Octopus SEG Tariff: Outgoing Octopus Rates, Eligibility and How It Compares

Octopus Energy is a mandatory licensee under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) and has built its reputation on paying solar owners properly for what they export. Its export payments come under the Outgoing Octopus banner, with a flat fixed-rate option and a half-hourly Agile variant. Octopus consistently tops the SEG comparison tables — but the rate changed in March 2026, and the eligibility rules still shut out most balcony solar owners.

What is Outgoing Octopus?

The Smart Export Guarantee replaced the Feed-in Tariff in January 2020, and Octopus was the first supplier to launch a smart export tariff under it. Outgoing Octopus is how Octopus meets its SEG obligation, and unlike most legacy suppliers it treats export as a product to compete on rather than a box to tick. Export is read from your smart meter’s half-hourly export register and paid as credit to your Octopus account.

There are two main variants — Outgoing Fixed (a flat rate all day, every day) and Agile Outgoing (a rate that changes every half hour with day-ahead wholesale prices). Octopus also runs speciality export products such as Prime Outgoing, which pays 16p/kWh during the 4pm–7pm peak and 9p/kWh at other times, plus Flux tariffs designed around home batteries.

Octopus export rates (July 2026)

Outgoing Octopus Fixed was cut from 15p to 12p per kWh on 1 March 2026 — the first change since September 2022. Even after the cut it remains among the best flat export rates on the market.

*Agile Outgoing average measured April 2025 to April 2026. Rates as of July 2026 — Octopus revises these with notice, so confirm the live figure before applying.

Who is eligible for the Octopus SEG tariff?

Outgoing Octopus is stricter than some SEG tariffs because it requires you to be an Octopus customer on both sides. The full list:

• You must be on an Octopus import tariff — unlike the baseline SEG products from British Gas or EDF, Outgoing Octopus is not open to customers who import elsewhere.
• You need a smart meter capable of half-hourly export readings (most SMETS2 and many SMETS1 meters), plus an export MPAN assigned by your Distribution Network Operator.
• Your installation must hold an MCS certificate or the equivalent Flexi-Orb certification, proving it was fitted by an accredited installer.
• You cannot switch onto Outgoing if you have received Feed-in Tariff payments in the last 12 months.

How Octopus compares to other suppliers

Even after the March 2026 cut, Octopus’s 12p flat rate is roughly four times the baseline rate at British Gas or EDF. If you have an MCS-certified system and export a real surplus, Octopus is usually the benchmark every other tariff gets measured against.

Indicative rates as of July 2026, drawn from supplier sites and the Ofgem SEG register. Rates change often — always verify before switching.

For a complete side-by-side of every major UK export rate, see our SEG export rates comparison for 2026. If you are weighing up the legacy suppliers instead, our EDF SEG tariff guide and British Gas SEG tariff guide break down their Export + Earn and Export & Earn Flex products in detail.

Agile Outgoing: worth it if you qualify?

Agile Outgoing pays a different rate every half hour, tracking day-ahead wholesale prices with no cap. Octopus publishes the next day’s rates each afternoon. Over the year to April 2026 it averaged around 9.4p/kWh — below the 12p fixed rate — but winter evening peaks regularly exceed 20p and occasionally 30p.

That shape tells you who it suits: households with a battery that can hold generation back and dump it into the 4pm–7pm peak. If you export passively whenever the sun shines — which is exactly when wholesale prices are lowest — you will usually earn less on Agile than on Fixed. No battery, no Agile, is a fair rule of thumb.

What this means for balcony solar specifically

For balcony and plug-in solar owners, Outgoing Octopus — like every SEG tariff — is currently out of reach because of the MCS certification requirement. The government’s March 2026 legalisation announcement acknowledged this gap, and a simplified registration route for plug-in devices is under consultation (industry expectation is 2027). Until it lands, balcony solar pays you back through self-consumption, not export earnings — and the good news is that self-consumption is worth roughly twice as much per kWh as even Octopus’s export rate, because every unit you use replaces electricity bought at import prices.

That makes using as much of your own generation as possible the priority. Our self-consumption guide and smart tariffs guide explain how to maximise the value of every unit you generate while SEG access for plug-in solar remains pending — including how Octopus’s import tariffs can still work well alongside a balcony system today.

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