Octopus or British Gas: which is better? On customer service, Octopus. Citizens Advice scored Octopus Energy 3.67 out of 5 for April to June 2026, fifth of the suppliers in that table, against 2.61 and 14th place for British Gas. On price the picture is split. Energy Review’s comparison, updated 9 November 2026, puts British Gas’s Cap Tracker Mar2028 v1 at about £1,622 a year for a representative East Midlands home paying by monthly Direct Debit, £42 less than Flexible Octopus at about £1,664, but the Cap Tracker carries a £50 exit fee and Flexible Octopus does not. Octopus’s 18-month fix, at about £1,848 a year, is £218 cheaper than British Gas’s Fix and Fall at about £2,066. None of those fixes comes in below the £1,723 typical price cap figure from Ofgem for 1 October to 31 December 2026, and both cost more than the same-home variable figures, so compare the whole market before you choose.
Last updated: 11 November 2026. Service scores from Citizens Advice (April to June 2026). Tariff prices are from Energy Review’s Octopus vs British Gas comparison, updated 9 November 2026, for a representative East Midlands home paying by monthly Direct Debit, with prices dated 1 November 2026. The typical cap figure is from Ofgem, for 1 October to 31 December 2026. Your own price depends on your region, meter and usage.
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Compare Octopus, British Gas and the rest of the market
- Enter your postcode and usage to see real prices for your home, including fixed, tracker and variable tariffs
- In Energy Review’s 9 November figures, British Gas’s Cap Tracker was cheaper than Flexible Octopus, but Octopus’s 18-month fix was cheaper than British Gas’s Fix and Fall
- Main limitation: prices change often, so the figures you see on the day are the ones that count
Octopus vs British Gas at a glance
Octopus Energy | British Gas | |
|---|---|---|
Citizens Advice score (Apr–Jun 2026) | 3.67 out of 5, ranked 5th | 2.61 out of 5, ranked 14th |
Trustpilot score (as summarised by Energy Review, 9 November 2026) | 4.8, from 911,202 reviews | 4.4, from 360,671 reviews |
Which? total score (2026 table, via Energy Review) | 74% | 59% |
Cheapest variable or tracker in that comparison | Flexible Octopus, about £1,664 a year, no exit fee | Cap Tracker Mar2028 v1, about £1,622 a year, £50 exit fee |
Standard variable in that comparison | — | About £1,672 a year, no exit fee |
Cheapest fixed in that comparison | 18-month fix, about £1,848 a year, £150 exit fee | Fix and Fall, 24 months, about £2,066 a year, £250 exit fee |
Shorter fix | 12-month fix, about £1,899 a year, £100 exit fee | — |
App ratings (Energy Review, 9 November 2026) | 4.8 on the App Store, 4.3 on Google Play | 4.5 on the App Store, 4.1 on Google Play |
Owner | Octopus Energy Group | Centrica plc |
Those cash figures are for Energy Review’s representative East Midlands home, not a promise for every postcode. The £1,723 cap is Ofgem’s typical-household figure for the current quarter. The two are useful benchmarks, not the same calculation, which is why a quote for your own usage still has to win.
Who are Octopus Energy and British Gas?
Octopus Energy is the household brand of Octopus Energy Group, founded by Greg Jackson. A large part of its growth sits on Kraken, the technology platform it built to run the business and now licenses to other suppliers. Energy Review’s November 2026 review says customers rate it highly, and that it has been a Which? Recommended Provider for energy for nine years in a row. The same review also notes the trade-offs: published phone hours cover weekdays only, and Which? scored its smart meter work 5 out of 10.
British Gas is part of Centrica and is the UK’s longest-established mass-market energy brand. Energy supply sits alongside a large home services business, from boiler servicing and HomeCare cover to landlord safety checks, plus Hive chargers and solar. When Tomato Energy stopped trading in November 2025, Ofgem appointed British Gas to take on those customers. Customer satisfaction has been improving — Energy Review notes a Uswitch Best Overall Improvement commendation in 2025, for the second year running — but Which?’s 2026 table still places it well below Octopus, with a total score of 59% and a customer score of 65%.
They are not the same company, and they do not run on the same customer platform. If you care about boilers, a named engineer network and cover plans, British Gas still has a broader home-services offer. If you care about time-of-use tariffs, heat pumps, export payments or an electric car, Octopus has the wider energy-tariff range.
