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Gary
Rank 1
Gary
Rank 1
March 9, 2017
Solved

Can we get access to the OVO energy online account API to download our smart meter usage data?

  • March 9, 2017
  • 227 replies
  • 36559 views

Hi Ovo,

I wondered whether the API that powers your live and historical usage page in the account menu is something you could look into opening up a bit so we can freely access our raw data and also perhaps it may stimulate some interesting community projects?

For instance (more sport related), Strava and Fitbit.

    Best answer by g-de

    Updated on 14/08/25 by Abby_OVO

     

    Tim_OVO: “We love seeing the innovative ways our customers are using tech to help monitor and manage their energy usage. It’s inspiring us to think about ways to do energy differently. We know some customers have been using some of the application programming interface (APIs) behind our public facing services. While we’re OK with that, we do need to make you aware of a couple of things.

     

    These APIs are designed to be used by OVO teams only, and aren't public facing. There are some downsides to using APIs that aren't for the public, and we wanted to let you know what these are. Behind the scenes, OVO uses APIs to share and update information between systems that power your bills and your online account. This is done in partnership with Kaluza, the tech company that’s part of the OVO family. They’ve built the billing platform designed to put our customers in the driving seat of their energy usage. 

     

    These internal APIs are intended for use by Kaluza and its clients, who are energy retailers like OVO, rather than customers. Because of this, there’s no support for them being used anywhere else, which means they may be discontinued with no notice when we update our products and services. 

     

    OVO Energy and Kaluza need to be able to monitor these APIs, and may block access if there's any problems in the future.

     

    We know some customers may have put time and effort into developing solutions that use these API. So, now that you know the risks, we want to hear from you on how you’re using the APIs and the problems you’re solving with your DIY approach. 

     

    Is there anything you’d like to see from OVO to help you monitor and manage your energy better? Leave a comment below to tell us.”

     

    can you help me understand if the links above allow users to access raw data as if from an API?

    I can certainly give it a go.

     

    Firstly, big thanks to Timmo and other contributors for developing the library. All thanks go to them and links to buy them a coffee for their effort can be found on PyPi or GitHub:

    https://pypi.org/project/ovoenergy/
    https://github.com/timmo001/ovoenergy

     

    I assume the way the library was developed this was to reverse engineer the My OVO website. That is, browse the website as normal and and monitor the traffic to see what OVO URLs and APIs it uses. Assuming this is the case, one of these URLs (get account IDs) already seems to be different but the library is still working for the moment. The APIs being used are not officially supported outside of the website, so first, a warning that any changes to the My OVO website may break the library.

     

    For anyone using Python, you should be able to include the ovoenergy library and look at https://github.com/timmo001/ovoenergy/blob/master/ovoenergy/cli.py for how to use it.

     

    For replicating this in other languages, the process seems to be as follows:

    1. Login by sending a POST request to https://my.ovoenergy.com/api/v2/auth/login with the following JSON in the body: 
      {
          "username": "...",
          "password": "...",
          "rememberMe": true
      }

      From the response, save the cookies to use in all future requests.

    2. Next, send a GET request to https://smartpaym.ovoenergy.com/api/customer-and-account-ids . Be sure to save the items in the “accountIds” property (usually only one item).
    3. Finally, make a GET request to https://smartpaym.ovoenergy.com/api/energy-usage/daily/{accountId}?date={yyyy-MM} where {accountId} is the value from the previous request and {yyyy-MM} is the month in the format 2020-08.

    You can also get monthly or half-hourly usage using the following URLs similar to step 3:

    As mentioned above, if this is wanted for Home Assistant, the integration was added in version 0.114 (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ovo_energy/).


    Unfortunately the data only goes up to the end of the previous day as OVO no longer provide real-time data:

     

    227 replies

    Show previous replies
    Firedog
    Super User
    FiredogSuper User
    Super User
    October 5, 2025
    • The auth doesn’t look to be OAuth ...
        

    This is the response I get in Edge 142 to a failed request:

    {"message":"OAuth plugin - No refresh_token present"}

     

    Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    October 5, 2025

    I have been experimenting this afternoon and with the assistance of the description of the flow from ​@g-de I have made some progress.

    Sadly I couldn't get RestFox to work in FireFox so have to code it up one call at a time.

    G
    Newcomer
    g-de
    Newcomer
    October 5, 2025
    • The auth doesn’t look to be OAuth ...
        

    This is the response I get in Edge 142 to a failed request:

    {"message":"OAuth plugin - No refresh_token present"}

     

    Is that one of the data endpoints? The error message may be misleading. The auth flow doesn’t match what I’ve seen for oauth, however, the way in which the auth token is passed to the endpoints is the same.

    The error message may be a side-effect of the backend software being used.

    G
    Newcomer
    g-de
    Newcomer
    October 5, 2025

    I have been experimenting this afternoon and with the assistance of the description of the flow from ​@g-de I have made some progress.

    Sadly I couldn't get RestFox to work in FireFox so have to code it up one call at a time.

    There is an option to export to a poastman collection if that’s easier? I won’t be able to test it though. I tend not to use postman as I’ve had it just refusing to start on multiple machines.

    I was just copy pasting from the network diagnostics in my browser with some slight adjustments for variables and such. If you get stuck with any calls let me know and I’ll try post just the relevant bits.

    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    MikeWilliams
    Newcomer
    October 6, 2025

    Thanks all I now have a working set of postman scripts which I can translate into C# for my app.

     

    Regards

    Mike Williams

      G
      Newcomer
      g-de
      Newcomer
      October 6, 2025
      • The auth doesn’t look to be OAuth ...
          

      This is the response I get in Edge 142 to a failed request:

      {"message":"OAuth plugin - No refresh_token present"}

       

      Ironically I've just seen this error but when browsing the ovo website. It seems “Download bill” is broken at the moment (for me at least) 😂

      Firedog
      Super User
      FiredogSuper User
      Super User
      October 6, 2025

      It seems “Download bill” is broken at the moment (for me at least) 😂
         

      You might find that it depends on how you interact with the link. For me, a simple click on it works to trigger the download. Trying to open it in a new tab or window, or using the Save link as … option, only result in the error aforementioned, recorded as an HTTP 401 ‘Unauthorized’.

      Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
      G
      Newcomer
      g-de
      Newcomer
      October 6, 2025

      It seems “Download bill” is broken at the moment (for me at least) 😂
         

      You might find that it depends on how you interact with the link. For me, a simple click on it works to trigger the download. Trying to open it in a new tab or window, or using the Save link as … option, only result in the error aforementioned, recorded as an HTTP 401 ‘Unauthorized’.

      This was on mobile just tapping the button. I tried it a few times and on different bills.

      I just needed the MPAN which I managed to find on an old paper bill.

      Firedog
      Super User
      FiredogSuper User
      Super User
      October 7, 2025

        

      This was on mobile just tapping the button.
        

      OK. Yes, I see the same when visiting the site in a browser. The OVO Energy app skates round the problem by actually rendering the PDF instead of the web-page-like billing details page. 
       

      Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
      Nukecad
      Super User
      NukecadSuper User
      Super User
      October 7, 2025

       

      ….. It seems “Download bill” is broken at the moment (for me at least) 😂

       

      I had that issue last week and found that turning of both of my Adblockers then allowed the Downloading of the bill.

      I said, Hey - Watts going on.
      Show more replies
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