Go and Intelligent Go

If you charge an electric vehicle at home, Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go are usually the first two Octopus tariffs to understand. Both give you a cheaper overnight electricity window for the whole home. The main choice is whether you want a simple fixed timer, or a smart-charging setup that can move your car charging around for you.

The prices on this page come from the site’s generated Octopus rate snapshot and are shown as regional ranges. They are useful for orientation, not a substitute for checking your own postcode on the Go or Intelligent Octopus Go tariff pages.

Quick answer

Choose Go if you want the simpler EV tariff. You set your car or charger to charge between 00:30 and 05:30, and anything your home uses in that window is billed at the lower Go rate.

Choose Intelligent Octopus Go if you have a compatible car or charger and are happy for Octopus to schedule charging through the app. You get the longer 23:30 to 05:30 whole-home cheap window, plus smart-charge slots when Octopus schedules the car outside that core window.

If your charger, car or smart meter setup is uncertain, check compatibility before treating Intelligent Go as available. Standard Go is often the fall-back EV option, but it still depends on Octopus accepting your smart-meter setup.

How Go works

Go is the simpler of the two. You get two electricity rates: a cheaper overnight rate of 9.5p/kWh and a standard day rate. The overnight window is 00:30 to 05:30. During those five hours, electricity used by the whole home is billed at the off-peak rate. It is not limited to the car charger.

The day rate on Go is normally higher than Octopus Flexible. That is the trade-off. Go tends to work best when a meaningful amount of electricity can be shifted into the cheap window, especially EV charging, battery charging, dishwashers or other planned overnight loads.

Octopus presents Go as an EV tariff and its current signup flow asks about EV and smart-meter eligibility. It works with any EV and charger once the tariff is active, but you should still check the live Go page if you are trying to use it for a battery-only or unusual setup.

How Intelligent Octopus Go differs

Intelligent Octopus Go is the smart-charging version. The core cheap window is longer: 23:30 to 05:30, with off-peak electricity at 8.0p/kWh for the whole home. That extra hour can matter if you need to add a lot of range overnight or want to run household loads before midnight.

The practical difference is scheduling. You connect a compatible EV or charger in the Octopus app, set when you need the car ready and say how much charge you want. Octopus then schedules charging. Some slots may sit inside the 23:30 to 05:30 window; others can appear outside it. When Octopus schedules a smart-charge slot outside the core window, the whole home should also receive the discounted rate for those half-hour periods.

There is an important limit. Octopus now frames Intelligent Go around up to six hours of smart charging at the cheap rate in a 24-hour period. If your requested charge would need more than that, the extra charging may be billed at the standard day rate unless you use the app’s cost controls. The safest habit is to check the schedule before charging and check the bill afterwards if a session looks unusual.

Off-peak windows in detail

Go: 00:30 to 05:30 at 9.5p/kWh. Five hours. On a 7kW home charger, that is often enough for roughly 100 to 150 miles of driving, depending on the car, weather and charging losses.

Intelligent Octopus Go: 23:30 to 05:30 at 8.0p/kWh. Six hours. On a 7kW charger, that can often cover around 150 to 180 miles, again depending on the car and conditions. Smart scheduling can add cheap-rate charging outside this window when Octopus schedules it.

Both tariffs are electricity-only. If you also have gas, that stays on a separate gas tariff, usually Flexible.

The day-rate trade-off

The number to watch is not only the cheap overnight rate. The day rate on Go and Intelligent Octopus Go can be higher than Flexible, and it applies to daytime electricity across the home.

For many EV households, the overnight saving outweighs the higher day rate because car charging is such a large load. For a household that only charges at home occasionally, uses a lot of electricity during the day, or cannot reliably use the cheap window, the saving can be much smaller.

Use the tariff comparison tool if you want a postcode-specific view. A national average or a single example rate can make the decision look simpler than it really is.

Eligibility and setup checks

For both tariffs, Octopus needs a smart meter that can send half-hourly readings. SMETS2 meters and some SMETS1 meters can work, but the practical question is whether Octopus can connect to the meter and receive the right data.

If you switch to Octopus first or have a new smart meter fitted, there can be a setup period while the meter is connected and half-hourly readings settle. Octopus’s Go guidance refers to this taking around 14 days in some cases. Do not assume you can move to the EV tariff on the same day your meter is installed.

For Intelligent Octopus Go, you also need either a compatible EV or a compatible smart charger. The list changes as Octopus adds integrations, so check it before buying a charger or assuming your car will connect.

Compatible chargers for Intelligent Octopus Go

Common compatible charger names include Ohme, Hypervolt, Indra, Wallbox, myenergi zappi, Andersen and VCHRGD. Some EVs can connect directly without relying on the charger integration, including Tesla and several Volkswagen Group models, but support depends on the exact vehicle and Octopus’s current list.

Treat any static list as a starting point only. Before spending money, check the current Octopus compatibility checker and think about how you want to control charging day to day. A charger can be technically compatible and still feel fiddly if the app flow does not suit you.

Solar, batteries and export tariffs

Go can work well with a home battery because you may be able to charge the battery overnight and use that stored electricity during the day. Solar homes also need to check export compatibility. Octopus says Go can now pair with Outgoing Octopus, but export rules and rates can change, so do not assume every export setup carries over untouched.

Intelligent Octopus Go can also suit some solar and battery households, especially where the EV is the largest controllable load. The decision becomes less simple if you are also trying to optimise export, battery charging and daytime self-consumption. In that case, read the battery storage strategies guide as well as this EV tariff guide.

A rough annual charging example

For a driver covering about 8,000 miles a year and using roughly 2,400kWh for home charging, the current generated ranges give this broad shape:

On Flexible electricity: roughly £568–£664 a year for home charging at 23.7p–27.6p/kWh

On Go off-peak electricity: roughly £228 a year for home charging at 9.5p/kWh

On Intelligent Octopus Go off-peak electricity: roughly £192 a year for home charging at 8.0p/kWh

That example ignores the higher day rate, charging losses, public charging and your actual miles per kWh. It is enough to show why home EV charging can change the tariff decision, but your own usage pattern matters more than the headline overnight number.

My view

If you have a compatible car or charger and charge at home regularly, Intelligent Octopus Go is usually the stronger starting point because of the longer fixed cheap window and smart scheduling. If you want a simpler tariff, cannot connect your hardware or prefer to control the timer yourself, Go is easier to understand and still gives a useful overnight window.

Neither tariff is automatically best just because the overnight rate is low. Check the day rate, standing charge, export setup, smart-meter status and charger compatibility before switching. If you decide Octopus is right for you, the referral-code page explains how to use Matt’s link without turning the tariff decision into a sales pitch.