How to use an Octopus Energy referral code

The direct answer

Open the personalised referral link, complete your quote and sign-up in that same journey, and the referral is attached automatically. The code melon-crane-917 exists for the rare cases where you are asked to type it, and for phone sign-ups where you read it to an agent. If you qualify, £50 of energy account credit is added after your supply starts and your first monthly Direct Debit is taken successfully — around four weeks; it can take longer.

Full eligibility conditions, including who the offer is aimed at and common reasons people are refused, are covered separately in our referral eligibility guide. This page focuses purely on the mechanics of using the link or code correctly.

What the referral actually is, and how attribution works

An Octopus referral is not a discount code applied to a price. It is a tracked introduction: Octopus records that a particular new customer's sign-up journey began from a particular existing customer's personalised link. If that journey completes and the new customer meets the published conditions, both people are credited.

The tracking is link-first. When you open share.octopus.energy, the referral reference is attached to the browser session or device you use for that visit. As you move through the quote, choose a tariff and sign up, that reference travels with the journey. This is why Octopus's own guidance is consistent: start the journey at the referral link, and finish it in the same session.

It breaks down in a few predictable ways. If you open the referral link on your phone but then complete sign-up later on a laptop by searching "Octopus Energy" directly, that second session usually has no referral reference attached, because it never passed through the link. If you open the referral link, then click through a comparison site, cashback site or app-store listing partway through, that service's own tracking can take over the session and overwrite the referral reference. And if you use a private/incognito browser window, some browser tracking-protection settings, or clear cookies partway through, the reference the link set can be lost before sign-up completes.

Full preparation checklist

Getting an accurate quote the first time avoids restarting the journey, which is the single most common way a referral gets lost. Gather these before you click through:

• Your postcode and the exact address to be supplied
• A recent bill (any supplier) showing annual usage in kWh for gas and electricity
• Your current supplier, tariff name, contract end date and any exit fee amount
• Your meter type — standard credit, smart, or prepayment — and a current reading
• Whether the account will be in your name alone or a joint name
• Bank details for the Direct Debit, only needed once you decide to proceed

The step-by-step journey, screen by screen

1. Open the referral link. Start at share.octopus.energy, ideally in the browser or device you will finish the journey in. This single click is the checkpoint that attaches the referral — everything else follows from it.
2. Enter your postcode and select your address. Octopus uses this to confirm network coverage and the regional element of unit rates, which do vary by area.
3. Enter usage or let it estimate. You will usually be offered a choice between entering known annual kWh figures from a bill, or accepting a default estimate based on home size and occupants. Choose the real figures whenever you have them.
4. Review the live quote. This is the screen to slow down on — see the dedicated section below on reading it properly rather than skimming to the annual total.
5. Choose a tariff and confirm the switch date. You will typically be able to pick a preferred start date; Octopus and your current supplier coordinate the actual switch around Ofgem's timings.
6. Complete personal and payment details. Name, contact details, meter details and the Direct Debit mandate. Do not open a new tab or a different device partway through this step.
7. Confirm sign-up. You should receive email confirmation of the switch and the cooling-off period that applies.
8. Wait for supply and the first payment. Once you are on supply and your first monthly Direct Debit clears, check balance history in the app or online account for the referral credit.

Reading the live quote properly

The quote screen shows several figures together, and it is easy to read only the headline annual number. Each figure means something different, and conflating them is the most common reason people misjudge whether a switch is actually worth it.

A worked comparison example (illustrative figures only)

These numbers are illustrative examples to show how the parts combine — they are not a real Octopus quote and should never be treated as one. Always use your own live quote.

The point of laying it out this way is that standing charges and unit rates behave differently: a household using very little energy is affected more, proportionally, by the standing charge, while a high-usage household is affected more by the unit rate. The £50 referral credit is a fixed one-off amount on top of whichever tariff you choose — it does not change which tariff is cheapest for your usage, so compare the annual estimate first and treat the credit as a separate, one-time bonus.

