Energy · Ofgem

What UK households pay for energy, and what your region should charge

Ofgem price cap, 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2026: £1,723/yr, +£60 (+4%) on the period before, source dated 26 August 2026. The Ofgem price cap, what it actually caps, and why your neighbour two counties over pays £90 a year more in standing charges.

As of 4 September 2026, the Ofgem energy price cap (1 October to 31 December 2026) is £1,723 a year for a typical dual fuel home on direct debit. The cheapest single rate electricity tariff we can verify starts at about £796 a year, and the exact figure depends on your electricity region.

Ofgem price cap, 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2026
£1,723/yr

Dual fuel, direct debit, at typical consumption. Announced 07:00 on 26 August 2026.

Change
+£60 (+4%)

Source: Ofgem

Standard credit
£1,861
+4%
Prepayment
£1,678
+4%
Economy 7, electricity only
£1,046
+1%
On fixed tariffs, unaffected
35%
Ofgem also cites 11m, on a different count
Two numbers make up your bill. The standing charge is a fixed daily fee you pay whether or not you use anything, about 55p a day for electricity, so roughly £200 a year before you switch a light on. The unit rate is what you pay for each unit you actually use, about 26p for electricity and 8p for gas. The price cap limits both of those. It does not cap your total bill, so if you use more than average you will pay more than the headline figure. More words explained →

Is yours normal?

Put in your total annual gas and electricity spend. It is worked out in your browser and sent nowhere.

a year for total annual gas and electricity spend

The cap figure is what a typical household pays. If you use more than typical you will be above it, and that is arithmetic rather than a fault.

What you pay here depends on where you live. Put your postcode in and we will show your area's figure rather than the national one.

Not sure, or want to check your own numbers? Just ask.

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Your postcode and your figures never leave this browser. If I cannot work out what you mean, those words are sent to be classified, and a bill photo goes only if you send one and confirm it. Nothing is stored either way. How that works.

Below: what is changing, what you could be paying, and what you might be owed. The longer detail stays folded until you want it.

The next price capWhen it changes, and by how much

The next price cap

1 January to 31 March 2027. The three dates that matter, counting down live.

84days 18 November 2026

The observation window shuts. After this the wholesale cost is fixed and the number is effectively known.Date expected, not yet confirmed. It follows Ofgem's quarterly pattern.

91days 25 November 2026

Ofgem announces. Usually about a week after the window shuts, at 07:00.Date expected, not yet confirmed. It follows Ofgem's quarterly pattern.

128days 1 January 2027

It reaches your bill. This date is certain.

Why a live gas price would not help you

Ofgem does not set the cap from today's gas price. It uses an observation window that closes about two months before the period starts, so the wholesale price this week lands on bills in roughly three to six months, not now. That is why a live wholesale ticker tells you almost nothing about your next bill, and why the date the window shuts is the date worth watching.

What actually moves it

  • Wholesale gas, which is the largest single component but a shrinking share of the bill
  • Network charges, which are rising and are set separately
  • Policy levies, including the nuclear regulated asset base charge
  • The zero rate of VAT on electricity, which ends on 31 March 2027 and is worth about £45 a year
Forecast for this periodNone published yetNobody credible has forecast this period. When somebody does, it appears here with a date and a name against it.

How much a forecast is worth, by the way

For the October 2026 cap, Cornwall Insight's final forecast was £1,729.31. Ofgem set £1,723. £6 out, about a third of one percent.

Forecasts are unreliable early and accurate late, because they firm up as the observation window fills. Anything published today about January is a guess. The final forecast lands the day the window shuts.

Cheapest tariffs where you liveLive prices, ranked on the year

Cheapest tariffs where you live

168 electricity, 182 gas, 168 dual fuel prices from 3 suppliers, ranked by what a year actually costs, not by the unit rate alone. A low unit rate with a high standing charge is a worse deal and this ordering catches that.

Checked 4 Sep 26, 05:24 UTC · octopus, edf, eonnext

Not the whole market yet

3 suppliers, not the whole market. E.ON Next, EDF Energy, Octopus Energy publish their prices openly enough for us to check them every morning, on the direct debit basis, taken from the endpoint that states the payment method rather than the one that leaves it to guesswork. British Gas, Scottish Power, Ovo and the rest do not publish, so they are not here. We would rather show you the suppliers we have actually checked than imply we have checked everybody.

