The short version: press the red button A to wake the display, write down every black digit left to right — zeros included — and stop at the comma or decimal point. Digits after it (in a red box on some models) stay out. Submit the number to your supplier, or to Gas Networks Ireland with your 7-digit GPRN — the full walkthrough is at submit a meter reading.
Which digits on the gas meter do I submit?
Stand at the meter and you are looking at more numbers than you need: a digit row, some fractional digits, a serial number printed on the face, a model code, maybe a barcode. Exactly one of these is the reading. Gas Networks Ireland’s instruction for the standard digital meter is short: read all the figures as displayed, left to right, including zeros — and ignore anything to the right of the comma, or in the red box on models that mark the fractions that way.
Here is the whole meter face, decoded:
| On the meter | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Black digit row (before the comma / decimal) | The index — whole units of gas through the meter since day one | Write it down, left to right, zeros and all. This is the reading. |
| Digits after the decimal — red box on some models | Fractions of a unit | Ignore completely. No form wants them. |
| Serial number on the face | Identifies the physical meter box | Not the reading and not the GPRN — but note it if you ever ring GNI, they use it to verify you. |
| Red button A | Wakes the display; cycles info screens on PAYG meters | Press once to light the screen. It cannot change or break anything. |
| Four small clock dials (older meters only) | The index on a dial-face meter | Read left to right using the dial rules below. |
Notice what is not on the meter: your GPRN. The 7-digit number every supplier and every GNI form asks for lives on your bill, not on the box — more on that below, because mixing it up with the serial number is the second-most-common way a submitted reading bounces.
How do I read a digital gas meter, step by step?
The modern metric meter — the one in nearly every gas home in Ireland — takes under a minute:
- Open the meter box. Outdoor boxes take a standard meter box key — a triangular key sold in any hardware shop, or free from Gas Networks Ireland if you ask. Indoor meters (under the stairs, in a press) just need a torch.
- Wake the display. On a digital meter, press the red button A once. The screen lights up and shows the index — the running count of gas through the meter.
- Read left to right, and keep the zeros. Write down every figure exactly as displayed, starting from the left — including any leading zeros. 00742 is 00742, not 742.
- Stop at the decimal. Ignore everything to the right of the comma or decimal point — on some models those digits sit in a red box instead. They are fractions of a unit and no form wants them.
- Photograph the meter. One photo captures the reading, the date and the serial number on the face in a single shot. If a bill is ever disputed, that photo is your evidence.
- Submit it with your GPRN. Give the reading to your supplier through their app or site, or to Gas Networks Ireland directly — Web-A-Read online or the 24-hour Dial-A-Read line on 1800 42 77 32. Either way you will be asked for the 7-digit GPRN, not the number on the meter face.
That is genuinely the whole job. The only skill involved is knowing where to stop — which brings us to the mistake this page exists for.
What is the decimal trap?
The trap: including the digits after the decimal point — or reading the row right to left. Either one turns a reading of 00742 into something like 7421 or 00742153, and both fail the same way: the number is wildly out of line with your billing history, so the supplier either rejects it or, worse, bills against it and corrects it later. The red colouring some meters use on the fraction digits exists purely to stop this. If a digit is red, or sits right of the comma, it stays at the meter.
Why does it happen so often? Because the fraction digits move — they are the ones visibly ticking over while gas is flowing, so the eye is drawn to them, and because a cramped meter box read by torchlight invites working backwards from the “busy” end of the row. The fix is mechanical: photograph the display, walk back inside, and copy the digits off the photo left to right, stopping at the decimal. If your submitted reading ever produces a shock bill, compare the bill’s closing read against that photo before you ring anyone — our estimated readings guide covers how a wrong read gets corrected.
What about the older dial gas meters?
A small number of older meters have a clock-style face instead of a digit row. Gas Networks Ireland still publishes instructions for them, and the rules are worth quoting-by-paraphrase exactly, because guessing produces off-by-one errors: read the four small dials at the bottom, left to right. When a pointer sits between two figures, take the lower one — between 7 and 8 is 7. The one exception: a pointer between 9 and 0 counts as 9, not 0, because that dial has not completed its lap yet.