Price: how Octopus and British Gas compare in November 2026
The price cap, and why it matters
From 1 October to 31 December 2026, Ofgem’s energy price cap for a typical household paying by Direct Debit is £1,723 a year, 4% higher than the previous quarter. The cap limits the unit rates and standing charges on standard variable tariffs. It is not a maximum bill, because your bill still moves with how much you use, and it does not cap every fixed or tracker deal.
A fix can still cost more than the cap. In this comparison, both priced fixes do. That is not an argument against every fix — a fix buys certainty if the cap rises in January — but it is a reason not to assume “fixed” means “cheaper”.
Variable and tracker tariffs
Flexible Octopus is a variable tariff with no end date and no exit fee. Energy Review puts it at about £1,664 a year in its East Midlands example, and says its prices move with the Ofgem cap. British Gas’s Standard Variable, in the same example, is about £1,672 a year, also with no fee to leave — £8 a year more than Flexible Octopus.
British Gas’s cheapest deal in that comparison is not the standard variable. It is Cap Tracker Mar2028 v1, at about £1,622 a year. That is £42 a year, or about £3.50 a month, less than Flexible Octopus, and £50 a year less than British Gas’s own standard variable. The catch sits in the terms. The Cap Tracker’s rates can change, it has an end date of 31 March 2028, and leaving early costs £50. Flexible Octopus has no exit fee, so you can leave when a better deal appears. If you joined the Cap Tracker and switched again within a year, the £50 fee would more than wipe out that £42 saving.
Octopus also sells wholesale-linked tariffs such as Agile Octopus, which sets a different electricity price every half hour, and Octopus Tracker, which changes once a day. Energy Review notes that both can rise well above the cap in a market spike, up to a ceiling Octopus calls Price Cap Protect, and that Octopus itself points people who could not afford those peaks towards Flexible Octopus. Those tariffs only make sense if you can shift demand, and this guide does not treat them as a like-for-like alternative to the Cap Tracker figures above.
Fixed deals, and why none of them beat the cap
On Energy Review’s comparison, Octopus 18M Fixed October 2026 v7 costs about £1,848 a year for an 18-month term, with a £150 exit fee. British Gas’s Fix and Fall Nov28 v1 costs about £2,066 a year for 24 months, with a £250 exit fee. The Octopus 18-month fix is £218 a year cheaper, with a shorter term and a lower fee to leave. Octopus also offers a 12-month fix, Octopus 12M Fixed October 2026 v8, at about £1,899 a year with a £100 exit fee — about £51 a year more than the 18-month deal, in return for six fewer months and a £50 lower exit fee.
All three of those fixes sit above the £1,723 typical cap, and all three cost more than Flexible Octopus and British Gas’s standard variable in the same Energy Review example. Fix and Fall is the longest commitment and the largest exit fee of the deals priced there. British Gas says the tariff can reduce your rates if the cap falls during the term, while your price cannot rise — but you still need a postcode quote, because a national average is not a promise for your home.
The wider market had cheaper fixes than either of these two on Energy Review’s 9 November cheapest-fixed list. The lowest public fix on that list was Utility Warehouse’s UW Fixed Saver 101, at about £1,803 a year, still above the cap, on an 11-month term with a £150 exit fee, and it needs energy plus at least two other UW services. That is why a whole-market quote is worth running before you settle on Octopus or British Gas alone.
Price Octopus against British Gas for your postcode
- See both suppliers’ current fixed, tracker and variable tariffs with your own usage
- Compare cheaper fixes from other suppliers side by side, with exit fees shown
- Main limitation: some tariffs, including some exclusive fixes, are only sold through particular comparison routes
Customer service: what the scores actually show
Citizens Advice’s April to June 2026 table is the cleanest official comparison, because both suppliers are scored in the same period. Octopus Energy scored 3.67 out of 5 and ranked 5th. British Gas scored 2.61 and ranked 14th. Those scores mix complaints, wait times and billing, so they are a service snapshot, not a price ranking.
