Agile Outgoing or Outgoing Octopus with a home battery?
For one real home over 34 days this autumn, the flat 12p of Outgoing Octopus came out £12.15 ahead of Agile Outgoing, with the battery planned every half hour on both. Here is why, when it could go the other way, and the one thing about your connection that mattered more than either tariff.
The flat 12p beat Agile Outgoing by £12.15.
These are a real home’s days: a 27 kWh battery and 13 kWp of panels in the North West of England, from 3 September to 7 October 2026. Its own half hours of sun and use were run through each tariff, with Orza planning the battery on both, and Agile Octopus for the electricity it bought both times.
Every plan was made on what was known at the time: the forecast, the prices published so far and how the house had been using power. Never on the sun or the prices that came.
- Net cost with Agile Outgoing
- £14.17
- Net cost with Outgoing Octopus, 12p
- £2.02
- Less on Outgoing Octopus
- £12.15
- Net cost with the battery left to itself, either tariff
- £119.42
What the electricity cost over the 34 days, less what export paid. Charge left in the battery at the end counts at what it would cost to put back. Standing charges are left out. Prices are the ones Octopus published for this home’s region; Outgoing Octopus has paid 12p a kWh since 1 March 2026.
The sun goes out at midday, and Agile Outgoing pays least at midday.
Agile Outgoing has a new price every half hour, like Agile itself. Outgoing Octopus pays the same 12p whenever you export. Which is worth more depends on when your home sends power out.
- From 10am to 3pm, Agile Outgoing averaged 10.1pUnder the 12p flat rate, in the hours a roof sends out the most. Every kWh of sun the battery had no room for was worth more on Outgoing Octopus.
- Its best three hours of each day averaged 24.1pThat is where Agile Outgoing wins: selling charge from the battery into the early evening, when the price is high.
- But that charge has to come from somewhereEither charge the house would have used itself, or electricity bought overnight. Agile’s cheapest four hours each day averaged 15.2p, so after what a battery loses going in and out, selling it again cleared 7.2p a kWh on average, and paid on 21 of the 35 days.
- For this home, the sun was worth more than the evening salesA big roof in September exports a lot at midday. 12p on all of it beat the evening margin on part of it.
Agile Outgoing and Agile Octopus prices as Octopus published them for this home’s region, 3 September to 7 October 2026. Times are UK clock time. Read 12 October 2026.
Neither season looks likely to turn it round.
Autumn is one season. The question is whether winter, with little sun and the evening peak, changes the answer. These are the same region’s prices, not this home’s days, since there are none yet from last winter to run.
Agile Outgoing, by season
- Last winter, the evening was worth lessFrom November 2025 to February 2026 its best three hours averaged 16.9p. Buying the cheapest four hours to sell in the best three cleared 1.6p a kWh, and paid on 58 of 120 days.
- This summer, the middle of the day paid 9.2pFrom June to August 2026, eight in ten half hours between 10am and 3pm paid less than 12p, in the months a roof exports most.
- So the flat rate held its lead on paperMost of a solar home’s export is in daylight, where 12p came out ahead in every season. Agile Outgoing’s evening edge was smallest in winter.
Your export limit moved this home’s figures more than the tariff did.
Most homes may send up to 3.68 kW to the grid (16 amps on one phase) without the network operator agreeing to more. That is the G98 limit. A bigger system needs G99 approval, which often comes with a limit of its own. Your inverter holds export to it, whatever the sun and the battery could give.
On an export tariff, that limit sets how much you can sell in a half hour. This home has sent out as much as 6.65 kW, so its own limit is at least that. Here are the same 34 days with its export held to different limits.
How Orza plansThe same home on Outgoing Octopus, 12p
- Nothing holding export back: £12.55 earnedExport paid for more than the electricity the home bought.
- At its own limit, 6.65 kW: £2.02 spentThe figure at the top of this page.
- Held to 3.68 kW: £15.26 spent£27.81 more than with no limit, over 34 days. More than twice the gap between the two tariffs.
- On Agile Outgoing it moved too£9.59 spent with no limit, £14.17 at 6.65 kW, £19.44 at 3.68 kW.
Orza finds a home’s export limit from its own readings and plans every sale within it.
Being paid for export was worth up to £43 over the 34 days.
The same days at this home’s own export limit, on four ways of buying and selling with Octopus. Standing charges differ between these tariffs and are left out, so the lowest figure here is not automatically the lowest bill.
| Tariff | Battery left to itself | Planned by Orza | Best possible | How close Orza came |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agile, nothing paid for export | £119.42 | £45.46 | £39.01 | 92.0% |
| Agile with Agile Outgoing | £119.42 | £14.17 | £8.66 | 95.0% |
| Agile with Outgoing Octopus, 12p | £119.42 | £2.02 | −£3.64 | 95.4% |
| Flux | £112.23 | £27.32 | £19.94 | 92.0% |
Net cost over 34 days: what the electricity cost, less what export paid, with charge left in the battery at the end counted at what it would cost to put back. Best possible is the same days planned knowing in advance exactly what the sun, the house and the prices would do, which no planner can know. How close Orza came is the share of that best saving, over the battery left to itself, that Orza’s plan reached. Flux is the same days on its own published prices. Octopus Go isn’t here: Octopus pairs Go with its own export rate for Go customers (Outgoing Fixed Lite), not with Outgoing Octopus, and doesn’t publish that rate.
- Planning did most of the workLeft to itself, the battery came to £119.42 on Agile. Planned every half hour, the same battery came to £45.46 with nothing paid for export at all.
- Export payment added £31 to £43£31.29 more on Agile Outgoing, £43.44 more on Outgoing Octopus, against being paid nothing for export.
- Agile with the flat 12p came out lowest of the four£2.02, against £14.17 on Agile Outgoing and £27.32 on Flux. Before standing charges, and for a home with a big roof in autumn.
- Within reach of perfect hindsight on every tariffOrza’s plans reached between 92.0% and 95.4% of the best possible saving, planning only on what was known at the time.
Before you choose an export tariff.
One home’s 34 days are evidence, not a promise. These are the things that would change the answer for yours.
Agile with a home battery, in figuresWill my home get the same answer?
Not necessarily. It turns on how much of your export is sun at midday and how much is charge sold in the evening. A home with a small roof and a big battery that it fills cheaply overnight sends out less at midday and more in the evening, which is where Agile Outgoing pays more. Prices also differ by region.
Does the battery need to be planned for Agile Outgoing to pay?
Yes. Its edge is selling in the dearest half hours, and those move from day to day. Left to itself, this home’s battery came to £119.42 on either tariff over the 34 days: it sent nothing out, so the choice of export tariff made no difference at all.
How do I find my export limit?
It is on the G98 or G99 paperwork from your installation, and often in your inverter’s settings in its app. If you can’t find it, Orza works it out from your own readings: the most your home has been seen to send, or the figure its export keeps stopping at. More on export limits.
Does Orza choose my tariff?
No. It plans your battery around the tariff you are on, and shows day by day what its plan saved against what your battery really did. The figures on this page come from running one home’s days through each tariff.
What does Orza cost?
Nothing during the beta, and no card is needed to join.
See what your own export earns, planned every half hour.
Free during the beta. Connect in a few minutes, and start in Monitor only.