Two things you should not do with a dial meter. Don’t convert anything — whatever units the old hardware counts in, the translation to the kilowatt-hours on your bill is done by Gas Networks Ireland and your supplier using factors printed on the bill itself, and the gas bill guide walks through that sum. And don’t assume the dials that aren’t among the four small ones matter — larger test dials on old faces are for engineers, not for readings. If your meter face matches neither the digit row nor the four-dial layout, photograph it and check it against Gas Networks Ireland’s meter reading page for your model rather than improvising.
Is the number printed on the meter my GPRN?
No — and this catches people precisely because the meter is where you happen to be standing, pen in hand, when a form asks for a number. The GPRN (Gas Point Registration Number) is a 7-digit reference for the connection to the gas network at your address. The number on the meter face is the serial number of the physical box. They identify different things and are never interchangeable:
| GPRN | Meter serial number | |
|---|---|---|
| Identifies | The gas connection at the property | The physical meter box |
| Length | 7 digits | Varies by manufacturer |
| Where it lives | On the gas bill (and screen 32 of a PAYG meter) | Printed on the meter face |
| Changes when… | Never — survives switches, tenants and meter swaps | GNI swaps the meter |
| Used for | Submitting readings, switching supplier | Verifying you when you ring GNI on 1800 464 464 |
So the reading and the GPRN travel together, but they come from different places: the reading from the meter, the GPRN from a bill. No bill to hand? The hunt — old bills, PAYG screens, Payzone receipts, the GNI phone line — has its own page. The serial number’s one useful role is verification: read it off the face before ringing GNI, because it proves you are standing at the meter you claim to be.
How do I take a reading on a Pay As You Go gas meter?
Mostly, you don’t — that is the honest answer. A PAYG meter is billed by the credit you feed it, so nobody needs a monthly read from you. The times a reading matters are the same times the GPRN does: switching supplier, closing an account, or querying charges.
The red button A on a PAYG meter does double duty: it wakes the display and cycles through numbered information screens. Gas Networks Ireland documents two of them on its site: screen 17 shows the daily standing charge you are paying, and screen 32 shows “Ref” followed by your GPRN. The full screen list — including where the meter index sits on your particular model — is in GNI’s own Pay As You Go meter guide, and that is the place to check rather than button-mashing: the screens are read-only, so you can’t break anything, but you also don’t want to transcribe the wrong screen as your reading. If you are weighing up whether prepay gas is even the right setup, prepay vs bill pay runs the numbers.
How often does Gas Networks Ireland read my meter for me?
You are not the primary meter reader — Gas Networks Ireland is. GNI says it reads domestic meters four times a year, depending on access, with two estimated readings a year filling the gaps between visits. That’s the cycle behind the E and A codes on your bill: an actual read when the reader got to the meter, an estimate when they didn’t — locked side gates and indoor meters being the usual culprits.
Worth knowing: the smart meter appearing in Irish homes is an electricity meter. ESB Networks’ national rollout doesn’t touch the gas network, so there is no gas meter silently reporting itself — a manual read (yours or GNI’s) is still how every accurate gas bill starts. That makes the habit worth having: a 30-second read whenever an estimated bill lands keeps your account tracking reality, and our estimated readings guide explains what estimates do to your bills in between.
Once you have the digits, submitting takes two minutes: your supplier’s app or site, GNI’s Web-A-Read form, or the 24-hour Dial-A-Read line on 1800 42 77 32 — channel by channel at submit a meter reading. And the two moments a fresh gas read earns you actual money: the day you switch supplier, where it draws the line between the old bill and the new one, and the day you move house, where it draws the line between you and the next occupant.
Where to next?
- Submit a meter reading — every channel, for both fuels, and what happens after you hit send.
- Find your GPRN — the 7-digit number that travels with the reading, and where it hides.
- Gas bill explained — including the cubic-metres-to-kWh conversion this page deliberately skipped.
- How to read an electricity meter — the other fuel: 24h, NightSaver and smart displays.
- Cheapest gas in Ireland — while you’re holding a fresh reading, check whether the rate it’s billed at is any good.
