Outgoing Octopus Tariff

Outgoing Octopus is Octopus Energy's export tariff: the price it pays you for electricity your solar panels generate and don't use, which flows back into the grid. It pays a flat 12p per kilowatt-hour, the same at noon in June as at four o'clock on a December afternoon. The rate moved to 12p in March 2026, the first change since September 2022.

It sits above the Smart Export Guarantee — the government-mandated minimum that any supplier with 150,000 or more customers has to offer. Octopus's own SEG rate is 4.1p/kWh, and many suppliers' floor rates are in that region, so Outgoing pays close to three times as much for identical electrons. The catch is simple and worth saying plainly: you have to be an Octopus import customer to take it. Export tariffs are how suppliers reward households for bringing their import business, and Outgoing is priced accordingly.

It's one of five export options Octopus runs. The others — Outgoing Agile, Flux, Intelligent Flux and SEG — are compared in our export guide. Outgoing is the one to understand first, because it's the default answer for the most common setup: solar panels, no battery.

Notice what isn't on the list. No battery, no minimum system size, no particular inverter brand. Those constraints belong to Intelligent Flux, which needs compatible battery hardware to control. Outgoing is deliberately the plain option, and for most rooftop solar that's exactly right.

A 4kW system without a battery typically exports 1,000–1,500 kWh a year in the UK — how much depends mostly on whether anyone is home to use the generation as it happens. At 12p that's £120–£180, against £41–£62 on a 4.1p SEG rate. Not life-changing, but it's the same electricity, so leaving it on SEG is simply giving £80–£120 a year away.

Keep it in proportion, too. The larger financial return from solar is the import you avoid: every kWh you use yourself displaces a unit at the cap rate of 26.32p from October, more than double what export pays. That's why self-consumption comes first and export tariff second — but once you've arranged your usage, the export tariff is a free choice, and the right one pays three times the wrong one. Our savings calculator puts the Outgoing income alongside your import bill.

The decision hinges on one question: can you choose when you export? Solar panels can't — they export when the sun is out, which is when the grid needs electricity least and Agile export rates are ordinary. A flat 12p beats an average of 9.4p for electricity you have no control over. A battery changes the answer entirely: hold the day's generation and release it between four and seven on a weekday evening at 20–40p, and Outgoing Agile or Flux earns considerably more than 12p ever can.

SEG is the fallback rather than a competitor. If your import is with another supplier and you don't want to move it, Octopus's 4.1p SEG rate is available to you — but you'd be taking a third of the money for the same electricity to avoid a five-minute switch that also pays £50.

Outgoing is an export tariff only; you still choose an import tariff for the electricity you buy. It pairs with Flexible, Fixed, Tracker, Agile, Go and Intelligent Octopus Go. For a solar home with an EV, Intelligent Go on import and Outgoing on export is a common and sensible combination: cheap overnight charging in, 12p for the daytime surplus out.

Flux and Intelligent Flux are the exception. They are combined tariffs that set both your import and export prices, so you would be on Flux rather than Flux plus Outgoing. Which pairing earns most depends on your battery and your habits; the solar and battery guide works through the cases. And because there are no exit fees on any Octopus tariff, import or export, getting it wrong costs nothing but the time to change it.

The full switching timeline is in how switching works, and the smart meter guide covers what to expect from an installation visit.