Octopus Agile prices change every half hour, but your appliances don't speak half-hourly prices — they speak delay timers. Cheap Hours translates one into the other, in three steps:
CheapHours.uk was built by an Octopus Agile customer who got tired of checking the prices by hand every evening.
On a typical day the evening peak (around 4–7pm) is the most expensive time to use electricity, while overnight and sometimes midday slots are the cheapest — the gap is often severalfold. A dishwasher or washing machine cycle shifted from the peak into a trough usually costs half as much or less, and on windy days Agile prices can even go negative, paying you to run your appliances. New prices for tomorrow are published around 4pm every day, and Cheap Hours picks them up within minutes.
Anything with a delay timer or that you can start by hand at the right moment:
Agile Octopus is Octopus Energy's smart time-of-use electricity tariff. Instead of one flat unit rate, the price changes every half hour, tracking the wholesale market, with a cap of 100p/kWh. Cheap overnight and midday windows are common — and occasionally prices go negative, meaning you're paid to use electricity.
Octopus publishes the next day's half-hourly prices at around 4pm UK time each day, covering through to 11pm the following evening. Cheap Hours picks them up within minutes — before 4pm it scores your appliances against today's remaining prices and tells you when longer delays can be scored.
Yes — that's exactly what Cheap Hours is built for. Many washing machines show a delay like 6:00 meaning the cycle finishes in six hours, silently starting later so it ends on time. Cheap Hours does that arithmetic for you and tells you what to make the display say, along with the real start and finish times.
No. Agile prices are public, so Cheap Hours only needs to know your region — found from your postcode or picked from a list. It works even if you're just curious about Agile before switching.
On very windy or sunny days with low demand, wholesale prices can fall below zero and Agile follows — you're paid per kWh you use in those half hours. It typically happens during windy or very sunny spells, most often overnight or in the early afternoon. Cheap Hours highlights negative windows so you can make the most of them.
It varies by day and region, but the evening peak (roughly 4–7pm) is often several times the price of the cheapest overnight slots. Shifting a dishwasher or washing machine cycle out of the peak and into a trough typically cuts that cycle's electricity cost by half or more — Cheap Hours shows the exact saving for each recommendation.
In your browser. Your appliances and region are saved locally on your device, there are no accounts, and your postcode is used once to look up your region and never stored.
All fourteen Great Britain electricity regions (A to P), from North Scotland to South West England. Agile prices differ by region, so Cheap Hours always scores your appliances against your local rates.
Only with your permission. Your appliances and region live in your browser's local storage and never leave your device. If you accept, we also use Google Analytics to understand usage and Google ads to fund the site — you can accept or reject each separately, and change your mind any time via Cookie settings at the bottom of the app.
No. Cheap Hours is an independent tool built for Agile customers. Prices come from the public Octopus API and may be inaccurate — always check your tariff.