Is Amber Electric worth it for your home?
Amber can be much cheaper than a fixed plan, or noticeably dearer. It comes down to when you use power and whether you can move it. Answer six questions for a quick read before you use a promo code.
How the check scores your answers
Each answer adds or removes points. A battery counts most, because it lets Amber's SmartShift buy cheap power and cover the evening peak for you. Solar, an EV and flexible appliances each help. Heavy use from 4 to 8pm counts against Amber, because that's usually when wholesale prices are highest. So does needing a predictable bill, because Amber's prices move every 30 minutes.
Points for Amber
- Home battery (most points, especially if SmartShift-compatible)
- Rooftop solar
- An EV you can charge off-peak
- Appliances you can run when power is cheap
- Daytime usage
Points against
- Most usage between 4 and 8pm
- Needing the same bill every month
- Nothing you can shift or automate
What the numbers looked like for one battery home
The person behind this site is an Amber customer in NSW with rooftop solar and a large battery. Over 90 days of winter and early spring (13 July to 10 October 2026), Amber's API showed grid power at an average of 13.75c/kWh against 25.45c on the previous fixed plan, about 54% of the old price. Only 3.9% of grid power was bought between 4 and 8pm. That's the kind of home the check scores highly. Before the battery went in, the same home's bills on Amber were higher than on the old plan.
Common questions
Is Amber Electric worth it?
It depends on how much of your usage you can move. Amber passes through wholesale prices that change every 30 minutes and charges a $25 monthly membership. Homes with solar and a battery, an EV, or loads they can run in the middle of the day tend to do well. Homes whose usage is mostly in the 4 to 8pm peak, with nothing they can shift, usually do better on a fixed-rate plan.
Is Amber Electric worth it without a battery?
Sometimes. Without a battery you rely on moving usage yourself: running the dishwasher, laundry, pool pump or EV charging when prices are low. If you can't move much, the $25 monthly membership and evening prices can outweigh the cheap daytime power.
Is Amber Electric worth it with solar?
Solar helps because daytime wholesale prices are often low, so you can use more of your own power and buy cheaply. But export prices also follow the market, and they can drop to zero or below in the middle of sunny days. A battery or a controllable load is what usually turns solar into real savings on Amber.
What is the biggest risk with Amber Electric?
Price spikes. On hot evenings, or when the grid is tight, wholesale prices can climb far above a normal retail rate. Amber sends alerts, and a battery can cover your usage, but a home that can't cut back during a spike pays for it.
Does the promo code make Amber worth it?
No. The credit is $10 off each monthly bill, so it covers 40% of the $25 membership for as long as it runs: 12 months on the standard offer ($120 of $300), or 20 months on the Spring offer ($200 of $500, which is $120 in your first year and $80 in your second). It's a bonus once you've decided Amber suits your home, not a reason to switch on its own.
Decided Amber suits you? Use X9DWGVWC.