The Octopus Energy app: setting up price notifications
The Octopus Energy app for iPhone is available free from the App Store. For Agile customers, it is the most direct source of personalised price information, because it knows your account, your region, and your consumption.
To enable price notifications:
- Open the App Store and search "Octopus Energy" - install or update to the latest version
- Log in with your account credentials
- Tap the account or profile icon (bottom right or top right depending on your app version)
- Navigate to Settings, then Notifications
- Enable "Price alerts" and "Daily price notifications"
- Set your notification time preference to 8-9pm, giving you enough time to plan before running appliances overnight
Once enabled, the app sends a notification each afternoon after Octopus publishes the next day's prices (typically around 4pm). A second alert can be set for significant price events such as plunge pricing or particularly high peak slots.
The Octopus app notification shows your current Agile rate and flags unusually cheap or expensive periods coming up. For most Agile customers, this is a sufficient daily alert, particularly when paired with AgileAlert for deeper schedule visibility.
AgileAlert as your iPhone home screen price dashboard
AgileAlert provides a full half-hourly price chart for your region, with every slot visible at a glance. The fastest way to use it on iPhone is to add it to your Home Screen as a web app. It then launches instantly like any native app.
Steps to add AgileAlert to your iPhone Home Screen:
- Open Safari on your iPhone (must be Safari, not Chrome; iOS only supports Home Screen shortcuts from Safari)
- Navigate to agilealert.co.uk/energy-dashboard.html
- Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen (the square with an arrow pointing up)
- Scroll down the share sheet and tap "Add to Home Screen"
- Give it a name such as "Agile Prices" and tap Add
- The icon appears on your Home Screen. Tap it each evening to see tomorrow's full price chart
This process takes about 45 seconds and creates a persistent shortcut that opens directly to the live price dashboard. Many Agile customers keep it on their first Home Screen page for immediate access.
Third-party alert tools for iPhone
Beyond the Octopus app and AgileAlert, several additional tools provide Agile price alerts for iPhone users:
HomeEnergyBot (Telegram): A free Telegram bot that sends price notifications when Agile rates drop below a threshold you set. Available on iPhone via the Telegram app. Set your threshold at 0p, 5p, or whatever level triggers your action. The bot sends a message as soon as the price for any upcoming slot crosses your threshold. Completely free; setup takes five minutes.
octoprice.co.uk: A web-based Agile price viewer that supports email notifications for cheap windows. Enter your email and your region, set your price threshold, and receive alerts when cheap slots appear in the next day's schedule. Simple and reliable; no app download required.
Geeve.energy: Primarily a battery and EV scheduling service, but its notification layer includes iPhone push alerts for significant Agile price events. More relevant for users who also want automation, not just alerts.
For pure notification purposes, the Octopus app plus a HomeEnergyBot Telegram alert covers the majority of useful alert scenarios without requiring any additional apps or subscriptions.
Setting up iOS Shortcuts for Agile price automation
iOS Shortcuts is Apple's built-in no-code automation app. It can call web APIs, format data, and send notifications, which means it can pull live Agile price data and push it to your notification centre without any third-party service.
A basic daily price reminder Shortcut:
- Open the Shortcuts app (pre-installed on iPhone; if removed, available free from the App Store)
- Tap the Automation tab at the bottom, then the + button
- Select "Time of Day" as the trigger; set it to 9pm daily
- For the action, select "Open URL" and enter agilealert.co.uk/energy-dashboard.html
- Optionally, before the Open URL action, add a "Show Notification" action with the text "Time to check tonight's Agile prices"
- Save the automation
This gives you a daily 9pm push notification reminding you to check prices, then opens AgileAlert automatically when you tap it. Total setup time: three minutes. Zero cost. The result is a reliable nightly prompt that ensures you never miss a cheap overnight window.
More advanced users can use the Shortcuts "Get Contents of URL" action to call the Octopus API price endpoint directly, extract the cheapest slot's price, and include it in the notification text, so the notification reads "Cheapest slot tonight: 1:30am at 2.4p" without opening any app. This requires some familiarity with the Shortcuts app's data manipulation actions but is well within reach of any interested user.
The ideal notification cadence
More notifications do not mean more savings. The right cadence is focused:
| Time | Notification | Action it prompts |
|---|---|---|
| 4-5pm | Octopus app: tomorrow's prices published | Quick glance; spot any exceptional events |
| 8-9pm | Daily reminder: check AgileAlert for tonight | Set appliance timers; schedule EV charge; plan battery |
| 10pm (if needed) | HomeEnergyBot alert: price below threshold | Start any unscheduled high-consumption task immediately |
Two notifications per evening covers 95% of all saving opportunities. The 4-5pm alert from the Octopus app and the 9pm AgileAlert check together give you the information you need to act on every cheap overnight window.
Do not set a notification for every 30-minute price change. That way lies notification fatigue and ignored alerts. Two focused notifications at predictable times build a habit that compounds over years.
The AgileAlert dashboard shows the full price schedule in one glance. No need to scroll or interpret data. Spot the green bars, note the time, set your timers. Three minutes to optimise your overnight electricity.