Finding a decent smart plug with Matter support has been surprisingly difficult. I'd previously investigated a few Thread-based options, which would help extend and solidify the Thread mesh network throughout my home — but that turned out to be a disaster. I couldn't get them to pair at all, even when my Thread network was solid. Nowadays, it seems to need a full network restart every few days. For now, I'm resigned Wi-Fi for nearly everything, and luckily, there's a brilliant option: the Tapo P110M.
It even has energy monitoring using the new 1.4 Matter specs. Let's see why this plug might be exactly what you need. It's available now for around $10, or $35 in a four pack.
Spoiler alert: it's ridiculously good value for it offers, and it offers a lot.
Tapo Smart Plug, Energy Monitoring P110M
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Slimline design
As far as smart plugs go, the Tapo P110M is quite small and unobtrusive. While I'm reviewing the UK version, the US model doesn't differ much. The Tapo P110M is taller than my existing Hue plugs, but slimmer. Most smart plugs tend to be boxy, bringing an already large UK plug even further out. The Tapo P110M extends upwards instead.
The Matter code is stuck on the side, and while I'd prefer a direct printing, for the price point I'm happy. There's also a spare sticker in the box, which means you can file it away in your Matter code book and not have to keep the entire manual.
A small LED on the front panel just above the light grey "tapo" logo displays the current status; orange, or green. And you can manually power on or off, as well as perform a full reset, using the button on the side.
Matter pairing and energy monitoring
One of the attractions of Matter is that you aren't tied to any individual ecosystem; your device should always work, locally, across any generic Matter-compatible smart home controller of choice, whether that's Apple or Google Home, Home Assistant, or Samsung SmartThings.
In reality, that's not entirely true. You may get a subset of promised features, depending on firmware updates and which features your platform supports. This is particularly true with the energy monitoring side of the Tapo P110M, because it's a relatively new addition to the Matter spec.
I started by adding the P110M directly to Apple Home. Pairing went smoothly, and within a minute it was onboarded, with the plug status reported and controllable. Sadly, while the plug itself does support energy monitoring, Apple doesn't. So you'll still need to download the Tapo app if you want to use those features and happen to be on Apple. At the time of writing, only Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant support energy monitoring over Matter. Meanwhile, iOS 27 should bring energy management support soon.
But there's another snag: the plug is probably running old firmware which hasn't yet had the energy monitoring enabled (ours arrived with 1.0; an update to 1.3 is available at the time of writing). It's easy to upgrade, but again, you need the Tapo app to do that. Yet another smart home app download, yet another login and password, activate your email address, untick the box for spam marketing emails, etc.
Once it's updated (in fairness, a painless process once I was in the app; it found it automatically over Bluetooth), then you can add the plug to a supported platform to get energy monitoring too. I reset the plug (hold the button for ten seconds for a full reset), and paired with Home Assistant instead to confirm endpoints of:
- Current power usage (W)
- Consumption (kWh) - I assume this is since last reset, but it may be monthly because there's no option to reset the data that I can find.
- Energy exported (also kWh) - while this would suggest it can measure reverse energy flow, I was unable to confirm this.
- Effective current
- Effective voltage
During a week or so of testing, the plug has remained responsive, with no drop-outs or connectivity issues. That's more than I can say for anything that runs on Thread in my house.
Charge Guard and Power Protection
One of interesting feature that's exclusive to the Tapo app and not available via Matter is the Charge Guard, currently marked as in beta. When this is enabled, it'll automatically shut the plug off once it detects a connected device has finished charging. Devices charge faster during the start of a cycle, and more slowly as they near full.
The Tapo P110M can detect this behavior, and automatically shut off, extending the life of any connected devices. This works with a simple measurement of watts over a time period; you can select the type of connected device to use lab-determined values (Tapo suggests 2W for 30 minutes for a smartphone), or set your own custom values. I set mine as 4W for 10 minutes, and my the plug shut off once my iPhone was full.
Power Protection works in reverse: once enabled, you can set a threshold, and if it exceeds that, the device will shut off automatically. In my testing this wasn't an immediate response, but depends on how much it's exceeded by. With the threshold set to 35W, my connected dehumidifier was able to continue for a while until it ramped up to above 200W. So I wouldn't rely on this as a safety feature for an immediate shut-off with precise numbers.
Tapo P110M: The smart choice
Even without energy monitoring, a reliable Matter-compatible Wi-Fi smart plug at less than $10 is great value. The equivalent Philips Hue smart plug costs four times as much, and still needs a Hue bridge. But the Tapo P110M does also have energy monitoring (in supported platforms), as well as app-only features like Charge Guard. That makes it an absolute steal.
The only downside is that if you're all in on Matter, you're probably looking for a Thread device. In which case, keep looking, and good luck. If you already have a solid home Wi-Fi — for reference, I use a Unifi prosumer router with multiple access points throughout my home — the Tapo P110M is not only the most fully featured smart plug around, but also the best value.
