Octopus Tracker explained: how the daily price is set
Tracker is Octopus's tariff where the electricity and gas unit rates change every day in line with the wholesale market, worked out with a formula Octopus publishes. It's a 12-month tariff with no exit fee, and a daily cap limits how high the price can go.
Econotion · Updated 1 November 2026 · From Octopus's published terms and FAQs. We're on Octopus Go, not Tracker.
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Octopus Tracker sets a new unit rate for electricity and gas every day. The electricity price is the previous day's wholesale baseload price multiplied by 1.30, plus a fixed regional amount (9.513p/kWh in South Scotland and 9.717p/kWh in London for anyone joining since 1 April 2026), and it can't go above 100p/kWh. On our sums that comes in below the price cap's 26.32p/kWh on days when the wholesale price is under about 12.9p/kWh. It suits households that want their price to follow the market without managing half-hourly slots.
Tracker is only open to Octopus customers with a working smart meter. If you're not with Octopus yet, Octopus says to switch to Flexible Octopus first and come back to its Tracker page to sign up, and it says connecting to a smart meter generally takes around 14 days. Check the formula for your region on Octopus's site before you decide.
How Tracker works
Tracker changes price once a day rather than every half hour, so the rate you pay at 7am is the same as the rate at 7pm. Octopus works out each day's price from an independently published wholesale price, using a formula it sets out in its Tracker FAQs:
unit rate = (W × k) + c
- W is the wholesale price. For electricity it's the baseload average price from the previous day's N2EX GB day-ahead auction, in p/kWh. For gas it's the day-ahead or weekend price on the previous working day from Marex Spectron.
- k is a multiplier, which is 1.30 for electricity in the regions below.
- c is a fixed amount per kWh that varies by region.
If Octopus hasn't received the pricing data by 22:00 the day before, it carries on using the most recent data it has. You can see the current day's price on Octopus's website or in its app.
The formula by region
These are the electricity formulas in Octopus's Tracker FAQs for anyone joining or renewing on or after 1 April 2026. The FAQs list all 14 regions.
| Region | Electricity unit rate (p/kWh) |
|---|---|
| South Scotland | (W × 1.30) + 9.513 |
| London | (W × 1.30) + 9.717 |
Octopus says the formula and the standing charge are set for the length of your 12-month term, and that it reviews them every three months when the price cap changes, so someone joining later may get different numbers. Its FAQs put the Tracker standing charge 4% below the price cap's. VAT on home electricity is 0% from 1 October 2026 until 31 March 2027.
The daily price caps
Octopus calls its cap Price Cap Protect. It limits the daily unit rate to 100p/kWh for electricity and 30p/kWh for gas, however high the wholesale price goes. That's a ceiling for very unusual days, and well above what the formula gives at normal wholesale prices.
A worked example
Using the South Scotland electricity formula, here's what Tracker charges at three wholesale prices:
- a wholesale price of 8p/kWh (£80/MWh) gives a Tracker rate of about 19.9p/kWh
- 12p/kWh (£120/MWh) gives about 25.1p/kWh
- 16p/kWh (£160/MWh) gives about 30.3p/kWh
The price cap's electricity rate is 26.32p/kWh from 1 October to 31 December 2026, so Tracker's electricity rate is lower on any day the wholesale price is under about 12.9p/kWh in South Scotland, or about 12.8p/kWh in London. These are our calculations from the formula Octopus publishes. They leave out the standing charge, and they aren't a forecast or a promise of what you'll pay.
The contract
- A 12-month term, with the formula and standing charge set for that term.
- No exit fee, but if you leave within the 12 months Octopus says you can't rejoin Tracker for 9 months.
- You need a working smart meter. Octopus can connect to SMETS2 meters and some SMETS1 meters.
- Octopus's FAQs say your direct debit stays at the amount it was on Flexible Octopus.
- It can't be combined with Octopus Power Pack, the vehicle-to-grid add-on.
Who it suits, and who it doesn't
It suits you if you want your price to follow the wholesale market but don't want to move your usage around half-hourly slots, and you're comfortable with your unit rate going up as well as down from one day to the next.
It's unlikely to suit you if:
- you want to know what you'll pay for the next year, in which case a fixed tariff is the one to compare
- an EV is your main load, as you can only be on one import tariff at a time and Octopus Go gives a fixed cheap window every night
- you have a battery or other loads you can schedule around the cheapest half hours, which is what Agile is built for
- your home is heated by a heat pump, where Cosy Octopus is the tariff built for it
Compare Tracker's formula for your region with the fixed rate Octopus quotes for your postcode. Take the fixed rate, subtract the regional amount and divide by 1.30, and that's the wholesale price at which the two cost the same per kWh, so you can decide whether you're comfortable with days above it. The price cap page has the current cap rates to compare against, and Octopus's Tracker page has the current terms.
Sources
- Octopus Tracker product page (price caps and how to join, checked 1 November 2026)
- Octopus Tracker FAQs (formula, regional figures, term, exit rules and standing charge, checked 1 November 2026)
- Octopus Power Pack (tariffs it can't be combined with, checked 1 November 2026)
- Ofgem: price cap unit rates and standing charges (1 October to 31 December 2026, checked 1 November 2026)
- GOV.UK: VAT cut on household electricity
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