supplier stopped trading. Read the latest information for Avro Energy customers.

April: Octopus Energy announced that it will supply energy for Ebico's customers. Not-for-profit firm Ebico will be responsible for signing-up new customers while Octopus will provide its customer service. 

March: Octopus Energy Group bought its sister company, Octopus Renewables. Its 300 projects, including solar and offshore wind, can produce over 2.8GW of renewable power.

Customers were also paid a total of £121,445 after Octopus Energy overcharged them when they switched supplier or tariff between 2013 and 2020. It was one of 18 energy firms found by regulator Ofgem to have failed to uphold these rules. Over 1 million customers were affected.

Octopus Energy’s 19,712 affected customers received £6.16 each, on average.

January: Octopus Energy launched a local time-of-use tariff that charges customers less when the wind blows more. Called 'Fan Club', the tariff is available only to people who live close to Octopus Energy's new wind turbines in Caerphilly in South Wales, and Market Weighton in Yorkshire.

Octopus Energy in 2020

December: It announced plans to launch the brand in Japan, in partnership with Tokyo Gas

January: Octopus bought Engie UK and took on its 70,000 customers.

Octopus Energy in 2019

September: Octopus announced a partnership with the Mayor of London to create a new energy company, exclusively for Londoners, called London Power. 

Octopus Energy also announced it would start supplying electricity and gas, and providing customer service to Co-Operative Energy’s 300,000 customers (including Flow Energy and GB Energy customers).

Octopus Energy in 2018

September: Ofgem appointed Octopus Energy to take on Gen4U's 500 customers when it went bust. 

Octopus Energy also bought smaller rival Affect Energy and became M&S Energy’s supply partner, replacing SSE.

August: All of Iresa's 90,000 customers were transferred to Octopus Energy after the smaller supplier went bust.