British Gas PeakSave Explained: Is It a Real Off-Peak Tariff?

What is British Gas PeakSave?

PeakSave is a scheme run by British Gas for customers with a smart meter, sometimes referred to informally as "Sunday PeakSave" because many of the announced sessions have historically landed on Sunday afternoons or off-peak windows. Rather than giving you a fixed cheap rate every night like a traditional off-peak tariff, PeakSave gives you access to occasional sessions — announced in advance — where electricity is either half-price or, at times, completely free.

It sits on top of your existing British Gas electricity tariff. You don't switch to PeakSave as your tariff; you opt in to the scheme while remaining on your normal contract, and the discounted sessions are applied as and when they're offered.

Rates change — always check British Gas's current PeakSave terms. Correct as of July 2026.

How the free and half-price sessions actually work

British Gas notifies eligible customers ahead of a PeakSave session, typically via the British Gas app or email, telling you the date and time window during which discounted rates will apply. These windows are usually a few hours long and are not available every day — sessions are periodic and depend on factors like grid demand and seasonal conditions.

To take part, you need a compatible smart meter that can record your usage in the relevant half-hourly periods, since that's how British Gas verifies which of your consumption falls inside the discounted window. If your smart meter isn't sending readings properly, you may not benefit even if you're technically enrolled.

Because sessions are announced rather than fixed, you need to actively check for notifications and plan your usage — running the washing machine, charging an EV, or timing a battery charge — around whatever window has been announced that particular week.

How PeakSave differs from Economy 7 or an EV tariff

The key distinction is structural versus promotional. Economy 7 and other time-of-use tariffs (including most EV tariffs) build a guaranteed cheap-rate window into the tariff's pricing structure — usually a fixed several-hour overnight period, every single night, for as long as you're on that tariff. You know in advance exactly when your cheap rate applies, which makes it straightforward to automate charging a battery or an EV around it.

PeakSave, by contrast, doesn't restructure your day-to-day rates at all. Your normal tariff rates continue as usual, and PeakSave sessions are occasional bonus events layered on top. There's no way to know months in advance when the next session will land, and the frequency of sessions can vary.

See our overview of /tariffs, or our dedicated pages on /tariffs/economy-7 and /tariffs/ev-tariff-comparison for more on how structural off-peak tariffs work.

Who benefits most from PeakSave

PeakSave tends to suit households that are already on a British Gas tariff, are happy to stay reactive to app notifications, and can flex some usage — like laundry, dishwashing, or charging devices — into an announced window when it appears. It works best as a bonus on top of an otherwise normal tariff, rather than as your main strategy for cutting electricity costs.

It's less useful for households wanting predictable, plannable savings, or those wanting to automate energy use around a fixed schedule, since there's no way to programme a device or battery system around a moving target months in advance.

Honest limitations

Sessions are limited in number and duration — you won't get discounted electricity every day, and the savings from any single session are modest in the context of a typical household's annual electricity spend. You also have no control over when sessions are scheduled, so if a window falls at a time when you can't shift usage (for example, while you're out, or your battery is already full), you simply miss out on that occasion.

There's also an administrative element: you need to be enrolled, keep an eye on notifications, and have a properly functioning smart meter. For anyone who doesn't check the app regularly, sessions can come and go unnoticed.

The battery angle: can you schedule around PeakSave?

In principle, yes — a home battery could be manually or semi-automatically told to charge during an announced PeakSave window, taking advantage of the half-price or free rate to top up storage that you then use later in the day at normal rates. Some smart battery systems allow ad-hoc schedule changes that could be triggered once you receive a session notification.

In practice, this is considerably harder to automate reliably than charging around a fixed Economy 7 window. Economy 7's off-peak period is the same every night, so a battery's charging schedule can be set once and left alone. PeakSave sessions move around, meaning you'd need to actively adjust your battery's charge schedule each time a new session is announced — or rely on the notification landing with enough notice.

As a rule of thumb, a battery paired with a fixed off-peak tariff like Economy 7 will typically deliver more predictable annual savings than a battery paired with PeakSave alone, simply because the cheap-rate window is guaranteed and can be fully automated. PeakSave can still be a worthwhile top-up on top of your existing tariff, but it shouldn't be the sole plank of your battery strategy. Our /calculator can help you estimate potential savings under a fixed off-peak structure for comparison.

Getting the most out of PeakSave alongside a battery

If you're on a British Gas tariff and already have a battery, it's reasonable to opt in to PeakSave and treat it as a bonus rather than your main charging strategy. Keep notifications switched on, and where practical, allow some headroom in your battery's charge level so it can absorb an unexpected cheap session rather than being already full.

If your main goal is to build a battery system around guaranteed daily savings, it's worth comparing PeakSave against a proper off-peak or EV tariff structure first, since the predictability of a fixed window generally matters more to overall annual savings than the depth of an occasional discount.