Octopus Energy has launched a rewards scheme, Octoplus
Octopus Energy has a new rewards scheme “Octoplus”. It’s now revealed some of the partners that you can get rewards from, including a free hot drink every week and discounted cinema tickets. Here’s our review of Octoplus and how it works.
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What is Octoplus?
Octoplus is Octopus Energy’s new rewards scheme. It officially began in October last year, but it only launched some of the rewards in February 2024.
It’s for customers with smart meters for making the grid greener. You can get access to free energy, get free coffee and discounted cinema tickets and earn “Octopoints” to spend on days out or exchange for account credit.
How does Octoplus work?
There are three different benefits to Octoplus. Firstly, you can earn points which can be switched for rewards. Then there are are free rewards just for being signed up. Plus, you can take part in free energy sessions.
Earn points to exchange for rewards
With Octoplus you get points for carrying out certain energy-related tasks. These include signing up for Octoplus, referring a friend, submitting meter readings and taking part in “Savings Sessions”.
In all cases, these points will be added to your account automatically when you carry out the task. When submitting a meter reading, you’ll be able to spin a wheel within the app to earn between 8 and 800,000 additional points. If you have a smart meter – which you’ll need to join Octoplus – you get an extra free spin each month, too.
There are also “Savings Sessions” which are periods where you’ll get points for reducing your electricity use. You’re notified of the sessions via email and can opt-in to take part. During the session you have to try and cut down on your energy use by as much as possible. You’ll then get points, depending on how much you manage to save.
The points are all kept in your account and can be redeemed on days out, Octopus Energy merch and account credit.
We expand below on how many points you’ll get for each action and what these are worth.
Get rewards for being signed up
There are some rewards that you get just for being signed up for Octoplus – this includes discounted cinema tickets and free coffee. More on these later.
Get free energy with Octoplus
Every now and then, you’ll be notified about an upcoming free energy session — these run when the grid is greenest. If you opt-in, then during this time, all of your electricity use is free. Use that time to use as much energy as you can – a great time to get on with all your washing, drying and ironing.
You could be contacted about a session within half an hour of it starting, so it’s worth keeping your notifications on.
Who can get Octoplus?
Anyone that receives electricity from Octopus Energy, has an electricity smart meter and pays via direct debit can get Octoplus. Business customers and those with smart prepayment meters can also get it.
You should find a banner on your online account or in the app where you’ll be able to sign up. However, it’s worth noting that Editor-in-chief Andy didn’t have the option, despite being eligible. He contacted customer support, who gave him access within a few hours.
It doesn’t matter which tariff you’re on, but you can’t take part if you’re a gas only customer.
How to earn Octopoints with Octoplus
You earn Octopoints by carrying out certain tasks, this can include reducing your energy usage during peak times and keeping up to date with meter readings.
Here’s what you earn for some of the tasks:
Task | Points | Avg. £ worth |
Sign up to Octoplus | 500 | 63p |
Submit a meter reading and spin the wheel | 8, 800, 8,000 or 800,000 | 1p – £1,000 |
Refer a friend | 800 | £1 |
Refer a friend for solar installation | 80,000 | £100 |
Saving Sessions | 1,000 on average, per session | £1.25 |
How much are Octopoints worth?
800 Octopoints amounts to about £1 when converted to credit. These could be worth more than this when used for rewards, similar to how Tesco Clubcard works.
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What rewards can you get with Octoplus?
So you save a bunch of energy and earn loads of Octopoints, but what can you actually trade them for? Here are some of the Octoplus rewards.
Money off your bills
You can convert your points straight into account credit at the exchange rate of 800 points per £1. Obviously it could take a while to get enough points to make any significant savings, but it’s worth keeping track of ways to earn more points.
Free hot drinks at Greggs or Caffe Nero
You can get a free regular hot drink at Greggs or Caffe Nero every week, just for being signed up. It can be claimed in your Octoplus account and you’ll get a unique code or QR code to show in-store. You can only have one or the other, not both.
Codes are valid until the Sunday of the week you activate the offer, and you can then get another from each Monday. There isn’t an unlimited amount of codes, though, so nab it early if you want to take advantage.
Check out our tea and coffee deals for other ways to get free and discounted hot drinks.
25% off eating out
You can save 25% on main meals at participating restaurants every Monday to Thursday. You can use it for up to eight people.
You can choose one code across all the options every Monday, and it’s valid for 14 days. Then the following week you can choose again.
The restaurants are:
- Toby Carvery
- Harvester
- Stonehouse Pizza
- Ember Inns
- Sizzling Pubs
Discounted cinema tickets
This is another reward you get just for being signed up. You can get weekly two for £10 cinema tickets at ODEON from Monday to Thursday. You can’t use it at Luxe locations, though you can pay extra to upgrade your seat for things like 3D showings. Watch out for a £1 per ticket booking fee on top.
However don’t assume this is the best offer – you might find other ways to save even more (check out our Odeon deals page for some of the best ones).
Days out
You can get days out with National Trust and National Trust for Scotland. In both cases, these are for two people once per quarter. However unlike the offers above, these require you to have enough points.
To visit a National Trust location, you can get a day pass for two valued up to £44 for 6,000 Octopoints (£7.50).
With National Trust for Scotland you can get a day pass for two valued at £22 for 6,000 Octopoints.
Is Octoplus worth it?
Octoplus is a pretty new rewards scheme, so there aren’t a huge number of ways to earn or spend your points just yet, but it seems quite promising. Octopus Energy has added some incentives to get its customers to care about their energy use, and the free hot drink every week from Greggs is a nice bonus. It’s worth keeping an eye out for what rewards become available in the future.
There’s not much between different energy companies in terms of costs, so it’s nice to be able to get a little more out of your energy company if you’re with Octopus Energy, especially considering so many people have been automatically moved over to Octopus in recent months.
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Octopus Energy refer-a-friend offer
At the moment, if you refer a friend that switches to Octopus Energy then you’ll both get £50 energy credit. You can find your referral link on the home screen of your online account.
You’ll get the £50 in your account once your friend’s first direct debit has been taken.
We’d love to share one of our referral links with you, but it’s sadly against the rules. We’re sure you’ll be able to find a friend to refer you.
Zoe, do you bother to read and action the comments as some good points have been raised here but no changes have been made?
We signed up on 31st October last year and have so far “earned” 7084 Octopoints (worth £8.85), so not huge. In the few saving sessions, where you try to use less electricity than usual between 5pm and 6pm, we have earned around 800 points for each (£1 in value) – but there have only been 7 this winter. We make sure we don’t cook or boil the kettle for that hour (not too difficult for us) to save the grid having to get a gas-fired power station to be turned on. It’s a great incentive to help become greener.
The energy saving sessions are for an hour not 30 minutes
This is a great bonus for customers and has already saved me a few quid for very little effort in my part.
Regarding “free energy”: It’s free electricity. If you are a gas customer, you will still have to pay for any gas you burn (gas is also energy). I’ve yet to see one of these free sessions, though.
Your comment that there’s not much difference between energy companies for costs is misleading. They have a variety of alternative tariffs such as Agile, Tracker, Flux and Intelligent which are far cheaper than standard tariffs particularly those with EVs.