Compare fixed energy deals before the January price cap
Compare gas and electricity tariffs based on your home and how much energy you actually use.
Tariffs from 15 suppliers we can quote directly, including 100Green, British Gas, E.ON Next.
Compare energy prices
Written by William Haymonds, MoneyHQ founder and deal editor. Last updated . How we check deals
The energy price cap explained
The price cap is set by Ofgem every three months. It limits the maximum unit rate and standing charge your supplier can charge however it does not cap your total bill. Your bill primarily depends on how much energy you use.
Current Q4 2026 price cap: 1 October to 31 December 2026
| Unit rate | Standing charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 26.32p per kWh | 54.83p per day |
| Gas | 7.97p per kWh | 29.68p per day |
A typical household using 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas a year pays around £1,723 on the price cap which is up 4% from £1,663 in Q3 2026.
Figures from Ofgem's Q4 2026 price cap summary. Accurate as of 22 October 2026.
What does Ofgem's price cap do?
The cap sets a ceiling on how much energy providers can charge per unit of energy, not on how much you spend. Suppliers can charge below the cap (and some do, which is why comparing still matters), but they cannot charge above it on a default tariff.
It covers electricity and gas separately. It also varies slightly by region, the figures above are the England, Wales and Scotland averages for direct debit customers.
What does a typical bill look like?
£1,723 a year works out to roughly £144 a month, however "typical" is Ofgem's medium usage figure. Your actual bill depends on your home size, how many people live there, and how warm you have your home.
A rough guide:
| Household | Annual bill |
|---|---|
| Low (1–2 people) | ~£1,208 a year |
| Medium (2–3 people) | ~£1,723 a year |
| High (4–5+ people) | ~£2,424 a year |
Source: EDF Energy: what is the average energy bill in the UK
The comparison tool above uses your actual usage, either from your bills or from your smart meter so the figure it shows will be more accurate than any rule of thumb.
What's happening to the price cap next?
The Q4 2026 cap runs until 31 December 2026. Ofgem announces the Q1 2027 figure in late November.
Supplier forecasts currently suggest the cap could rise by around 26% in January 2027, which would put a typical bill at roughly £2,170 a year. British Gas, EDF and E.ON have each published forecasts pointing to a rise of around that level.
Cornwall Insight, the energy consultancy, forecast a smaller rise of 16% (£1,999 a year for a typical home) on 30 September 2026.
Ofgem is expected to confirm the Q1 2027 figure on or before 25 November 2026.
These are forecasts, not confirmed figures. MoneyHQ will update this page when Ofgem confirms the Q1 2027 rate.
Should you fix now?
A fixed tariff locks in a unit rate for 12 or 24 months. If the cap rises in January as forecast, fixing before then could save you a lot of money, but if the cap falls, you'd be paying above the market rate.
The comparison tool above shows fixed tariffs alongside the current cap rate so you can see the difference in pounds, not percentages. Often fix rates are priced below the price cap versus variable tariffs which are much closer to the price cap.
Fixed and variable tariffs sold where you live, priced at your usage.
Compare energy pricesFrequently asked questions
Sources
- Ofgem Q4 2026 price cap summary (PDF)
- Uswitch: October energy price cap confirmed
- Money to the Masses: Q4 2026 cap and January 2027 forecast
- EDF Energy: what is the average energy bill in the UK
- Ofgem: energy price cap unit rates and standing charges
- Ofgem: typical domestic consumption values, 2026 decision (PDF)
- Uswitch: January 2027 price cap predictions (updated 21 October 2026)
- E.ON Next: price cap predictions (19 October 2026)
- EDF: price cap predictions (16 October 2026)
- Cornwall Insight: 16% price cap rise forecast in January (30 September 2026)
What are you here to do?
Most people arrive on an energy page for one of three reasons. They need different things, so pick the one that sounds like you.
Compare energy prices
Find the tariffs sold where you live, with the unit rate, the standing charge and any exit fee shown as the supplier states them.
Should I fix?
Fixed or variable, what certainty is actually worth, and the four figures that decide it either way.
Understand my bill
The price cap, unit rates, standing charges and usage, and which of them actually moves what you pay.
Should you fix your energy tariff?
Fixing buys certainty and gives up flexibility. Whether that trade is worth it depends on what happens to prices next, which nobody knows, and on your own household, which this page cannot see.
- A unit rate that cannot rise while the fix runs.
- A bill you can plan around, even when usage varies.
- Protection if the cap goes up during your term.
- You keep paying the fixed rate if prices fall.
- Leaving early may cost an exit fee, often charged per fuel.
