The free-nights plan that lets you check its math
If you searched for this plan, you probably want one number: what time do the free nights start? Here it is. On Amigo Energy's Free Nights Plan, the free window runs 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., every day, all year. Ten hours. That comes straight from the plan's Electricity Facts Label, which we generated fresh from Amigo's own document system on August 7, 2026. Hold that thought, because the fact that we could generate it at all is the most interesting thing about this plan.
Amigo Energy is a small Houston brand with a big corporate family. The legal seller is Fulcrum Retail Energy LLC d/b/a Amigo Energy, PUCT license 10081. Just Energy Group bought Fulcrum, with its Amigo and Tara Energy brands, in a deal announced in August 2011, and Just Energy itself emerged from creditor protection in December 2022 owned by funds managed by PIMCO. That family sells the free-window pitch three ways: Just Energy Nights Free uses the identical 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. window, and Tara Energy runs a Weekends Free variant in our feed. Same parent, same mechanic, different logo.
Here is what separates Amigo from its bigger siblings, and from TXU and Reliant, whose free-window plans we have also reviewed: this one lives in the open. It appears in our live marketplace feed with a readable all-in price, its EFL generates on demand, and its terms are one click deep. When a free-nights plan shows its work, we can do something rare in this genre: run the full math before anyone signs anything. So we did.
Claims vs. fine print
Four claims on the front. Four footnotes on the back. Here they are, side by side.
The mailer says
"FREE electricity every day from 9 PM to 7 AM"
The fine print says
Free means the energy charge is credited, nothing else. CenterPoint's pass-through delivery charge of 5.1 cents per kWh bills on every kilowatt-hour around the clock, plus a $4.90 monthly utility charge and Amigo's own $4.95 base charge. A "free" midnight kWh still costs about a nickel before fixed charges.
Source: Free Nights Plan - 12 Electricity Facts Label, CenterPoint territory, August 7, 2026
The mailer says
"10 Hours of Free Electricity"
The fine print says
The 10 hours are real, but the credit is computed after the fact from your smart meter's interval data. The EFL warns you may not receive credits for some night hours if the utility does not deliver interval data in time for your bill, and the credit may not apply to partially billed periods at the start or end of your contract.
Source: Free Nights Plan - 12 EFL, CenterPoint territory, August 7, 2026; marketplace listing, August 2026
The mailer says
14.9 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh (the advertised average)
The fine print says
The actual energy charge is 16.3 cents on every kWh you use outside the window. The 14.9-cent average exists because the EFL assumes 46% of your monthly usage lands inside the free hours. Spread your usage evenly across the day and only 41.7% lands there, which pushes your real average to about 15.6 cents.
Source: Free Nights Plan - 12 EFL, CenterPoint territory, August 7, 2026; our calculation from the EFL's published charges
The mailer says
"Fixed Rate Product. Contract Term 12 Months."
The fine print says
Fixed, yes. But the exit fee is $295 per ESI ID, nearly double the $150 that is standard on comparable 12-month plans, and higher than the $175 Amigo charges on its own other plans in our feed. The plan that most needs a mid-contract escape hatch prices it highest.
Source: Free Nights Plan - 12 EFL disclosure chart; our live feed, all Amigo plans, August 7, 2026
The price, in public for once
Start with credit where it is due. The Free Nights Plan's Electricity Facts Label generates on demand from Amigo's own document system, dated the day you pull it. Ours, generated August 7, 2026 for CenterPoint territory, reads: energy charge 16.3 cents per kWh, pass-through delivery charge 5.1 cents per kWh, a $4.90 monthly utility charge, a $4.95 base charge, 12-month term, $295 exit fee. Advertised averages: 15.9 cents at 500 kWh, 14.9 at 1,000, 14.4 at 2,000. Every one of those numbers matches what our live feed computes independently. Compare that to the plan's corporate sibling, Just Energy Nights Free, whose current EFL we could not retrieve at all as of August 2026.
Where you can buy it, per our feed on August 7, 2026: CenterPoint (14.9 cents at 1,000 kWh), AEP Central (15.1), AEP North (15.2), and TNMP (16.6). It is not listed in Oncor territory, so Dallas-Fort Worth shoppers searching for it will not find it, even though Amigo sells other plans there. The $295 exit fee holds in all four territories.
Two more EFL lines worth reading. Renewable content is 22%, against a statewide average of 37.2%, so this is a browner-than-average plan despite the family's JustGreen add-on branding. And a $4.99 minimum usage fee applies to any billing cycle under 400 kWh, which taxes small apartments in mild months, the exact homes a low-usage night plan tends to attract.
Free Nights is sold online with fully public documents; the EFL and Terms of Service generate on demand from Amigo's own systems, and the plan appears in our live comparison feed for CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, and TNMP territories (not Oncor) as of August 2026. Before enrolling, pull your actual overnight usage share from your smart-meter history at Smart Meter Texas; unless roughly 63% of your kWh already lands between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., a flat plan costs less. Our <a href="/texas/providers/amigo-energy/" class="text-green-700 underline hover:text-green-800">Amigo Energy provider page</a> lists the brand's current plans and rates.
What time do Amigo free nights start? 9:00 p.m., ending at 7:00 a.m.
The EFL's own words: "Night Hours = 9:00 PM - 7:00 AM. Your bill will contain a credit for Energy Charges resulting from energy consumed during Night Hours." So the mechanic is a rebate, not a rate of zero. Amigo bills the 16.3-cent energy charge on everything, then credits back the energy charges on whatever your smart meter says you used between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Run the dishwasher at 8:45 p.m. and it bills in full. Ten hours is a generous window by this genre's standards; TXU's current free-nights plan gives eight.