Where the satisfaction figure comes from

Ofgem Energy Consumer Satisfaction Survey, January 2026. Fieldwork ran from 5 January to 3 February 2026 and asked 3,911 households. The GB average is 81%. Ofgem reports E.ON and E.ON Next as one group, so the E.ON Next figure covers both. Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence. Read it →

We would rather use the Citizens Advice star rating, which is a better measure because it counts complaints, call waiting times and billing accuracy rather than asking people how they feel. We do not, because its terms do not allow reproduction for commercial purposes without written permission and this site carries affiliate links elsewhere. We have gone to Ofgem instead, which is published under the Open Government Licence, and we link to Citizens Advice rather than copying it. The Citizens Advice table →

What these prices are, exactly

Every one is the direct debit price for your region, today, with VAT at 5%. That matters more than it sounds. Each of these suppliers publishes two prices for the same tariff, one for direct debit and one for everything else, about 5% apart. Mixing the two up makes one supplier look cheaper than it is, so we take only the rate the supplier itself labels as direct debit.

We do not line these up against the cap figures at the top of the page. On 1 October a new cap starts and VAT on household electricity drops to 0%. The cap table is already on that new footing and these tariffs are not, so putting the two side by side would flatter one of them.

or find my region from my postcode →

Estimated annual cost is the standing charge for a year plus Ofgem's typical consumption at the unit rate: 2,500 kWh of electricity, 9,500 kWh of gas, or both together for a dual fuel figure. Everything here is the direct debit price, and your own use decides your bill.

#Supplier and tariffUnit rateStanding Estimated yearContractSatisfactionWhat kind of tariff
1 E.ON Next
Next Pledge Tracker 12m v12		 24.09p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £798
a year, 2,500 kWh		 12 months
£25 to leave early		 81%
satisfied		 Cheapest here Variable, moves with the cap
2 EDF Energy
Simply Tracker Sep27v3
New sign ups close 1 Oct 26		 25.10p
per kWh		 46.74p
per day		 £798
a year, 2,500 kWh		 Term not published
£50 to leave early		 75%
satisfied		 Fixed price
3 Octopus Energy
Flexible Octopus		 25.10p
per kWh		 50.31p
per day		 £811
a year, 2,500 kWh		 No fixed term
Free to leave		 90%
satisfied		 Variable, moves with the cap
4 E.ON Next
Next Fixed 24m v67		 24.70p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £813
a year, 2,500 kWh		 24 months
£100 to leave early		 81%
satisfied		 Fixed price
5 Octopus Energy
Octopus 12M Fixed		 25.23p
per kWh		 50.31p
per day		 £814
a year, 2,500 kWh		 12 months
£50 to leave early		 90%
satisfied		 Fixed price
6 EDF Energy
Standard Variable		 25.10p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £823
a year, 2,500 kWh		 No fixed term
Free to leave		 75%
satisfied		 Variable, moves with the cap
7 E.ON Next
Next Flex		 25.10p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £823
a year, 2,500 kWh		 No fixed term
Free to leave		 81%
satisfied		 Variable, moves with the cap
8 E.ON Next
Next Fixed 12m v153		 25.16p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £825
a year, 2,500 kWh		 12 months
£50 to leave early		 81%
satisfied		 Fixed price
9 E.ON Next
Next Gust 12m v64		 25.64p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £837
a year, 2,500 kWh		 12 months
£50 to leave early		 81%
satisfied		 Fixed price
10 E.ON Next
Next Lower Daily Fixed 12m v153		 28.76p
per kWh		 35.78p
per day		 £850
a year, 2,500 kWh		 12 months
£50 to leave early		 81%
satisfied		 Fixed price
11 EDF Energy
Simply Fixed 2Yr Sep28v4
New sign ups close 1 Oct 27		 26.25p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £852
a year, 2,500 kWh		 Term not published
£100 to leave early		 75%
satisfied		 Fixed price
12 EDF Energy
Simply Fixed Sep27
New sign ups close 1 Oct 26		 27.89p
per kWh		 53.60p
per day		 £893
a year, 2,500 kWh		 Term not published
£50 to leave early		 75%
satisfied		 Fixed price
Ranked on annual cost, never on what anyone pays us. We take no commission on energy at all. The order you see is the order the arithmetic produces.

