What you get paid for exporting electricity
Every large supplier has to offer a Smart Export Guarantee rate. The obligation says it must be above zero; it does not say it must be good. The rates on offer differ by several times over, and the export side can come from a different supplier than your import.
The same roof, one supplier
- Exports a year
- 2,579 kWh
- Its export products
- 4.1p to 15.9p
- On its best
- £410 a year
- On its worst
- £106 a year
£304 a year, across 6 products from the same company. The top of that range is a half-hourly tracking rate, so it is what the product was paying when we read it rather than a promise. Comparing suppliers comes after all this.
Best published flat rate
12p
Octopus Energy, Outgoing Octopus. Paid on everything exported
One supplier's own spread
4.1p–15.9p
Across 6 of its export products, before you compare suppliers
A 4 kWp array exports
2,579 kWh
A year, at 65% exported
What that spread is worth
£304
A year, same array, same supplier. The top of the range tracks wholesale
The figures above are Octopus Energy's published prices on 17 September 2026, direct debit, including VAT, averaged over the fourteen regions — one supplier, because it is the one that publishes rates we can read. Other suppliers' rows in the table below are placeholders until we have a source for them, and the table says which. Export volume is PVGIS generation with 65% exported, which is an assumption, not a measurement.
The rates
What each supplier pays per kilowatt hour
Every large supplier must offer a Smart Export Guarantee tariff. The obligation says they have to offer something above zero; it does not say it has to be good, and the spread below is the result. You do not have to take the offer from the supplier who bills you.
Agile Outgoing Octopus
Octopus Energy
14.7p average
per kWh exported
Tracks the wholesale price half-hourly. Beats the flat rate if you can hold export back to the evening peak with a battery.
Requires: Smart meter, import tariff with the same supplier · Exit fee: None
Outgoing Octopus
Octopus Energy
12p
per kWh exported
Flat rate, paid on everything exported. The simple option, and the one most people should start from.
Requires: Smart meter in half-hourly mode · Exit fee: None
Next Export Exclusive
E.ON Next
12p
per kWh exported
Among the better flat rates, but tied to taking your import from them too.
Requires: Import tariff with the same supplier · Exit fee: None
Smart Export
Good Energy
11p
per kWh exported
Open to customers of any supplier, which is unusual and useful.
Requires: MCS certificate, smart meter · Exit fee: None
Export & Earn Flex
British Gas
9p
per kWh exported
Middling rate, wide availability. Worth having rather than worth chasing.
Requires: Smart meter · Exit fee: None
Export Variable Value
EDF
7p
per kWh exported
Variable, and revised without much notice. Check what it is now, not what it was when you signed.
Requires: Smart meter · Exit fee: None
SmartGen+
Scottish Power
6p
per kWh exported
Near the bottom of the table, and tied to taking your import from them. The pages that price it show what the gap to the top is worth on a typical array.
Requires: Import tariff with the same supplier · Exit fee: None
SEG Tariff
OVO Energy
4p
per kWh exported
A rate that exists to meet the obligation. If this is your export tariff, changing it is the highest-return hour you will spend.
Requires: Smart meter · Exit fee: None
Octopus Energy's rates are its published prices on 17 September 2026: direct debit, including VAT, averaged over the fourteen regions. Averages and highs are over the four weeks before.
Illustrative. Every other supplier's rates are placeholders until we have a source for them.
What it's worth
The same electricity, priced eight different ways
A 4 kWp array generates the same number of kilowatt hours whoever buys them. The only variable in this chart is the rate, which is the one part of a solar installation you can change after it is built.
Annual export income by tariff
2,579 kWh exported from a 4 kWp south-facing array.
- Agile Outgoing OctopusOctopus Energy£379
- Outgoing OctopusOctopus Energy£309
- Next Export ExclusiveE.ON Next£309
- Smart ExportGood Energy£284
- Export & Earn FlexBritish Gas£232
- Export Variable ValueEDF£181
- SmartGen+Scottish Power£155
- SEG TariffOVO Energy£103
Assumes 65% of generation is exported, which is typical without storage. Octopus's bars are its published rates; the rest are placeholder rates, so read the shape rather than the gap between any two of them.
Export is worth less than not importing
A kilowatt hour used in the house saves you 26.3p at the current cap. The best export rate on this table pays 14.7p average. That gap is the entire argument for a battery, a timer on the immersion, and doing the washing at lunchtime.
You can split your supplier
Your export tariff does not have to come from the company that bills you for import. Some of the better rates require both, and some are open to anyone — the table says which. Suppliers rarely volunteer this, and it is often worth more than switching either side alone.