The credit rides on infrastructure you do not control. It is calculated from interval usage data your utility delivers to Amigo, and the EFL states plainly that you may not receive credits for some night hours if that data does not arrive before your bill generates, and that partially billed periods at the start or end of the contract may not earn the credit. None of that is hidden; it is disclosed. It just means "free every night" carries an asterisk that depends on a data pipeline.
Two exclusions to know. Homes with distributed generation, which mostly means rooftop solar, "may not be eligible for this product," per the EFL. And free applies to energy charges only: delivery charges, the utility's monthly charge, and the base charge bill in full every month, so roughly 5.1 cents rides on every nighttime kWh anyway. For how this whole plan category prices its windows, see our guide to time-of-use electricity in Texas.
The break-even is 63% of your usage at night
Because every number in this plan is public, the math can be exact. In CenterPoint territory, a 1,000 kWh month costs $9.85 in fixed charges, $51.46 in delivery, and 16.3 cents for every kWh outside the window. The cheapest flat no-gimmick plan in the same territory on the same day charged a 6.5-cent energy charge, 12.1 cents all-in at 1,000 kWh, or $121.26. Amigo's day rate is 2.5 times the flat floor's energy charge. That multiple is the price of the free window.
Now the bills. At Amigo's own EFL assumption, 46% of usage at night, the month costs $149.33, which is $28.07 more than the flat floor, about $337 a year. Spread your usage evenly around the clock, which puts 41.7% in the window, and the month costs $156.39, a $35.13 premium. To merely tie the flat plan you need 63% of your monthly kWh between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.; across the 500 and 2,000 kWh tiers the break-even runs 62% to 66%. In a Texas home where air conditioning fights the afternoon sun, pushing nearly two of every three kilowatt-hours past 9 p.m. is not a habit, it is a different life.
One honest note, because this plan has earned it. Amigo's 46% assumption sits only modestly above the 41.7% an even spread delivers, so its advertised average is close to what a normal home would really pay. Its corporate sibling's last readable Nights Free EFL, from November 2023, carried a 27.0-cent day rate. Amigo runs the same window at 16.3 cents and shows you everything. As free-nights plans go, this is the cheapest, most checkable version we have reviewed, and it still costs the typical home about $337 a year more than boring. The gimmick is not that the numbers are hidden. The gimmick is that the word free makes you forget to compare them.
9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The free window, every day, 10 hours; energy charges credited from smart-meter interval data (EFL, August 2026)
63%
Night-hours usage share needed at 1,000 kWh to tie the cheapest flat CenterPoint plan, 12.1 cents (August 2026)
$28.07/mo
Premium over the flat floor at Amigo's own 46% night assumption (1,000 kWh, CenterPoint, August 2026)
2.5x
Amigo's 16.3-cent day energy charge vs the 6.5-cent energy charge on the cheapest flat plan (August 2026)
Fine print, decoded
The five footnotes on the back of the mailer, translated into plain English.
| What the footnote says | What it means |
|---|---|
| "This price disclosure is based on the average usage levels above with an estimated 46% consumption during Night Hours." | The advertised 14.9 cents assumes nearly half your electricity happens between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. An evenly spread home puts 41.7% there and averages about 15.6 cents. Less night usage than that, and the number climbs further. |
| "You may not receive credits for some Night Hours if the utility does not provide interval data at the time your bill is generated or if that usage is not billed. The credit may also not apply during billing periods with partial consumption billed under the terms of this contract." | Your free hours depend on the utility's meter-data pipeline running on time. Late data can mean missed credits on that bill, and your first and last bills may not earn the credit at all. |
| "Customers with distributed generation may not be eligible for this product." | Rooftop solar homes can be turned away. If your panels already cover your days, the one profile that might love a night plan may not be allowed to buy it. |
| "Do I have a termination fee? Yes; The Exit fee is $295 per ESI ID." | Leaving early costs $295, versus $175 on Amigo's own other plans and $150 on typical 12-month plans in our feed. If the night math stops working for you in month four, the door out is the most expensive one in Amigo's lineup. |
| "A Minimum Usage Fee of $4.99 will apply to billing cycles less than 400 kWh." | Use under 400 kWh in a mild month and a $4.99 fee appears. Small apartments, the homes most likely to be shopping a cheap-sounding night plan, are the ones that trip it. |
Why the same family sells this night three ways
Overnight is when Texas homes use the least power and when wholesale power tends to cost the least, which is why the hours between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. are the cheapest ones a retailer can give away. A free-nights plan hands you the hours you barely use and reprices the ones you cannot avoid; the 16.3-cent day rate against a 6.5-cent flat floor is that trade written down. This is analysis of a documented mechanic, not a hidden trick: Amigo prints every piece of it on the EFL.
It is also a mechanic worth selling more than once. The Just Energy family runs the identical 9-to-7 window under Just Energy Nights Free, this Amigo version, and a weekend variant under Tara Energy in our feed. Different brands reach different shoppers; the math underneath does not change.
What to do instead
For contrast, here is the live CenterPoint market on the day we published (August 2026). The cheapest all-in plan at 1,000 kWh was 6.1 cents per kWh, but it earns that number with a bill credit that punishes low-usage months; bill-credit plans cut both ways. The cheapest flat plan with no credits and no tiers was 12.1 cents at 1,000 kWh, the floor this review measures Free Nights against. Every plan below publishes its full Electricity Facts Label before you enroll.