Reading the contract column

An exit fee is charged per fuel, which is how suppliers publish it, so leaving a dual fuel contract early usually means paying it twice. Most fixed tariffs let you leave free in the last 49 days, and Ofgem requires that.

Not published is not the same as none. Free to leave means the supplier published a fee of zero. Exit fee not published means they did not publish one at all and your own contract is the thing to check. No fixed term is what a variable tariff has; term not published means a fixed tariff whose length the supplier did not state.

Electricity prices by regionAll fourteen, one page each

Electricity prices by region

Britain has fourteen electricity regions and the price is different in every one. Each page carries that region's cap rates, the cheapest tariffs we can verify there, and the postcode areas it covers.

Your fix ended, and what that costsThe gap between the cap and the cheapest fix

When a fixed tariff ends and you do nothing you are moved onto your supplier's default tariff, which is the one the price cap applies to. Nobody writes to tell you. Here is the gap between that and the cheapest fix we can verify, region by region, and the exit fee rules if you are still inside a fix.

What being out of contract costs →

How much energy should you be usingThe bands, what they mean, and what each costs

Ofgem quotes every headline bill at one consumption figure, and almost every other site tells you that figure means a particular size of house. It does not. Here is what the low, medium and high bands actually are, what each one costs in your region, and how to find your own number instead.

How much should you be using →

What you might be owedHelp that routinely goes unclaimed

What you might be owed

Routinely unclaimed. We do not administer any of these and take nothing for pointing at them.

Warm Home Discount

£150 off your electricity bill as a credit, or a voucher on prepayment

On a means tested benefit, with your name on the electricity bill, on the qualifying date of 23 August 2026. Reopens October 2026. Not available in Northern Ireland.

Winter Fuel Payment

£100 to £300 depending on age band and household

State Pension age. Qualifying week 21 to 27 September 2026. Clawed back through tax above £35,000 income.

Cold Weather Payment

£25 per seven day period at 0°C or below

On certain benefits. The 2026/27 dates have not yet been published.

If you cannot payWhat to do first, and who to ring

If you cannot pay

Knowing what a bill should cost is no use if you cannot afford it. None of this costs anything and none of it goes through us.

Tell your supplier before you miss a payment

They are obliged to work with you. Ask for an affordable repayment plan, a review of your direct debit, or Fuel Direct, where payments come straight from your benefits. They cannot refuse to discuss it.

Get on the Priority Services Register

Free, from your supplier and your network operator. Gets you advance warning of interruptions, priority in a power cut, help reading your meter, and protection from disconnection if you are of pension age or have a long term illness. You do not have to be on benefits.

You cannot be disconnected in winter if you are vulnerable

Suppliers signed up to a commitment not to knowingly disconnect households with children under 16 or a pensioner between 1 October and 31 March.

Ask your council about the Household Support Fund

Money distributed by councils for food, energy and essentials. Every council runs it differently and most people have never heard of it.

Escalate to the Energy Ombudsman

Free. If your supplier has not resolved a complaint in eight weeks, or has issued a deadlock letter, the Ombudsman can order it to put things right.

Free debt advice, from people who are not selling anything. Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline are all free, confidential and independent. Never pay a company for debt advice you can get from any of these for nothing.
What you need to knowThe things that stop the figure being misread

What you need to know

The things that stop the headline figure being misread.

  • The cap limits unit rates and standing charges on default tariffs. It does not cap your bill. Use more, pay more.
  • £1,723 is an illustration at typical consumption, not a maximum. Ofgem cut its typical consumption assumption on 1 July 2026 to 2,500 kWh electricity and 9,500 kWh gas, down from 2,700 and 11,500.
  • That change is a trap in the numbers. April to June was £1,641 on the old assumption. You cannot read £1,641 to £1,663 to £1,723 as a cash series, because the middle figure is measured differently.
  • Gas bills rise about 8% this period. Electricity is broadly flat because VAT on domestic electricity was cut from 5% to 0%.
  • The cap covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has no Ofgem cap and is regulated separately by the Utility Regulator.
  • Where the money goes on a direct debit bill: wholesale 47%, networks 24%, operating and debt costs 17%, policy 6%, supplier profit 2.7%. The remaining 3.3% is VAT on gas, headroom and levelisation.
  • Suppliers must now offer at least one lower standing charge tariff. Ofgem itself warns this is unlikely to cut bills, because the unit rate goes up instead.
What is changing, and whenDated, not forecast

What is changing, and when

Already dated. Nothing here is a forecast.

