Seven of the nine suppliers we track sell natural gas to Irish homes, and at the CRU typical usage of 11,000 kWh a year the gap between them is real money: verified year-1 estimated annual bills run from €1,166 (SSE Airtricity) to €1,783 (Prepay Power). That is a €617 spread for the same gas, through the same Gas Networks Ireland pipe, into the same boiler.
This page ranks every supplier that actually sells gas by its cheapest verified year-1 gas EAB — unit rate, standing charge, carbon tax and 9% VAT all in, urban figures at 11,000 kWh. Two of the nine do not appear because they do not sell gas at all: Pinergy and Community Power are electricity-only suppliers, so if you are with either, your gas is already with someone on this list.
Read the year-2 column before you fall for the year-1 one. The cheapest year-1 supplier here is only mid-table once its discount ends, and the year-2 winner — Bord Gáis Energy — sits fourth in year 1. matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited price-comparison site (those are listed on cru.ie); we rank suppliers editorially and show you the verified numbers so you can decide.
Who actually sells gas in Ireland?
Not every energy brand you see advertised will take your GPRN. Of the nine household suppliers we review, seven sell natural gas — the two incumbents, the three big bill-pay alternatives, one challenger and one prepay specialist:
| Supplier | Sells gas? | Bill-pay gas | PAYG gas |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSE Airtricity | Yes | Yes | No |
| Flogas | Yes | Yes | No |
| Yuno Energy | Yes | Yes (credit meter only) | No |
| Bord Gáis Energy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Energia | Yes | Yes | No |
| Electric Ireland | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prepay Power | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pinergy | No — electricity only | — | — |
| Community Power | No — electricity only | — | — |
One quirk worth knowing before you shortlist: Yuno only supplies gas through a standard credit meter, so if your home has a Gas Networks Ireland pay-as-you-go meter you would need it exchanged first. And Prepay Power sells gas the only way it sells anything — prepay — which is also why it is the dearest entry on this page.
How did we rank the cheapest gas suppliers?
The order is set by one number: the supplier’s cheapest verified year-1 gas estimated annual bill at 11,000 kWh (the CRU’s typical household gas usage), urban, including the standing charge, carbon tax and 9% VAT. Every figure was checked on the supplier’s own site on 28 August 2026 — where we could not verify a number this week, we print a dash rather than a guess. The full method is on how we test.
Unlike electricity, gas standing charges do not split urban and rural — there is no DG1/DG2 equivalent on the gas network — so one set of figures covers everyone on piped natural gas. Here is the whole market in one table:
| Rank | Supplier · plan | Discount shape | Standing charge | Year 1 EAB | Year 2 EAB | Exit fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SSE Airtricity · 1 Year Home Gas | 30% off the 11.38c standard unit rate | — | €1,166 | €1,542 | €50 |
| 2 | Flogas · Gas 28% Discount | 28% off (9.14c/kWh) | €170.84 | €1,314 | €1,705 | €50 |
| 3 | Yuno Energy · Gas Variable | Discounted variable (9.49c vs 11.72c standard) | €150.03 | €1,332 | €1,577 | €100 |
| 4 | Bord Gáis Energy · Gas Discount | 9% off units, then 5% loyalty discount | €131.69 | €1,388 | €1,498 | €50 |
| 5 | Energia · Standard Gas | 10% off the 11.26c standard unit rate | €141.60 | €1,394 | €1,518 | €50 |
| 6 | Electric Ireland · Gas 10% | 10% off (11.016c/kWh) | — | €1,499 | €1,633 | €50 |
| 7 | Prepay Power · Prepay Gas | No discount (12.89c/kWh, PAYG) | — (+€70.87 service charge) | €1,783 | €1,783 | €50 |
All rates and EABs include 9% VAT; standing charges are annual, inc VAT, and a dash means the supplier does not print that line on its plan card and we have not verified it this week. Exit fees are per fuel, for leaving a 12-month plan early — nothing applies inside the 14-day cooling-off or after the term ends.
What makes up an Irish gas bill?
Four lines, and only two of them vary by supplier:
- Unit rate × kWh. The competitive bit. Verified discounted rates on this page run from about 9.14c/kWh (Flogas) to 12.89c/kWh (Prepay Power) — at 11,000 kWh, that difference alone is over €400 a year.
- Standing charge. A fixed annual amount you pay even in a summer of zero heating. Verified figures this week range from €131.69 (Bord Gáis) to €170.84 (Flogas) — and it is the same urban or rural, unlike electricity.
- Carbon tax. A Government tax of €0.0125132 per kWh including VAT on the supplier tariff cards we checked on 28 August 2026 — about €137.65 a year at 11,000 kWh. It is identical at every supplier, so it never changes the ranking, and it is legislated to keep rising each year to 2030, so treat the per-kWh figure on your own bill as the live one.
- VAT at 9%. Applied to the lot, and already included in every figure on this page. The reduced rate runs to 31 December 2030 under Budget 2026.