By array size
Export income by system size and rate
The bigger the array, the more of it you export and the more the rate matters. A household with a large roof and a poor export tariff is giving away more every year than a smaller one could earn in total.
| Array size | Best (15.9p) | Middle (10p) | Worst (4.1p) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 kWp | £205 | £129 | £53 |
| 3 kWp | £307 | £193 | £79 |
| 4 kWp | £410 | £258 | £106 |
| 5 kWp | £512 | £322 | £132 |
| 6 kWp | £615 | £387 | £159 |
Pounds a year, on a south-facing array at 65% exported, priced at the best, middle and worst of the 6 export products one supplier publishes. The regional spread is real but small beside this: generation varies across the country by less than these columns vary across a single supplier's own range.
What a 4 kWp array exports by region
kWh a year, at 65% exported. PVGIS generation, each council counting once.
- South East2,783
- East of England2,730
- South West2,695
- London2,673
- East Midlands2,584
- West Midlands2,536
- Wales2,516
- Yorkshire and The Humber2,505
- North East2,471
- North West2,367
- Northern Ireland2,329
- Scotland2,232
Where you live changes the volume. Which tariff you are on changes the price. The second is much easier to fix than the first.
Flat or tracking
A fixed rate, or one that follows the wholesale price
A flat export rate pays the same for every unit whenever it leaves the house. A tracking rate follows the half-hourly wholesale price, which means a lot more in the evening peak and close to nothing at noon in June — exactly when an array without storage is exporting most.
Where these rates come from
- Octopus Energy — published product and tariff rates
- Ofgem — default tariff cap level, for the import rate compared against
- PVGIS — modelled generation, for the exported volume
- Supplier published tariff information labels, for the other rows
Last checked against these sources on 17 September 2026.
Outgoing Octopus
12pFlat rate, paid on everything exported. The simple option, and the one most people should start from.
£309 a year on this array
Agile Outgoing Octopus
14.7p averageTracks the wholesale price half-hourly. Beats the flat rate if you can hold export back to the evening peak with a battery.
Up to 30.3p at the best half hours. The average is what an array exporting through the middle of the day actually collects; the peak is what a battery holding back until evening can reach.
Without a battery, take the flat one
A tracking export rate rewards control over when you export. An array with no storage has none: it exports when the sun is out, which is when the wholesale price is lowest. The flat rate is the right default, and the tracking one becomes interesting the day you can hold a charge until five o'clock.
Switching
Five steps, no exit fees, nothing to install
Changing the export side of your account is the highest-return hour of admin available to anyone with panels on the roof, and it does not touch the hardware.
Check what you are on now
Your export payments show up on a statement, often quarterly and often ignored. Divide what you were paid by the units exported and you have your current rate. A surprising number of people find it is zero because nothing was ever set up.
Get the smart meter into half-hourly mode
Almost every export tariff needs it. Having a smart meter is not the same as having it read half-hourly, and the supplier has to put it in that mode — this is the step that stalls most applications.
Find your MCS certificate
Most export tariffs require the installation to be MCS certified, and the application asks for the certificate number. If you have lost it the installer or the MCS database can reissue it.
Apply to whichever supplier pays most
It does not have to be the one that bills you for import, unless that supplier's rate is conditional on it. There is no exit fee on any export tariff on this page, so the decision is reversible.
Check it again in a year
Export rates have moved a long way since the scheme started, and nobody writes to tell you that a better one exists. Once a year is enough for the export side.
Questions
Common questions about export rates
How much do you get paid for exporting electricity?
It depends entirely on the product. One supplier's own published export tariffs currently run from 4.1p to 15.9p a kilowatt hour — before you compare it with anyone else. On a 4 kWp array exporting about 2,579 kWh a year, that is the difference between £106 and £410 for identical electricity.
What is the Smart Export Guarantee?
The obligation on larger suppliers to offer a tariff that pays for electricity exported to the grid by small generators. It replaced the feed-in tariff for new installations in 2020. The obligation is to offer a rate above zero — it sets no floor beyond that, which is why the table on this page has the spread it does.
Is it the same as the feed-in tariff?
No. Feed-in tariffs closed to new applicants in 2019, paid for generation as well as export, and paid far more. If you are on one, stay on it: nothing here improves on it. The Smart Export Guarantee pays only for what you actually send back.
Do I need a smart meter?
For every export tariff worth having, yes, and it has to be reading half-hourly rather than sending daily totals. Without it the supplier cannot tell when you exported, which most tariffs need to know.
Can I take my export tariff from a different supplier?
Usually yes, and it is often worth doing. Some of the better rates are conditional on taking your import from the same supplier, which the table flags row by row. There are no exit fees on export tariffs, so it is a reversible decision.
Should I export more, or use more at home?
Use it at home wherever you can. A unit used in the house is worth 26.3p at the current cap; the best export rate on this page pays less than that. Exporting is what you do with the units you genuinely cannot use.
Export is one side of the solar sum. The payback page puts it together with what you save on import, the tariff guide covers the import side and the price cap, and the solar guide covers the panels themselves.
See what a roof near you would export
Enter a postcode and we'll use the modelled generation for that council, and price it at the rates on offer.