Octopus Tracker

Reviewed 23 May 2026: checked against Octopus's Tracker page, Tracker FAQs and smart-tariff terms. Tracker prices change daily and vary by region, so use this as a decision guide and check your own postcode before switching.

Octopus Tracker is a smart tariff where your electricity, gas or both can follow daily wholesale market prices. It is more transparent than a standard variable tariff, but it is not a guaranteed cheap option every day.

The useful question is not simply whether today's Tracker rate looks good. It is whether your household can live with daily price movement, a higher spike ceiling than the Ofgem cap and the rule that makes rejoining harder if you leave early.

Quick answers

Is Tracker fixed or variable?

It is a 12-month fixed-term tariff for the formula and standing charge, but the unit rate changes every day with wholesale prices.

Do you need a smart meter?

Octopus says new Tracker signups need a working smart meter sending regular readings. If readings later fail, keep manual readings tidy while it is fixed.

What if you leave?

There is no exit fee, but leaving during the term usually means waiting 9 months before you can rejoin Tracker.

Sources checked 23 May 2026: Octopus Tracker page, Octopus Tracker FAQs, Octopus smart-tariff terms and Citizens Advice smart-meter guidance.

How Tracker pricing works

Octopus publishes a daily unit rate linked to independently published wholesale market prices. Electricity is based on the previous day's day-ahead electricity auction. Gas follows a day-ahead or weekend wholesale gas price.

Unlike Agile, Tracker does not change every half hour. You get one daily unit rate for electricity and one for gas if you take both fuels. That makes it simpler to understand than Agile, but less predictable than Flexible Octopus or a fixed tariff.

Tracker is a 12-month fixed-term tariff in a specific sense: the formula and standing charges are fixed for the term, while the unit rates still change each day. New customers and renewals join the latest formula, and Octopus reviews the formula when the wider price-cap period changes.

The main risk is the spike ceiling

Octopus has a Price Cap Protect ceiling on Tracker. At the time of this review, it caps daily unit rates at 100p/kWh for electricity and 30p/kWh for gas. Those are safety limits against extreme market spikes, not normal target prices.

Those ceilings are much higher than the Ofgem default-tariff cap. If your household could not cope with a short period of much higher unit rates, Flexible Octopus, a fixed tariff or another protected option may be a safer place to start.

Octopus's own Tracker wording also warns that prices are usually lower in warmer months and can rise when heating demand returns. That seasonal pattern matters more for gas-heavy homes than for a home that can shift electric use with a battery or low overnight demand.

Who Tracker can suit

• People who understand variable pricing. You can see the formula and the daily rate, and you are comfortable checking whether that still fits your budget.
• Homes that dislike half-hourly scheduling. Tracker gives some wholesale-market exposure without asking you to plan around 48 daily Agile slots.
• Households with some risk tolerance. Tracker can be attractive when wholesale prices fall, but the trade-off is accepting faster movement when they rise.
• Dual-fuel customers who want one transparent model. Tracker can cover electricity and gas, although the gas side may matter most in winter.

Who should think twice

• Anyone who needs bill certainty. Daily price movement can be annoying or stressful if the household budget is tight.
• Homes that could not absorb a price spike. Price Cap Protect is a backstop, but it still allows prices far above ordinary protected tariffs.
• People without working smart-meter readings. Tracker needs Octopus to connect to a compatible smart meter and collect the readings needed for the tariff.
• Customers who may want to leave and quickly come back. Octopus says there is no exit fee, but if you leave during the fixed term you cannot rejoin Tracker for 9 months.

How to compare it with other Octopus tariffs

Compare Tracker against your real use pattern, not against a single good day. Check the daily rate for your region, your standing charge, your gas use in colder months, whether Octopus is receiving the smart-meter readings it needs and whether a fixed tariff would give enough certainty to be worth the trade-off.

If readings go missing, keep manual readings, bills and screenshots organised, but remember that Octopus billing depends on smart-meter data and its tariff terms. Third-party apps and home-automation records can help explain what happened; they are not the final billing record.

If you have an EV, also compare Tracker with Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go. If you have a battery or can shift a lot of electricity away from peaks, compare it with Agile too. If you mainly want a quieter default, start with Flexible Octopus or a current fixed offer.

The tariff comparison tool can help you check live regional rates. Once you have found the tariff that fits, the referral-code page explains how Matt's Octopus referral link works if you decide to switch.