Public charging costs

Public charging prices still vary a lot by network, location, charger speed, payment method and time of day. It is usually much more expensive than charging at home, but it is not one single price. The useful question is whether you are using public charging occasionally for longer journeys or relying on it because home charging is not practical.

Quick answer

Zapmap’s June 2026 weighted PAYG averages put standard and standard-plus public charging, from 3kW up to 49kW, at about 54p/kWh. Rapid and ultra-rapid charging, 50kW and above, averaged about 79p/kWh. Zapmap’s July rapid-pricing page put the top rapid networks at about 61p/kWh to 92p/kWh on PAYG for June 2026, before any membership, roaming or partner discount.

That means public charging can still be useful and sometimes cheaper than petrol per mile, but it is a different proposition from home charging on Octopus Go or Intelligent Octopus Go. If you can charge at home, public chargers are best treated as journey support rather than your everyday fuel source.

Speed tiers and what they cost

Public chargers fall into three broad speed groups. The faster the charger, the more likely you are paying for convenience as well as energy.

Standard public charging, roughly 3kW to 7kW: These are the chargers you see in car parks, on residential streets and at some workplaces. They are similar to a home wallbox in speed, so they suit parking for a few hours rather than waiting in the car. Prices vary widely, but the current public-charging average for chargers below 50kW is about 54p/kWh.

Standard-plus or fast AC charging, roughly 8kW to 49kW: These are often found at destination locations such as shopping centres, leisure sites and town-centre car parks. A 22kW AC charger can be useful if your car can actually accept that AC speed, but many cars charge more slowly on AC even when the unit is rated higher.

Rapid and ultra-rapid charging, 50kW and above: These are the motorway, trunk-road and charging-hub units used on longer journeys. Zapmap’s latest rapid-pricing table puts the main rapid networks at roughly 63p/kWh to 92p/kWh on PAYG, with a weighted rapid and ultra-rapid average around 79p/kWh.

The useful current points are:

• Zapmap’s index is PAYG public charging, not a promise that every driver pays the same price after memberships, subscriptions, roaming cards or partner discounts. Zapmap also says the actual average paid can be lower where time-bound, location-specific or partner-specific deals apply.
• Rapid and ultra-rapid charging remains a convenience product for trips and top-ups. For routine charging, the home-tariff comparison still matters more than a single public charger headline price.
• Electroverse can be useful for price visibility and Octopus Go or Intelligent Octopus Go discounts, but the in-app charger price at the time of charging is the practical source of truth.
• If you cannot charge at home, compare your real weekly network mix rather than assuming one national average. Slower on-street, workplace or destination charging may be cheaper than repeated motorway rapid sessions.

Major networks and what to watch

Network pricing changes often, so the safer way to compare is by payment model rather than memorising one fixed number.

Tesla Supercharger: Many UK Tesla sites are open to non-Tesla EVs. Zapmap’s July 2026 rapid-pricing page says Tesla is currently the cheapest top-10 rapid network, with most open locations charging about 61p/kWh during daytime hours. Prices vary by site and time of day, so check the Tesla app before relying on a specific rate.

Ionity, Gridserve, bp pulse, InstaVolt, Osprey and others: These networks can be convenient for motorway and rapid-hub charging, but PAYG prices can sit much higher than home charging. Zapmap’s July 2026 top-network table puts InstaVolt at the upper end of PAYG rapid pricing, around 92p/kWh, while Sainsbury’s Smart Charge, Believ, Tesla and some subscriptions or partner offers can be lower.

Destination and supermarket charging: Some slower destination chargers are still free or cheap, but it is less common than it used to be. Treat any free supermarket, hotel or workplace charger as a bonus rather than a planning assumption.

Octopus Electroverse

Octopus Electroverse is the Octopus public charging card and app. It can be helpful because it lets you see prices before you start, use one account across many networks and sometimes access discounts without opening separate network accounts.

Current Electroverse benefits include:

• Single account: one card or app across a large UK and European charging network.
• Price visibility: you can check the price before starting a session. Electroverse says the price shown in the app is the price you will be charged, even when it differs from a network’s own direct price.
• Octopus customer discounts: Electroverse says Octopus Go customers can get 5% off and Intelligent Octopus Go customers can get 8% off public charging through Electroverse when they link their Octopus Energy account.
• Partner offers: examples include time-limited network discounts, subscriptions and Plunge Pricing events when renewable generation is high and demand is low.

Electroverse will not always beat a network’s own subscription, especially if you use the same rapid network every week. Its strength is convenience, app price visibility and occasional cross-network discounts, not a guarantee that every charger will be the cheapest route.

Membership schemes vs pay-as-you-go

Most large rapid networks now have some mix of PAYG, app pricing, subscription pricing, roaming cards and partner discounts. Whether a subscription is worth it depends on how much public charging you actually do.

If you charge at home most of the time and only rapid-charge on occasional longer trips, PAYG or Electroverse is usually simpler. A monthly fee can wipe out the saving if you only use that network once.

If you do not have home charging and rely on public chargers every week, subscriptions can make sense. The key is to choose the network you already use regularly near home, work or regular journeys, rather than chasing a discount that is awkward to use.

The real cost comparison

Here is where home charging on a smart tariff puts things in perspective. Take a 60kWh battery going from 20% to 80%, a typical charge of about 36kWh:

• Home on Intelligent Go (8.0p/kWh): £2.88
• Home on standard tariff (25.1p–27.7p/kWh): £9.04–£9.96
• Public standard or standard-plus charger at about 54p/kWh: £19.44
• Public rapid or ultra-rapid charger at about 79p/kWh: £28.44

The same 36kWh charge can cost roughly ten times as much on an average rapid public charger as it does at home on Intelligent Go. That does not make public charging bad. It just means a household with reliable home charging should do most routine charging at home and save rapid charging for the journeys where speed matters.

Use the EV calculator if you want to compare your own mileage, home tariff and likely public charging mix.

Finding chargers

Zapmap is still one of the most useful UK tools for finding public chargers. It shows location, connector type, network, live status where available and pricing information. For longer journeys, A Better Routeplanner can also be useful because it plans charging stops around your car model, battery level and route.

Your car’s built-in navigation may be best for preconditioning and routing to chargers it knows about, especially on motorway trips. For payment and price checks, the network’s own app, Electroverse or Zapmap can still be worth checking before you arrive.

When public charging makes sense

Public charging is not a failure case. It is the right tool in several situations:

• Long journeys: rapid and ultra-rapid chargers save time when you are away from home.
• No home charging: if you live in a flat or park on the street, public, workplace or council-backed on-street charging may be your main option.
• Opportunity charging: workplace, hotel, supermarket or town-centre chargers can be useful if the price is sensible and you would be parked anyway.
• Emergency top-ups: a short rapid session can be worth the price if it gets you home comfortably.

A good rule is to charge at home whenever you reasonably can, use slower public chargers when they fit your parking and use rapid chargers when speed matters more than the price per kWh.

Octopus Energy rates update automatically. Other supplier rates and public charging costs were correct as of July 2026 and may have changed.