Octopus Energy Prices by Region

Octopus Energy doesn't have one price. Like every supplier it charges a different unit rate and standing charge in each of Great Britain's 14 electricity distribution regions, because the cost of running the local network differs from place to place. Most comparison pages quote a single national average and leave you to guess how far off your own bill is. This page lists the actual rates for every region, on the three tariffs most people choose between, as published in Octopus's public product data on 28 October 2026.

Averaged across the regions, Flexible Octopus costs 26.32p/kWh for electricity plus 53.76p/day, and 7.97p/kWh for gas plus 28.72p/day. For a typical home using 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas that's about £1,716 a year, fractionally under the Ofgem cap's £1,723. The two Octopus fixes cost more today, about £1,948 for 12 months and £1,888 for 18 months, but less than the roughly £2,180 forecast for the January cap.

Electricity is quoted at 0% VAT, which applies to domestic electricity from 1 October 2026 until 1 July 2027 after the Budget extended it. Gas includes 5% VAT. That is the same footing Ofgem uses for the cap, so the figures compare directly.

The spread between the cheapest and dearest region for a typical home is £135 a year on Flexible Octopus. Most of that is electricity. Merseyside & North Wales is the most expensive region on all three tariffs, mainly because of its electricity standing charge of 67.27p a day, about £246 a year before you've switched a light on. East Midlands is cheapest overall thanks to one of the lowest electricity unit rates and a below-average standing charge.

London is the interesting outlier. It has by far the lowest electricity standing charge, 41.39p a day, but the highest gas standing charge (29.24p a day) and one of the highest gas unit rates (8.15p/kWh), so it lands in the middle overall. That trade-off matters for your own bill: a low-usage flat in London benefits more from the low standing charge than a large gas-heated house, which feels the higher gas unit rate on every kWh.

The ranking shifts with usage. Standing charges are fixed, so they dominate low-usage bills; unit rates dominate high-usage bills. Use the picker above with your own kWh to see where you land, or put your whole bill through the savings calculator.

A standing charge pays for things that cost the same whether you use energy or not: the meter, the supplier's account costs, government schemes and, above all, the local network. Each region's wires are owned and run by a distribution network operator (the DNO in the table above), and Ofgem sets how much each can recover from customers in its area.

Running a network costs more per home where it serves fewer homes per mile of line. That is a large part of why Merseyside & North Wales, which takes in rural, hilly North Wales, has the highest electricity standing charge, and why London, with millions of homes packed into a small area, has the lowest. The North East, Yorkshire and South Scotland, all around 61p a day, come next after Merseyside & North Wales. In recent years a larger share of network costs has been moved from the unit rate into the daily standing charge, which widened these regional gaps and is one reason standing charges have become politically contentious.

Gas is different. Gas network charges vary far less between regions, so gas standing charges on Flexible Octopus vary by only about 1.04p a day between regions, from 28.20p in Southern England to 29.24p in London. Our standing charges guide explains what goes into each charge and what Ofgem's low-standing-charge trial might lead to.

One thing to notice in the tables: Octopus's fixes carry exactly the same standing charges as Flexible in every region. When you compare a fix with Flexible, the whole difference is in the unit rates, so the more energy you use, the more the choice matters.

The January–March 2027 price cap is announced by 25 November 2026. Forecasts put it at about £2,180 a year for a typical home, roughly 27% above October, with a range from Cornwall Insight's £1,999 to British Gas's £2,185. Flexible Octopus will move with it in every region.

Against that forecast, the 12M Fixed at about £1,948 would be about £232 a year cheaper, and the 18M Fixed at about £1,888 about £292 cheaper. Against today's cap both cost more. So fixing is a bet that prices stay high through winter and into spring. The 12-month fix roughly breaks even by the end of March if the forecast is right. Our fix-or-variable guide works through the decision.

Regional differences carry through to the fixes. In Merseyside & North Wales the 12M Fixed is about £2,052, in East Midlands about £1,885. The January forecast is a national figure, so if you live in a dearer region your own January bill will be higher than £2,180, and the gap to a fix will be roughly the same in proportion.