Octopus Charge review

Octopus Charge is the energy supplier’s own-brand 7.4kW home charger. Octopus designs it, installs it, supports it and runs the app, so one company answers for the charger and for Intelligent Octopus Go (IOG), its cheap-rate smart tariff. That is also the limit. You cannot buy the charger without Octopus’s installation, and outside Octopus tariffs it works as a scheduled or plug-and-charge unit.

Price and what’s included

Octopus sells Octopus Charge only as a fitted package, from £999 for the untethered unit in East Anglia and on the South Coast. The price depends on your postcode region and on whether you choose the untethered unit (a socket) or the tethered one (a 5m cable and holster). Octopus does not publish how postcodes map to its three price bands, so you only see your own price after entering a postcode.

• Octopus Charge untethered: £999 in East Anglia and on the South Coast, £1,029 in London, the South East and the North East, £1,079 in Scotland and South Wales
• Octopus Charge tethered 5m: £1,099 in East Anglia and on the South Coast, £1,129 in London, the South East and the North East, £1,179 in Scotland and South Wales

The price covers a standard installation: up to 10m of cable, all electrical components, mounting on brick or plaster, cable clipping, electrical testing and a safety certificate, which Octopus says takes about four hours. Longer runs cost extra: £125 up to 20m, £250 up to 30m and £350 beyond that. You dig any trench for an outbuilding yourself. Octopus launched the charger in June 2025 at £899 untethered, so the headline price has risen since. Our installation cost guide explains what else can push a quote up.

Octopus says it cannot reuse existing cabling, and you cannot have your own electrician fit the charger. The warranty also depends on Octopus doing the install, as we explain below. You can start from Octopus’s EV charger page, which pays us nothing today.

Where to buy (prices seen on 10 October 2026, and they can change):

• Octopus Energy: Installed by Octopus engineers; you do not need to be an Octopus energy customer. £999 untethered (East Anglia, South Coast) to £1,179 tethered (Scotland, South Wales)
• Octopus Electric Vehicles (lease customers): Same £1,029 / £1,129 prices shown; lease drivers get an emailed discount link

Smart features and tariffs

The charger is built around IOG and Octopus’s Intelligent Drive Pack. You plug in, open the Octopus app, say how much charge you want and by when, and Octopus picks the cheapest, greenest slots. Our Intelligent Octopus Go explainer covers the tariff. One caveat on method: Octopus’s public charger list, which is where we take the IOG status of other chargers, does not include Octopus Charge. We rely on Octopus’s own statement that it is designed for IOG.

You do not have to be an Octopus customer, but you need an Octopus app account to set the charger up. On another supplier you get a manual mode with your own schedule, or a plug-and-charge mode that starts when you connect. Octopus told The Verge that another supplier would ideally need its own OCPP platform to control the charger. OCPP is the open standard that lets a charger work with other providers’ apps. Octopus’s technical specification lists OCPP 1.6J, but its marketing pages say nothing and we found no way for an owner to repoint the unit, so do not rely on it.

Connectivity is 4G by default with Wi-Fi as the alternative. Octopus says schedules are stored on the charger if the connection drops. There is no Ethernet port and no screen, only a status LED. Eco mode charges the car when your home is exporting and more than 6A of surplus is available, but Octopus does not say how it measures export, and it does not document load balancing at all. If you have solar panels or a small supply fuse, ask Octopus about both. Our solar charging guide and CT clamp guide explain what to ask.

Installation and safety

Octopus’s customer guide lists PEN fault protection among the unit’s protections, alongside 6mA DC leakage detection, so an earth rod is not normally needed on a PME supply. Octopus’s product pages do not spell this out, so confirm it at the survey. If the terms are new, our PEN fault and earthing guide explains why they matter. The guide also lists 30mA AC residual current protection. One owner says Octopus would not connect his charger to the existing consumer unit and fitted an extra one.

The case is rated IP65 and IK08, measures 330 x 188 x 107mm and weighs 2.5kg. The warranty is three years from installation, with a five-year option for £79 bought with the charger. It is valid only if an Octopus-trained engineer installs and commissions the unit, it is voided if anyone else opens or repairs it, and it passes to a new householder if the charger stays at the address. Octopus says most installations go ahead within four to six weeks of the quote, and longer in Scotland and the South West of England. If you rent, Octopus takes the government’s renters’ grant off the quote upfront when you qualify. Our grants guide explains the rules.

What owners report

Octopus Charge launched in June 2025 and is not one of the 11 brands in the What Car? owner survey, so there is no independent fault-rate data yet. What exists is thin. One owner’s write-up from July 2026 liked the features and the installation and found the app easy for scheduled slots. His niggles were a firmware update that took about two hours before the app could see the charger, a full-day install while the network operator’s approval was pending, and the extra consumer unit. A Speak EV thread worries about being tied to Octopus for smart features if you change supplier.

A separate Speak EV thread concerns an Ohme ePod ordered through Octopus rather than this charger. The customer cancelled after six weeks of rescheduling over a looped supply. It is worth knowing about because Octopus is your only route to Octopus Charge. Octopus’s own survey found that 81% of 4,427 customers whose charger was installed between 25 January and 24 March 2026 scored it 9 or 10 for likelihood to recommend. That measures the installation of any charger Octopus fits, not the reliability of this unit. The Verge and This is Money covered the launch as news, not as tests.

How it compares

The Ohme Home Pro, which Octopus also installs, has the longest-running IOG integration and a screen, but it leans on a mobile signal. The Hypervolt Home 3 Pro is sturdier (IP66) and also works with OVO’s Charge Anytime, so it keeps your options open if you change supplier. Our Octopus EV charger guide compares the four chargers Octopus installs.

Our verdict

We score Octopus Charge 6.2 out of 10. It earns 7.0 for smart features and 8.6 for safety. Reliability is a neutral 5.3 because there is no independent evidence yet, and flexibility is 5.5 because it is tied to Octopus’s app, installation and tariffs. It is a sound pick if you are on, or joining, IOG and want one company to answer for the charger, the installation and the tariff. Choose the Ohme if you want a screen, or the Hypervolt if you might change supplier. The best home EV chargers roundup shows how they rank, and the full scoring is on how we research.