Are you curious about the real pros and cons of Amber Energy? If you own a solar system and a home battery, that’s probably why you’re reading this. It’s a good idea to ask these questions.
At PSC Energy, we’re independent and not affiliated with Amber Electric. We cover all things solar energy, giving you the full picture; both the good and the bad. Amber lets battery owners trade electricity on the wholesale market. It’s worked well for some but caused issues for others.
Here’s what you’ll find in this article:
- How Amber works and what it costs.
- The genuine pros that make it attractive to battery owners.
- The real cons that have frustrated many customers.
- Who Amber suits and who should look elsewhere.
By the end of this article, you’ll know what Amber Energy is, how it works, and whether it’s for you or not.
How Does Amber Work?
Amber doesn’t add a markup to electricity prices. Instead, it charges a flat $25 monthly fee. In return, you get:
- You pay the raw wholesale price when you import power from the grid.
- You earn the raw wholesale price when you export power back.
- Prices shift every few minutes throughout the day.
- Midday prices often drop low or go negative, so you can get paid to charge your battery.
- Evening prices often spike, so you can earn strong returns by selling stored energy.
Amber’s SmartShift software is designed to handle this automatically by charging your battery when prices are low and selling when they’re high.
But many users question whether it always makes the best choices and keeps up with market changes.
The Pros of Amber Energy
When Amber works as intended, it offers battery owners something genuinely valuable that standard retailers simply do not.
Pricing and earnings:
- Wholesale buy-and-sell rates with no retail markup.
- A $25 monthly fee that is easy to recover through smart exporting.
- You can get paid to charge your battery during negative pricing periods, when the grid is flooded with solar power, and prices go negative.
- One household earned $230 in credits in a month with a 15 kW solar system, two Powerwall 2 batteries, and a 10 kW export limit.
- Another user averaged $100 monthly credits for their first six months.
- Several long-term customers with four or more years on the platform report consistently positive results.
App and control:
- Live pricing data, battery controls, and usage visibility all in one place.
- When SmartShift works correctly, it learns your usage patterns and positions your battery for the best export windows, so you don’t need to watch the market.
- Manual override options let you step in and capture price spikes yourself if you want to.
- You can charge your battery ahead of a storm, hold charge for an evening peak, or export immediately during a spike, all with a few taps.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about budget plans for electricity, you might want to check out the following article titled, 10 Cheapest Electricity Providers in Sydney.
The Cons of Amber Energy
Here’s where things get more complicated. The main downsides fall into four areas: SmartShift reliability, customer support, billing, and onboarding.
SmartShift reliability:
- Many users report SmartShift charging the battery from the grid when it is not required, leading to unexpected costs.
- The system often fails to trigger exports during price spikes, even when the battery is full, thereby missing profitable opportunities.
- Unexplained grid imports sometimes happen, even for homes with large batteries and minimal daily usage, reducing expected savings.
- Some users have to manually override daily to ensure SmartShift runs beneficial charge and export cycles. This defeats the purpose of automation and makes management time-consuming.
- On 11 February 2026, Amber confirmed a widespread outage that stopped all manual charge and discharge commands for every supported battery brand at once. They found the problem by noon but were still investigating ninety minutes later.
- Problems regularly surface after inverter replacements or firmware updates, requiring a full re-onboarding process that can take time.
Customer support:
- Phone calls often don’t connect, and hold times can sometimes last up to two hours.
- There is no callback option or alternative contact path.
- Email support typically delivers one automated update per month with no resolution and no direct contact.
So why did support get so bad? Two things happened at once:
- The federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program triggered a massive surge in sign-ups, with roughly 200,000 battery systems installed between July and December 2025. Amber’s customer numbers grew approximately five times their normal pace.
- The company was migrating to a new billing system at the exact same time.
Amber’s representative, Tim Barson, admitted they didn’t hire staff quickly enough. Since then, they’ve doubled their customer operations team, are still hiring, and say most billing problems are now fixed.