- The rate offered is not the cap rate, and may start higher than you pay today.
- You follow the rate down if prices fall.
- Usually no exit fee, so you can move when you like.
- No commitment to a term you might regret.
- Your rate can change at each cap review.
- Budgeting is harder because the cost is not settled.
- A rise reaches you in full, with nothing to absorb it.
We are not going to tell you which one to pick. The answer turns on your unit rate, your standing charge, how much you use and how long the term runs. A tariff with a lower unit rate and a higher standing charge can cost a low-usage home more, not less. That is the sum a comparison does for you.
A cheaper-looking fixed tariff is not automatically the better deal. The unit rate, the standing charge, the term, the exit fee and what you pay today all have to be read together, because a lower headline rate paired with a higher daily charge can cost a low-usage home more over a year.
Worked out which way you are leaning? The tariffs available to you decide the rest.
Compare energy pricesThree steps, and none of them commit you
A comparison is an estimate of what each tariff would cost your household over a year. Nothing is switched until you decide to switch it.
Your home
Where you live and who supplies you now. Postcode alone is enough to start, because tariffs are sold by region.
Your usage
How much gas and electricity you actually get through. A year in kWh is the most useful figure, and it is on your annual statement.
Your options
The tariffs sold where you live, with the unit rate, the standing charge and any exit fee shown as the supplier states them.
- Your postcodeTariffs are sold by region
- Who supplies you nowSo there is something to compare against
- Your current tariff nameOn a recent bill or in your account
- Electricity used, in kWhA year's usage gives the closest estimate
- Gas used, in kWhOnly if you are on mains gas
- What you pay nowA good substitute if you have no kWh figures
- How you payDirect debit and prepayment are priced differently
- Your meter typeStandard, Economy 7, smart or prepayment
A postcode alone is enough to begin. A year’s usage in kWh is the single most useful number you can bring, and it is printed on your annual statement.
What an energy bill is actually made of
Four things decide what you pay, and only one of them is the number people argue about. Knowing which is which is most of what makes a comparison useful.
Unit rate
What each kWh costs. The number people quote at each other, and on its own it decides less than they think.
Standing charge
A daily cost for being connected at all. You pay it on a week away from home, which is why a cheap unit rate can still cost a low-usage household more.
Your usage
The multiplier. Two homes on the same tariff pay very different amounts, so no page can tell you what energy costs without knowing yours.
Tariff and payment
Fixed or variable, and how you pay. Both change the rates you are offered before usage is considered.
What actually changes when you switch
Switching changes who bills you, not how energy reaches your home. That single distinction answers most of what people worry about before they move.
What changes
- Who bills you, and who you contact about your account.
- The unit rate and standing charge you are charged.
- Your tariff terms, including any exit fee and its length.
- Your account balance moves with you, credit or debt.
What stays exactly the same
- The gas and electricity themselves, from the same networks.
- The pipes and wires into your home, and who maintains them.
- Your meter, unless you separately ask for it to be changed.
- Your supply, which does not stop and is not disconnected.
The part nobody tells youYour supply is not interrupted, because nothing physical about it changes. MoneyHQ does not switch you either: you switch, with the supplier you choose.
Timescales, credit and debt, exit fees and prepayment meters are set by rules and by your supplier’s own terms. We will publish those specifics once we have checked them ourselves. Until then: Ofgem on switching supplier.
Understand your energy costs
The guides behind the decisions on this page. We publish one when we can source it properly, so this list fills in rather than arriving all at once.
Who you could be buying from
These are the suppliers we can quote right now, through The Energy Shop’s panel. It is a panel, not the whole market.
Tariffs from 15 suppliers we can quote directly.How MoneyHQ compares energy
The unit rate, the standing charge, the term and any exit fee, as the supplier states them. Where a figure is not published we say so rather than show a zero.
We will tell you what the comparison actually covered. We will not describe results as the whole market unless that is contractually and technically true.
MoneyHQ is a media and comparison site. Where a switch earns us a commission we say so on the page it happens on, and it never changes the order results appear in.
Anything time-sensitive carries its source and the date we checked it. A figure with neither does not go on the page.
We do not supply energy, we are not your supplier, and we cannot switch you ourselves. We compare tariffs from The Energy Shop’s panel, and we may earn a commission if you switch through us, which never changes your price or the order results appear in. How we make money →
The answer depends on your home.
The questions people ask us most about gas and electricity prices, and the honest answers.
Price cap changes. Fixed deals worth knowing about.
William follows the energy market so you only have to think about it when something actually changes.
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