What is not on a gas bill: the PSO levy. That is an electricity-only charge — if you are comparing a gas EAB with an electricity EAB, remember the electricity figure carries PSO and the gas figure carries carbon tax instead. There is a full line-by-line walkthrough coming in our gas bill guide; for the switching mechanics, see how to switch energy supplier.
Who is cheapest for gas in year 1?
SSE Airtricity, and it is not close: its 30% new-customer discount lands a verified €1,166 EAB, €148 clear of Flogas in second. The chasing pack of Flogas, Yuno and Bord Gáis sits within €74 of each other, and the only supplier you should never pick on price alone is Prepay Power — its €1,783 is the cost of prepay budget control, not a competitive gas rate.
Two caveats on the winner. SSE’s figure is a 12-month discount with a €50 exit fee, and its year-2 landing (€1,542) is €376 above where you started. And Yuno’s €1,332 comes with a €100 exit fee and variable rates that rose 11% mid-2026 with notice — the 12-month term binds you, not the price. Year-1 EABs are for people who will switch or renegotiate at month 12; if that is not you, read the next section instead.
Who is cheapest for gas in year 2?
Let the discounts expire and the table reshuffles completely. Bord Gáis Energy — fourth in year 1 — becomes the cheapest verified year-2 gas supplier at €1,498, because its 9% new-customer discount decays to a 5% loyalty discount rather than vanishing, and it carries the lowest verified standing charge on this page. Flogas swings the other way: second-cheapest in year 1, second-dearest in year 2 at €1,705 once its 28% discount gives way to the 12.70c standard variable rate.
So the honest answer to “cheapest gas” depends on your own behaviour. A serial switcher takes SSE’s €1,166 and leaves at month 12. Someone who knows they will drift is better off starting where the drift is soft — Bord Gáis or Energia — than chasing the deepest discount and landing on the hardest standard rate. Prepay Power is flat because it has no teaser at all: €1,783 in year 1 is €1,783 in year 2.
Is a dual-fuel “deal” cheaper than gas on its own?
The dual-bundle trap: a dual-fuel discount is applied to two fuels — it says nothing about whether either fuel is cheap. Every dual EAB we verified this week can be beaten by picking gas and electricity separately, sometimes by hundreds of euro. Always unbundle the sum before you sign, and remember dual fuel still means an exit fee per fuel if you leave early.
Here is the maths with verified 28 August 2026 figures, at CRU typical usage on both fuels (11,000 kWh gas + 4,200 kWh electricity, urban, year 1):
| Option | Gas leg | Electricity leg | Year-1 total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flogas Dual Fuel 28% | one bundled bill | €2,969 | |
| Yuno Dual Fuel Discount | one bundled bill | €2,746 | |
| Bord Gáis gas + SSE fixed electricity | €1,388 | €1,295 | €2,683 |
| SSE 1 Year Home Dual Fuel | one bundled bill | €2,572 | |
| SSE gas 30% + SSE fixed electricity | €1,166 | €1,295 | €2,461 |
Read that bottom row twice: two separate SSE single-fuel plans come in €111 under SSE’s own dual-fuel bundle, and €508 under the Flogas dual deal. The pattern holds even with the year-2 winner on the gas leg — Bord Gáis gas plus the cheapest verified electricity plan (SSE’s €1,295 fixed) undercuts the Flogas bundle by €286. Dual fuel buys you one bill and one app, and that convenience is worth something — but check what it costs on our dual-fuel ranking and against the cheapest electricity plans before assuming the bundle is the bargain.
Why is your winter gas bill so much bigger than the EAB suggests?
An 11,000 kWh EAB is an annual figure, and gas usage is anything but flat. Central heating means the bulk of those kilowatt-hours burn between October and March, so a €1,388 EAB does not mean a tidy €116 a month — it means small summer bills and winter bills that can run to several times that. Two practical consequences:
- Never judge a supplier on a summer bill. A cheap-looking July invoice tells you almost nothing about what February will cost; the EAB is the comparable number, which is why this whole page is built on it.
- Time your switch for autumn if you can. A 12-month discount started in September or October puts the whole discounted year over your heaviest heating season. The same discount started in April spends half its life discounting a nearly-empty summer bill.
- Budget on twelfths only if your supplier does. Level-pay direct debits smooth the winter spike; standard billing does not. If cashflow is tight, ask for level pay — or accept that the winter direct debit will be a multiple of the summer one.
Switching itself is the easy part: your new supplier needs your 7-digit GPRN and a meter reading, the change runs through Gas Networks Ireland in roughly two to four weeks, and the gas never cuts. The step-by-step is in how to switch energy supplier.
Keep reading
- Best energy in Ireland: the flagship supplier ranking.
- How to switch energy supplier: MPRN, GPRN, cooling-off — supply never cuts.
- Year 1 vs year 2 energy prices: the discount cliff every ranking here prices in.
- Find your energy: 30-second matcher.
