Public charging prices, network by network, from their own pages.
Published rates run from 39p to 92p a kilowatt hour, a wider spread than any fuel price map, and every figure here was read twice from the operator's own pricing page on 28 August 2026, with disagreements settled by a third read. Home charging on the price cap beats all of it, which is the number to hold in your head while you read the rest.
To add 42kWh, taking a 60kWh battery from 10 to 80 per cent, at the 26.32p cap unit rate that applies from 1 October 2026. Off peak EV tariffs price below the cap, so this is the ceiling for home charging, not the floor.
The same 42kWh at 39p, char.gy's weekday midnight to 7am rate on lamp post chargers. The cheapest public charging mimics home charging: slow, overnight, on street.
At 92p on InstaVolt's standard rate. Speed is the product: a rapid hub sells you 30 minutes, not just electricity. Charging where you were parking anyway is what keeps an EV cheap to run.
Every network's published price
Read twice from each operator's own pricing page, 28 August 2026. Where an operator prices per site or publishes only a range, the row says exactly that rather than showing an average we invented.
Scroll sideways to see every column
| Network | Published rate | Subscription | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| InstaVolt | 92p Peak, 7am to 8pm 55p Off peak, 8pm to 7am, app or RFID only, session must start in those hours 92p Contactless and roaming, all times | None | No subscription or connection fees. |
| IONITY | 79p IONITY app, no subscription 83p Contactless, IONITY Direct | IONITY Power, £10.50 a month, 49p Motion at £5.49 a month gives 62p. Annual plans, priced promotionally in August 2026: Motion 365 £54.99 a year at 59p, Power 365 £104.99 a year at 47p. | — |
| Osprey | 82p Osprey app, outside promotions 87p Contactless bank card | None | No connection fees. |
| GRIDSERVE | 59p AC charging up to 22kW DC charging, 85p to 92p depending on site | GRIDSERVE Plus, £7.99 a month 25 per cent off, from 64p. | Temporary pre authorisation of £30 in the app or £10 on contactless. |
| bp pulse | 65p Fast, pay as you go AC 7kW 89p Rapid and ultrafast, standard contactless price at the majority of sites, 79p to 93p at some 50kW to 150kW plus | bp pulse subscription, £7.85 a month Fast falls to 52p and rapid or ultrafast to 69p standard, 63p to 74p at some sites. First month free. | A pre authorisation hold is taken for contactless and app payments, amount not stated. |
| Shell Recharge | Standard price, set per site, shown on the charge post and app 60p Night Saver, 7pm to 7am, from 60p Summer Midday Saver, 12pm to 3pm until September, from | Shell Recharge Subscription, £9.99 a month Saves 30 per cent on the app price. With a saver window the page advertises charging from 42p. | Pre authorisation of £55 at forecourt and destination chargers, £40 on street. An older Shell roaming page still says 41p per kWh in the UK. The operator's current pricing page contradicts it, so we treat that figure as stale and do not use it. |
| Tesla Superchargers | Priced per site, with peak and off peak rates, shown in the car and the Tesla app | Supercharging Membership, for non Tesla cars, fee not published Lowers the price for other makes. Tesla does not publish the fee on its pricing pages. | Congestion fee of up to 50p a minute when a site is busy and the battery is at or above 80 per cent, or after the session ends, first five minutes waived. |
| Pod Point | Priced per location, free at some | None | No subscription fees or connection charges. |
| char.gy | 39p Weekday night, midnight to 7am 59p Weekday day, 7am to midnight 54p Weekend, all day | None | Temporary £25 pre authorisation to verify the card. |
| Fastned | 79p Standard price | Gold Member, £4.99 a month, 55p Monthly price held until 30 September 2026, covers three vehicles per household. | — |
| MFG EV Power | Standard tariffs, 69p to 79p depending on site and speed 59p Summer promotion at every site, 1 July to 30 September 2026 | None | No subscription, no connection charge. |
| Sainsbury's Smart Charge | 72p Ultra rapid, published as a maximum 150kW 49p 7kW and 22kW chargers, published as a maximum 7kW to 22kW | None | No subscription. Pre authorisation of £40 at the start, then £20 top ups if the charge reaches the limit. |
| Believ | 56p Fast 7kW to 22kW 66p Rapid 50kW plus 66p Ultra rapid | Believ membership, £5.00 a month Saves 3p on fast and 6p on rapid chargers. | Overstay fees an hour after charging stops: 5p a minute on fast chargers between 10am and 6pm, 20p a minute on rapid at any time. Pre authorisation £25 registered, £30 guest, £40 contactless. |
When a subscription pays
Fee divided by saving is your break even. Charge more than this many kilowatt hours a month on that network and the subscription is worth it. A typical full charge is 40 to 60kWh.
| Network | Monthly fee | Saving per kWh | Break even each month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fastned Gold Member | £4.99 | 24p | 21 kWh |
| IONITY IONITY Power | £10.50 | 34p | 31 kWh |
Where this comes from, and where it could be wrong
Every network's own pricing page was read twice by independent readers on 28 August 2026, and every disagreement between the two reads was settled by a third read quoting the page word for word. Where an operator publishes a range or prices per site, that is recorded rather than averaged. One widely quoted stale figure was found and excluded.
Ways this page could mislead you
These are the operators' published national rates, standard prices, or stated maximums on 28 August 2026. Many networks price per site, so the charger in front of you can differ. The figure on the charge post wins.
Two figures are dated promotions: MFG's 59p ends on 30 September 2026, and Fastned's £4.99 membership price is held to the same date. After that, expect the standard figures.
Some operators state that prices include VAT and some do not say. Where the page said it, it is recorded in the row.
Speed labels are the operators' own. The kilowatt figure a charger delivers depends on the car and the state of the battery as much as the hardware.
We list the large public networks, not every operator. A network being absent says nothing about its prices.
Sources, one per network
- InstaVolt, its own pricing page
- IONITY, its own pricing page
- Osprey, its own pricing page
- GRIDSERVE, its own pricing page
- bp pulse, its own pricing page
- Shell Recharge, its own pricing page
- Tesla Superchargers, its own pricing page
- Pod Point, its own pricing page
- char.gy, its own pricing page
- Fastned, its own pricing page
- MFG EV Power, its own pricing page
- Sainsbury's Smart Charge, its own pricing page
- Believ, its own pricing page
30 price changes logged. Every one had a date you could have known in advance.
Tell us which bills you care about and we will email you when one of them changes, with the figure, the date it starts and a link to the regulator that set it. Free, no account, one click to stop.
Email alerts are not running yet. We would rather say that than take your address and send you nothing. Until they are, the change log carries every dated change the day we find it, and you can bookmark it or follow it in a reader.