What are energy supplier ratings?
Energy supplier ratings are quarterly scores, published by Citizens Advice, that show how well each gas and electricity company actually treats its customers. They cover things a price comparison never will: how long you wait on the phone, how often your bill is wrong, and how a supplier handles a complaint when something goes wrong. If you’re about to switch, they’re the bit of homework most people skip.
Your current supplier is banking on that. Sticking with the same tariff, the same company, the same call queue, year after year, is the easiest thing in the world to do. It’s exactly why so many households never move. Checking energy supplier ratings takes about five minutes and costs nothing.
Energy supplier ratings at a glance
Here’s the latest published snapshot from Citizens Advice, covering January to March 2026, checked August 2026. Scores are out of 5.
| Supplier | Star rating (Jan to Mar 2026) | Notable for |
|---|---|---|
| 100Green | 4.33 | Top of the whole table |
| Outfox Energy | 4.25 | Second place, strong on billing accuracy |
| E.ON Next | 3.71 | Best rated of the Big Six |
| All suppliers, median | 3.26 | Up from 3.17 the quarter before |
| British Gas | 2.61 | Lowest rated of the Big Six |
| TruEnergy | 1.38 | Bottom of the table |
That’s a gap of roughly three whole stars between the top and bottom supplier. Same industry, same regulator, wildly different experience.
Worth knowing the direction of travel too. The median score across all suppliers rose from 3.17 to 3.26 in the latest quarter. Fewer suppliers scored 2 stars or below than the quarter before. So service is improving, slowly, but the gap between the best and worst energy supplier ratings hasn’t closed much.
Why does customer service score matter when you switch?
It matters because a cheap tariff with a supplier that’s slow to answer the phone can end up costing you more time and stress than it saves you in pounds. Energy supplier ratings exist precisely to catch what a price comparison table can’t see.
Citizens Advice builds the score from four things: how many complaints a supplier gets, how long customers wait to get through, how accurate the billing and metering is, and whether the supplier keeps its own customer commitments. Put together, that’s a decent proxy for “will this company be easy to deal with if something goes wrong”.
It won’t always go wrong, to be fair. Most switches are quiet and uneventful. But if you’re on a prepayment meter, have a complaint pending, or you’re the sort of person who’d rather not spend a lunch break on hold, energy supplier ratings are worth five minutes before you commit to a new deal.
How does Citizens Advice work out energy supplier ratings?
The data comes from a mix of supplier reported figures and complaints logged with Citizens Advice, the Extra Help Unit, and the Energy Ombudsman. It’s published every quarter, so the table above will update again later this year.
A few suppliers, like 100Green and Outfox Energy, are small. They sit near the top partly because there’s less volume to go wrong. The Big Six suppliers serve millions of households each, so their scores are a fairer test of what happens when a company has to handle real pressure at scale.
Worth noting: energy supplier ratings measure service, not price. A supplier can score brilliantly and still not be the cheapest option for your usage, and vice versa. Check both before you decide.
August is a quieter month for energy news, which makes it a sensible time to do this kind of check. There’s no price cap change mid month, no headline scare story, just a bit of breathing room before autumn tariffs and winter usage start climbing.
Households who fix a deal or switch supplier in August are choosing who they’ll be dealing with through the coldest, highest usage months of the year. That’s exactly when a slow call centre or a wrong bill hurts most. Better to check energy supplier ratings now than sort it out in a panic in December.
How to use energy supplier ratings before you switch
Ratings are only useful if you actually look at them before, not after, you sign up. Here’s the sensible order to do it in.
Key takeaways
- Compare prices first to shortlist two or three suppliers within your budget.
- Check each one’s current energy supplier ratings on the Citizens Advice site before you commit.
- If a supplier sits near the bottom of the table, weigh that against how much you’d actually save.
- If things do go wrong after switching, you can raise it with the Energy Ombudsman for free once your complaint has run its course.
Roo would tell you switching itself is the easy bit, done in minutes online. The harder decision is who you’re switching to, and that’s exactly what a five minute check of the ratings table is for.
If your current supplier is sitting low in the table and your tariff has crept up, this is a reasonable moment to compare energy deals and switch rather than let the renewal roll over automatically.
Frequently asked questions about energy supplier ratings
- How often are energy supplier ratings updated?
- Citizens Advice publishes a new set of energy supplier ratings every quarter, so roughly every three months. The table on this page reflects the January to March 2026 data, checked August 2026.
- Do energy supplier ratings include price?
- No. They’re purely about service, covering complaints, call waiting times, billing accuracy and how well a supplier keeps its promises. You’ll still need to compare tariffs separately to find the cheapest deal.
- Where can I check a supplier’s current rating?
- Citizens Advice publishes the full, up to date table on its website, broken down by supplier and by quarter, so you can check before you switch rather than after.
- Does a low rating mean I should avoid that supplier completely?
- Not necessarily. A low score is a signal to weigh up, not an automatic no. If the savings are significant, it may still be worth it, just go in knowing what you’re likely to get.
- Are smaller suppliers always better rated than the Big Six?
- Often, but not always. Smaller suppliers can score well because they handle fewer customers, though some sit near the bottom of the table too. Always check the current figures rather than assuming size decides quality.
Prices move every few months, but energy supplier ratings tend to move more slowly, which makes them a genuinely useful check before you switch. Spend the five minutes. It’s the part of switching that’s actually worth doing properly.
