Intelligent Octopus Go: why the cheapest night rate might cost more
Octopus has given us three versions of Intelligent Octopus Go to compare: Fixed, Flexible and Flexible Max. More choice can be useful, but it also makes that tempting overnight price a poor shortcut for deciding which tariff suits your home.
In my latest video, I compare the options using the East Anglia prices I checked on 8 November 2026. The question is simple: how much will each option cost across the whole household, and what value do you put on knowing your rates for the next year?
Three choices, three different strengths
In that comparison, Flexible had the lowest daytime rate at 34.46p per kilowatt-hour, alongside a 9.9p overnight rate. Flexible Max brought the overnight rate down to 6.5p, but charged 38.62p during the day.
Fixed was 7.9p overnight and 39.04p during the day. Its attraction was twelve months of rate certainty, with a £50 early exit fee. All three had the same 51.94p daily standing charge for my postcode.
These are dated, regional examples, not a quote for your home. Check your own prices and terms on the Intelligent Octopus Go page before deciding.
Your car is only part of the bill
An EV tariff also powers the cooking, washing, computers and, in some homes, heating. Saving on a car charge does not automatically outweigh paying more for everything else.
Using the rates in the video, Max saved 3.4p on each cheap-rate kilowatt-hour compared with Flexible, but cost around 4.16p more for each daytime kilowatt-hour.
That meant roughly 55% of total imported electricity needed to receive the cheap rate before Max became cheaper than Flexible. This includes electricity bought for the house and battery charging as well as the car. It is a comparison of those two tariffs at those prices, not a prediction of the cheapest option over twelve months.
What does certainty actually cost?
The difference between Fixed and Max becomes more useful when expressed in pounds. Imagine importing 10kWh at the daytime rate and 15kWh at the cheap rate each day.
Using the rounded rates above, Fixed costs around £7.56 more over a 30-day month, or roughly £7.50 as discussed in the video. Your consumption could make that difference larger or smaller.
Would you pay that premium to know your rates for the next year? That is a more practical question than simply asking whether 6.5p is cheaper than 7.9p. Remember, fixed rates do not mean a fixed bill: using more electricity still costs more.
Winter changes the calculation
The video discusses forecasts of a January price-cap rise and the ability to review flexible rates every three months. A forecast for the cap is not a confirmed increase for Intelligent Octopus Go. We need Octopus’s published prices to know what happens to these particular tariffs.
For households with solar, batteries or a heat pump, actual winter imports matter. A battery that gets you through a summer day may run out earlier when heating demand rises. Avoiding daytime imports also does not remove exposure to a changing overnight rate.
My preference is to put a competitive fixed deal near the top of the shortlist, while comparing the whole cost and exit fees. That includes looking beyond Octopus and checking any existing deal before switching.
Watch the full comparison on YouTube for the figures and trade-offs in more detail. Have you fixed your rates, or are you staying flexible? I would be interested to hear whether today’s price or a more predictable winter budget matters most to you.
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