Energy Review’s 9 November comparison also summarises customer review sites and apps. Octopus scored 4.8 on Trustpilot from 911,202 reviews, with 90% five-star and 3% one-star. British Gas scored 4.4 from 360,671 reviews, with 66% five-star and 20% one-star. On apps, Octopus led on both stores: 4.8 on the App Store from 268,000 ratings against 4.5 from 16,000 for British Gas, and 4.3 on Google Play from 47,585 ratings against 4.1 from 14,084. Which?’s 2026 table, as reported by Energy Review, gives Octopus a 74% total score against 59% for British Gas.
Complaints tell a similar story, with one nuance. For Q2 2026, Energy Review reports 476 complaints per 100,000 customer accounts at Octopus and 944 at British Gas. Both resolved 43% of complaints the same or next day; British Gas resolved a slightly larger share within eight weeks, 86% against 80%. Citizens Advice also counts complaints that reached advice bodies and the Energy Ombudsman, per 10,000 customers, for April to June 2026: 21.4 for Octopus and 68.8 for British Gas, more than three times the Octopus rate.
Octopus is not perfect. Energy Review notes estimated bills and slow fixes for complex meter faults in some reviews, and its routine phone lines are open Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm and Friday 9am to 4pm, with email seven days a week. Citizens Advice recorded an average Octopus call wait of 1 minute 9 seconds in April to June 2026, and 86.4% of emails answered within two days. Citizens Advice does not publish British Gas’s average wait in minutes, but its contact waiting time score for April to June 2026 was 4.2 out of 5 for British Gas against 3.6 for Octopus, so British Gas did better on that one measure. Citizens Advice does list web chat among British Gas’s contact options.
Extras: boilers, electric cars and smart tariffs
If you already have a British Gas boiler plan, or you want one named firm for supply, servicing and landlord certificates, that wider home-services offer is a genuine reason to stay or switch to British Gas, even if the unit rates are not the cheapest on the page. HomeCare is a separate paid plan, not something that arrives automatically with a tariff.
Octopus has the broader electricity-tariff range for low-carbon kit. Go and Intelligent Octopus Go cut overnight charging costs for electric cars. Cosy Octopus is aimed at heat pumps, with cheaper periods through the day and a higher 16:00 to 19:00 peak. Homes with solar panels or a battery can use export tariffs such as Outgoing Octopus. Those products have eligibility rules — often a smart meter Octopus can read, and sometimes a supported car, charger or heating system — so they are a fit question, not a default reason to switch.
British Gas has its own EV and battery tariffs, including EV Power and battery offers through a partner, plus PeakSave Super Sunday for some customers. The hours, discounts and eligibility change, so confirm them on British Gas’s own site rather than treating a summary as the current offer.
Who should choose Octopus, and who should choose British Gas?
If you… | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
Want the stronger service scores | Octopus | 5th on Citizens Advice against 14th, plus higher Trustpilot, Which? and app ratings in Energy Review’s 9 November comparison |
Want a variable tariff you can leave at no cost | Octopus | Flexible Octopus has no exit fee in that comparison; the cheaper Cap Tracker has a £50 fee |
Are ready to hold a tracker until 2028 | British Gas | Cap Tracker was £42 a year cheaper in the example, but only if you stay long enough for the fee not to cancel the saving |
Want a cheaper fix than Fix and Fall | Octopus | The 18-month Octopus fix was £218 a year cheaper, with a lower exit fee, though both fixes were above the £1,723 cap |
Want boiler cover, servicing or landlord checks from the same brand | British Gas | Home services sit alongside supply; they are paid extras, not a reason to ignore the unit rate |
Have an EV, a heat pump or solar | Octopus first, then compare | The wider time-of-use and export range is on the Octopus side, but you still need a quote for your meter and kit |
For a wider look at British Gas against other large suppliers, see our British Gas vs EDF guide and British Gas vs OVO guide. If you are weighing a cheaper challenger fix against the cap, our Fuse Energy review sets out how those quotes sit against the same £1,723 typical figure.
How to switch between Octopus and British Gas
You do not need to contact your current supplier to leave, unless you are in a fixed term and want to ask about the exit fee first. A new supplier starts the switch, and it is usually free and finished within five working days once the new account is set up. There is normally a 14-day cooling-off period after you sign up. Keep paying your old supplier until the switch completes, take a meter reading on the switch date, and look out for a closing bill.
