Energy Broker Commission Calculator
Free UK calculator that reveals the broker commission hidden inside your business energy contract. Enter the contract terms, get the lifetime commission in pounds, and see whether it crosses the £10,000 disclosure threshold. No sign-up, no email capture.
Why this matters: broker commission is invisible on the bill. It is bundled into the unit rate the supplier charges you. On a multi-site mid-market contract the lifetime commission routinely reaches five figures without anyone in the buyer's finance team realising.
Typical SME: 25,000 - 250,000 kWh/year.
UK SME average ~0.3 p/kWh. Quote will state this.
UK business contracts run 1 to 5 years; 3 is most common.
Routine commission level
- Lifetime commission
- £300
- Per year
- £100
Below the renegotiation threshold
- File the disclosure that came with the quote alongside the signed contract. Auditors and procurement-policy reviews increasingly ask for it.
- Repeat this check at renewal. Commissions tend to drift up on auto-renewals; ask the broker for the new uplift in writing before signing.
- If you ever run a competitive tender, ask each broker for their commission rate up front. It is the cleanest comparator.
Calculation: lifetime commission = annual kWh x contract length x commission rate (p/kWh) / 100. Dual-fuel contracts sum the electricity and gas commissions. Indicative only; your actual commission is the figure your broker discloses on the quote under Ofgem's Third Party Intermediary transparency rules.
Disclosure: Purely Energy is itself a Third Party Intermediary (broker). We publish the commission on every quote we issue. If you would like a no-commission, direct-from- supplier benchmark to compare against, we will quote that too.
The £10,000 red-flag threshold
Most business energy buyers expect their broker to take a commission. The commercial bargain is that the broker shops the market and saves the buyer more than the broker keeps. That calculation breaks down when the lifetime commission is large in absolute terms but small relative to the contract, because the buyer has no concrete reference for what is reasonable.
Ten thousand poundsis the threshold at which the saving from a renegotiation typically outweighs the cost of having the conversation. Below that figure the commission may still be high, but the operational overhead of opening a dispute usually consumes any saving. Above it, a half-hour email exchange with the broker, citing Ofgem's Third Party Intermediary transparency rules, often reduces the uplift to a more standard level.
The calculator returns a verdict in three bands. Green under £5,000 (routine for most SME contracts). Amber from £5,000 to £10,000 (worth a conversation). Red above £10,000 (formal disclosure request and renegotiation strongly indicated).
How the maths works
The headline figure is the product of three numbers:
Lifetime commission (£) = Annual consumption (kWh) x Contract length (years) x Commission rate (p/kWh) / 100
For a 250,000 kWh per year business signing a four-year contract at the UK average commission of 0.3 p/kWh:
250,000 x 4 x 0.3 / 100 = £3,000
Multi-fuel contracts (gas plus electricity) compound the figure because each fuel has its own consumption and its own commission rate. The calculator handles both.
Frequently asked questions
+How much commission do energy brokers charge in the UK?
Typical SME broker commissions run from 0.1 to 0.5 pence per kWh added to the unit rate, with a UK average closer to 0.3 pence per kWh. On a 200,000 kWh per year business taking a three-year contract, that translates to £600 to £3,000 of commission over the term. Larger consumers can see total commissions reach five figures.
+Is the broker commission disclosed on my energy bill?
Not directly. The commission is bundled into the unit rate the supplier charges; the supplier then remits the commission portion to the broker. Ofgem's Third Party Intermediary (TPI) transparency rules require brokers to disclose the uplift on every quote, but the bill itself shows only the all-in unit rate.
+Why does this calculator flag red over £10,000?
Ten thousand pounds is the threshold at which the lifetime commission on a single contract exceeds what most SME and mid-market buyers consider a reasonable broker fee for the work involved. It is also the threshold at which the savings from negotiating the uplift down typically outweigh the cost of the renegotiation. Below £10,000 the commission may still be high relative to the size of the contract; the calculator returns a verdict in three bands so you can judge in context.
+What is the average pence per kWh commission in the UK?
Around 0.3 pence per kWh is a useful midpoint for SME business energy contracts in 2026. Multi-site mid-market contracts often run lower, in the 0.1 to 0.2 pence per kWh range, because the broker is competing harder for the volume. Single-site SMEs occasionally see commissions above 0.5 pence per kWh, which is high.
+Can I get a business energy contract with no broker commission?
Yes. You can request a direct-from-supplier quote with the broker uplift set to zero. The supplier will return a clean unit rate. Some suppliers also offer a fee-paid model where you pay the broker a fixed sum rather than per kWh, which can be cheaper for large contracts.
+What is the difference between commission and standing-charge uplift?
The pence per kWh commission scales with consumption: the more you use, the more the broker earns. A standing-charge uplift is a flat amount added to the daily standing charge per meter. Both are forms of broker income; this calculator focuses on the kWh commission because it is by far the larger figure on most business contracts.
Think your broker is charging you too much?
Send us your latest quote (or your renewal letter). We will tell you, inside two working days, what the embedded commission is and whether the offer beats a direct supplier quote.
Get a free commission review