26days 21 September 2026 · Energy

Winter Fuel Payment qualifying week runs to 27 September. Where you live and who you live with during this week decides whether you get £100, £200 or £300. In Scotland the same week decides the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

36days 1 October 2026 · Energy

The October price cap takes effect at £1,723, and VAT on domestic electricity drops from 5% to 0% across Great Britain.

36days 1 October 2026 · Energy

Warm Home Discount reopens for winter 2026/27 at £150.

36days 1 October 2026 · Energy

The Warm Home Discount reopens. £150 off the electricity bill, automatic in England and Wales, but Scottish households in the broader group have to apply to their supplier and funding is limited.

54days 19 October 2026 · Energy

Midday deadline to opt out of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment in Scotland, for anyone who would rather not receive it than have HMRC recover it later.

67days 1 November 2026 · Energy

Cold Weather Payment season opens in Northern Ireland, running to 31 March 2027. £25 for each seven day spell at or below zero. The England and Wales season dates for this winter have not been published.

128days 1 January 2027 · Energy

The January to March 2027 price cap takes effect. Ofgem has not published the announcement date.

217days 31 March 2027 · Energy

The zero rate of VAT on electricity ends and reverts to 5%. Worth about £45 a year, a built in April bill rise with nothing to do with wholesale prices.

The full published figuresCheck our working

The full published figures, for anyone who wants to check our working or find their own line.

Unit rates and standing charges, 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2026

GB average, VAT inclusive. Electricity VAT is 0% this period, gas remains at 5%. The direct debit row is published by Ofgem. The standard credit and prepayment rows are derived from Ofgem's statutory cap tables, averaged across the 14 regions; the method reproduces the published direct debit figures to the penny.

Scroll sideways to see every column

Payment methodFuelUnit rateStanding chargeSource
Direct debitElectricity26.32p/kWh54.83p/dayPublished
Direct debitGas7.97p/kWh29.68p/dayPublished
Standard creditElectricity27.80p/kWh63.49p/dayDerived
Standard creditGas8.39p/kWh37.49p/dayDerived
PrepaymentElectricity25.52p/kWh54.83p/dayDerived
PrepaymentGas7.70p/kWh29.68p/dayDerived

Electricity standing charge by region, direct debit

Pence per day, 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2026, VAT at 0%. Derived from Ofgem's cap tables. The spread between the cheapest and dearest region is 58%, or about £90 a year, for identical electricity.

Scroll sideways to see every column

RegionStanding chargeUnit rate
London42.92p26.60p
North Western England45.68p26.49p
Southern England47.81p26.47p
East Midlands51.45p25.36p
Eastern England51.84p26.61p
South Eastern England52.32p26.88p
Northern Scotland55.14p26.35p
Southern Wales55.41p26.55p
South Western England55.58p26.58p
West Midlands57.23p25.60p
Southern Scotland61.41p26.11p
North Eastern England61.58p25.46p
Yorkshire61.67p25.60p
Merseyside and Northern Wales67.66p27.86p
Recent changesWhat moved, and when

Recent changes

The whole log →
26 Aug 26Increase
EnergyOfgemEffective 1 Oct 26 Link

Energy price cap rises 4% to £1,723 from October

Announced at 07:00 this morning. The cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 is £1,723 a year for a typical dual fuel direct debit household, up £60 from £1,663. Gas bills rise about 8%; electricity is broadly flat because VAT on domestic electricity is being cut from 5% to 0% at the same moment. Standard credit goes to £1,861 and prepayment to £1,678. About 35% of households are on fixed tariffs and are unaffected.

At least one tariff site is currently publishing £1,935 for this period. Ofgem's own press release and its summary of changes both say £1,723.

Source: Ofgem

Where this comes from, and where it could be wrongEvery source, and the limits

Known limits of this page

The date Ofgem will announce the January to March 2027 cap is not published. The quarterly pattern suggests late November, but we will not state a date we cannot source.

The standard credit and prepayment unit rates on this page are derived from Ofgem's statutory tables rather than published directly in that form. The method reproduces every published figure exactly, but it is derived and labelled as such.

Sources

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