If you are on a fix, add any exit fee to the first-year saving before you decide. A £150 or £250 fee can erase a modest annual gap, just as the Cap Tracker’s £50 fee can erase its £42 edge over Flexible Octopus if you leave early. Take your postcode, recent kWh and, if you have one, your current end date to a comparison, then confirm the tariff name, term and fee on the supplier’s journey before you accept.
Should you switch before January?
The current cap runs to 31 December 2026. Ofgem will set the next quarterly cap, for January to March 2027, later this month. A fix bought now will not move with that announcement, for better or worse. A variable or cap-linked tariff will. This guide does not forecast the January figure. MoneySavingExpert’s page on whether to fix or stay on the cap is updated by its own team, so read it directly for its current view, then run a quote with your own usage.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Octopus or British Gas?
It depends on the tariff, not the brand. In Energy Review’s 9 November 2026 comparison, for a representative East Midlands home, British Gas’s Cap Tracker at about £1,622 a year was £42 cheaper than Flexible Octopus at about £1,664, but it has a £50 exit fee. On fixed prices the order flips: Octopus’s 18-month fix at about £1,848 was £218 a year cheaper than British Gas’s Fix and Fall at about £2,066. Your postcode and usage can change both gaps.
Does British Gas have exit fees?
On the tariffs Energy Review priced on 9 November 2026, British Gas’s Standard Variable had no exit fee, the Cap Tracker Mar2028 v1 had a £50 exit fee, and Fix and Fall had a £250 exit fee on a 24-month term. Always confirm the fee on the tariff you are actually offered, because names and versions change.
Does Octopus have exit fees?
Flexible Octopus had no exit fee in that same Energy Review comparison. The 18-month fix had a £150 exit fee, and the 12-month fix had a £100 exit fee. Wholesale-linked tariffs such as Agile and Tracker have their own rules, including limits on how soon you can return, so read the terms if you are joining one of those.
Is Octopus cheaper than the energy price cap?
Flexible Octopus was about £1,664 a year in Energy Review’s East Midlands example, £8 less than British Gas’s Standard Variable at about £1,672, which is covered by the Ofgem price cap. British Gas’s Cap Tracker was lower again, at about £1,622, but has a £50 exit fee. Ofgem’s £1,723 figure is for a different typical home, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with those numbers. Octopus’s 12-month and 18-month fixes, and British Gas’s Fix and Fall, all cost more than the variable tariffs in the same example.
How long does it take to switch from British Gas to Octopus?
A straightforward switch is usually free and finishes within five working days once the new supplier has your details. You should get a 14-day cooling-off period, and you keep paying British Gas until the switch completes. If you are leaving a British Gas fix early, build the exit fee into the decision before you apply.
Is Octopus better for customer service than British Gas?
On the official April to June 2026 Citizens Advice scores, yes: Octopus ranked 5th on 3.67 out of 5, and British Gas ranked 14th on 2.61. Energy Review’s 9 November summary also shows higher Trustpilot, Which? and app ratings for Octopus, and fewer complaints per account in Q2 2026. British Gas did better on two measures: Citizens Advice’s contact waiting time score (4.2 against 3.6 out of 5) and the share of its own complaints resolved within eight weeks (86% against 80%).
Should I fix my energy or stay on a variable tariff in November 2026?
A variable or cap-linked tariff can be cheaper today, as Flexible Octopus and the Cap Tracker were in Energy Review’s example, but it will move if the cap changes in January. A fix costs more than the current cap in the figures above, and it charges you an exit fee if you leave early, but it holds your unit rates for the term. The better choice depends on how much certainty you want, and on the quote for your home, not on a single national average.
Check fixed and variable energy deals before the January cap
- Compare Octopus, British Gas and other suppliers in one place
- Switching is free and usually finishes within 5 working days
- Main limitation: you need your postcode and usage for accurate prices
Sources: Citizens Advice comparison of energy suppliers’ customer service (April to June 2026 scores); Ofgem’s price cap unit rates and standing charges; Ofgem’s October 2026 price cap announcement; Energy Review’s Octopus vs British Gas comparison (updated 9 November 2026, with tariff prices dated 1 November 2026); Energy Review’s cheapest fixed energy tariffs (updated 9 November 2026); MoneySavingExpert: is it time to fix or stay on the price cap?; Octopus Energy tariffs; British Gas energy.
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