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Every plan is costed for a full year at the same usage, so plans are directly comparable.

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Usage

usage_kwh sets annual usage. It defaults to 10,000 kWh, the reference usage the AER and ESC use for small business standing offers, and usage.default_basis tells you whether a default was used. For time-of-use plans, usage is split into peak, shoulder and off-peak using peak_share and shoulder_share (the rest is off-peak). For demand tariffs, max_demand_kw sets the demand that’s charged. If you don’t pass these, typical values for the network are used and an illustrative_profile warning says so.

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Annual cost

Each plan’s annual_cost_inc_gst is:
  • the daily supply charge for 365 days, plus
  • usage charges for each period at its share of annual usage (stepped rates are currently costed at their first step), plus
  • demand charges at max_demand_kw, where the plan has them,
  • less percentage discounts published with the plan, including conditional ones such as pay-on-time discounts,
  • with GST included.
Rates in the response are in cents incl. GST: peak_c_per_kwh_inc_gst (or the single rate for flat plans), shoulder_c_per_kwh_inc_gst, off_peak_c_per_kwh_inc_gst, supply_c_per_day_inc_gst, and demand_per_kw_per_year_inc_gst in dollars.

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Benchmarks

Each network’s regulated standing offer is costed from its published unit prices at the same usage as the plans, so the comparison is like for like. vs_standing_offer_pct on each plan, and vs_benchmark_pct in summary, give the difference in %. Negative means cheaper than the standing offer. benchmark.published_reference holds the regulator’s own headline figure, for checking against the source.

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Data and freshness

  • Public plans: retailers’ published business plans under the Consumer Data Right, the data behind Energy Made Easy.
  • Buying group rates: Termina’s negotiated offers.
  • Postcodes and cities: postcode coverage published with retailers’ plans, and ABS (ASGS 2021) geography.
Rates are checked daily and API responses are cached for up to an hour. Benchmarks are updated each July when the regulators publish new prices.

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Limits

The costing uses the usage and shares you provide. A business’s real bill also depends on its meter, any controlled load, solar exports and its actual time-of-use pattern, so treat results as a comparison, and confirm against the business’s bill before switching.