Signing up by phone: where the code is actually used

If you sign up by calling Octopus rather than completing the journey online, there is no link for the referral to travel with, so you give the referral code verbally instead. Read out melon-crane-917 to the agent early in the call, ideally when you first say you want to sign up, and ask them to confirm it has been noted against the new account before you finish the call. Ask for that confirmation in whatever form the agent can give you — a reference number, an email summary, or a note read back to you — since phone sign-ups leave you without the browser-based confirmation an online journey provides.

Mistakes that break referral tracking

• Starting the sign-up on a comparison, cashback or voucher site instead of the referral link
• Beginning at the referral link but finishing a different quote opened in another tab or device
• Using a private/incognito window or clearing cookies partway through the journey
• Assuming the credit is immediate and cancelling before the first Direct Debit clears
• Cancelling the switch during the cooling-off period, which ends the referral along with the contract
• Providing a usage estimate so far from reality that the quote itself is meaningless
• Calling to sign up but forgetting to mention the code before the call ends

Cooling-off period and what cancelling does

Contracts agreed online or by phone normally carry a statutory cooling-off period during which you can cancel without penalty. If you cancel within that window, the switch does not go ahead, no supply changes hands, and any referral attached to that sign-up ends with it — there is no partial credit for a cancelled switch. If you decide to switch after all, you need to start a fresh journey from the referral link again; a cancelled sign-up does not carry the referral forward automatically. This is different from your right to switch away from Octopus later on, once you are an active customer, which is a separate everyday decision covered in our switching journey guide.

Post-switch checklist and timeline

• Submit opening meter readings promptly when Octopus asks for them
• Check your old supplier issues a final bill and refunds any credit balance
• Confirm your Direct Debit date and amount in the Octopus app or online account
• After the first payment clears, check balance history for the referral credit
• If several weeks pass with no credit, contact Octopus with your sign-up date and the code

For the detailed rules on exactly when payment is triggered, and what to do if it is late, see when the Octopus referral credit is paid.

Troubleshooting: nothing has appeared

Work through these in order before contacting Octopus, since most causes have a simple explanation once you check the specifics:

1. Confirm the first monthly Direct Debit has actually been taken and cleared, not just scheduled — credit is not due before this happens.
2. Check balance history rather than just the headline balance figure, since a credit can be listed as a line item rather than changing the number you see first.
3. Retrace your own journey: did you open the referral link and complete sign-up in the same session, or did another tab, app or comparison site intervene?
4. If you signed up by phone, check whether the agent confirmed the code was logged against your account.
5. If it has been well beyond the typical timing with no credit and no clear reason, contact Octopus support with your sign-up date, the referral code and, if possible, when you opened the link.

If you signed up without realising a link or code existed, retrospective addition is sometimes possible but is not a published right — see adding a referral code after sign-up for what is realistic to ask for.

Who should not chase the credit

A £50 referral credit is a reason to compare Octopus, not a reason to switch regardless of the numbers. You are probably not a good candidate for chasing it if any of the following apply:

• You are on a fixed tariff elsewhere with an exit fee that would exceed, or largely cancel out, any saving plus the credit.
• Your current tariff is genuinely cheaper on unit rates and standing charge for your actual usage, once you have run a real comparison rather than assumed switching saves money.
• You are close to the end of a fixed deal anyway and would do better waiting a few weeks to switch without an exit fee.
• You need to switch urgently for reasons unrelated to price (for example, a supplier going out of business or a house move) — in that case, sort the switch first and treat any referral as secondary.

To weigh this properly, compare your live Octopus quote against your current tariff's actual remaining cost, and read our guide to Octopus tariffs to understand which tariff type you would actually be offered.

Glossary

Related reading: check whether you qualify at all in the eligibility guide, see full timing detail in when the credit is paid, review options if you missed the link in adding a code after sign-up, read the wider process in switching to Octopus Energy, and compare tariff types in Octopus Energy tariffs.