It is a genuine step forward. However, some long-term customers say support got worse before it started to improve.
Billing problems:
- Some customers went months without receiving a single invoice.
- Unexpected demand charges appeared during onboarding, with one customer hit with $59 in their first three weeks.
- The $25 monthly fee keeps being charged even if SmartShift isn’t working properly.
- Some account closure disputes ended up with debt collection notices, without any person reviewing the situation.
One customer who moved house closed their old Amber account, received a credit payout, then began receiving threatening emails claiming they owed money.
After four months of no replies and a failed two-hour call, they got a debt collection notice.
Onboarding delays:
- Re-onboarding after a hardware change, such as a warranty inverter replacement, can restart the process entirely.
- During re-onboarding, customers can lose export capability for weeks, sometimes incurring hundreds of dollars in extra costs.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about feed-in tariffs, you might want to check out the following article titled, Understanding Feed-In Tariffs and Their Limitations.
Who Is Amber Best Suited For?
Amber tends to suit households that:
- Have solar, a battery with decent capacity, and a solid export limit.
- Are comfortable with bills that vary from month to month.
- Are willing to check the app occasionally and step in when needed.
- Can shift flexible loads like dishwashers and washing machines away from the evening peak window.
Amber is a harder fit for households that:
- Need stable, predictable bills.
- Can’t afford to wait weeks for support when something goes wrong
- Have hardware that is not fully supported.
- Face high demand tariffs, which can quickly wipe out earnings.
Before signing up, check your export limit, review your battery warranty, and ask your installer who handles hardware problems versus retailer issues. This clarity can save you a lot of frustration if something goes wrong.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Amber, you might want to check out the following article titled, Amber Energy Australia Explained: A Smart Way to Save (and Earn) with Solar Panels and Battery.
Bottom Line: Shift Happens
Amber’s pricing model is solid, and when conditions are right, it works well for households with the right setup. The wholesale rates are real, the earning potential is real, and the app gives you control and transparency that most retailers don’t offer.
But the downsides are real, too. SmartShift isn’t reliable for every setup. Support has been overwhelmed and is still improving. Billing issues have surprised many customers, and hardware compatibility isn’t guaranteed.
At PSC Energy, we’re here to help you every step of the way on your solar journey. It’s what we do.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Cheaper Home Batteries Program and it’s recent changes, you might want to check out the following article titled, Changes to the Australian Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program Explained.
FAQ: Pros and Cons of Amber Energy
What is SmartShift, and does it actually work?
SmartShift is Amber’s automated battery management tool. It is supposed to charge your battery when wholesale prices are low and sell your stored energy when prices are high. For some users, it works well. For others, it has made poor decisions, like pulling power from the grid when it was not needed or refusing to export during price spikes. A fleet-wide outage in February 2026 also knocked out manual battery controls for all customers simultaneously. It is a promising technology that does not yet work reliably for everyone.
How much does Amber Electric cost?
Amber charges a flat $25 per month subscription fee. You do not pay a markup on electricity. Instead, you pay the live wholesale rate when you import from the grid and receive the live wholesale rate when you export. Your standard daily supply charge and network tariffs still apply on top of that. Some customers have also been hit with unexpected demand charges, particularly during the onboarding period.
Why is Amber’s customer support so hard to reach?
Amber’s support team was overwhelmed by a massive surge in new customers following the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which saw around 200,000 battery systems installed between July and December 2025. At the same time, the company was migrating to a new billing system. The combination caused phone lines to drop out, emails to go unanswered for months, and billing issues to pile up. Amber has since doubled its support team and says most billing issues are now fixed, but some customers report the situation is still improving.
Does Amber work with all solar batteries and inverters?
Not equally well. Amber supports a range of battery brands, but there are known gaps. Problems also tend to surface after inverter replacements or firmware updates, sometimes requiring a full re-onboarding process before the system works correctly again.
