Blog · Published October 9, 2026

Who Pays the Gas Comparison Site? How Georgia Rate Sites Make Money

If a comparison site is free to use and lets you sign up for a plan, the gas marketer is usually paying it. That’s a common business model, and many of these sites say so in their own disclosures. But it changes what a “comparison” is. A paid site generally shows the companies it has deals with. It doesn’t show everyone.

Open Natural Gas is not paid by any marketer and no marketer can pay for placement. Our tables come from Georgia PSC filings and published offers.

How the money works

Sites describe a few common ways they get paid:

A fee when you sign up. EnergyBot says plainly: “When you enroll with a provider through our site, that provider pays us a referral fee.” [1] NaturalGasPlans says it receives compensation “when a customer enrolls in a service or product by clicking on certain links or calling a unique toll free phone number posted on our site.” [2]
An ongoing cut while you stay. SaveOnEnergy, which also runs Choose Energy, publishes the terms it offers energy companies. They describe a one-time “Customer Acquisition Bounty” plus a monthly “Customer Residual” for “the period of time the Customer is retained.” If that commission is tied to your usage, it keeps being paid “for so long as such Customers are retained … regardless of whether the Agreement is earlier terminated.” [3] In plain English, the site can keep earning from your gas bill for as long as you stay with the marketer it sent you to.
Paying to be shown or highlighted. Choose Energy’s disclosure says some advertisers “pay us to display ads, others pay us when you click …, others pay us when you call,” and that “the compensation we receive … may impact what ads and links appear on our site, and how, where, and in what order ads and links appear.” [4] NaturalGasPlans’ general disclosure says it is “also paid for featured ad placements.” [2]
Phone sales. Many sites push a toll-free number next to each plan. Calls are one of the ways sites say they get paid. [4][2]

None of this costs you an extra fee at sign-up, and several sites say the referral payment doesn’t change your rate. [5][1] The cost shows up somewhere else: in which plans you get to see.

What that does to the plans you see

A site that’s paid per sign-up can only earn from marketers it has a deal with. EnergyBot is unusually candid about it: “What our commercial relationships do affect is which providers appear on the platform at all. We can only enroll you with providers we have an agreement with … we do not list every licensed provider.” [1] Choose Energy and NaturalGasPlans also say they don’t include every offer available. [4][2]

So “the cheapest plan on this site” and “the cheapest plan in Georgia” can be two different things.

A Georgia example

Georgia Gas Savings (georgiagassavings.com) is one of the best-known Georgia gas comparison sites. Its footer says it is “operated on behalf of Electricity Ratings, LLC” and “Powered by” Lumanex. [6] Its Terms and Conditions say:

“EnergyRatings.com is paid by merchants or other third parties to list products on the EnergyRatings Web Site.”

“Participating merchants and other third parties may pay EnergyRatings.com to be presented on the EnergyRatings Web Site or to have their product or service offerings highlighted on our website.” [7]

The same terms add that “in no event do such payments affect the reviews or ratings given to any merchant by participating members.” [7] On its rate page, some plans are labeled “Sponsored.” [8]

Its “Why Use Georgia Gas Savings?” page tells shoppers it provides “accurate and concise lists of all the natural gas providers serving your local area” and that it is “100 percent neutral.” [9]

Here’s what the shop table showed for Atlanta on October 9, 2026, next to the PSC’s October filings:

	On Georgia Gas Savings’ Atlanta rate table (Oct 9) [8]	On the PSC’s October 2026 standard 12-month fixed chart [10]
Marketers shown	5: Constellation, Gas South, Georgia Natural Gas, SCANA, XOOM	10: the same 5, plus Fuel Georgia, Stream Energy, Town Square Energy, True Natural Gas, Walton EMC Natural Gas

By the PSC’s own estimate of a typical customer’s annual bill, the four lowest-cost standard 12-month fixed plans in October were Fuel Georgia ($1,069.18), Xoom ($1,073.15), Stream Energy ($1,086.35) and True Natural Gas ($1,088.45). [10] Three of those four were not on the Georgia Gas Savings table that day. We don’t know why any given marketer isn’t listed, and we aren’t suggesting a reason. The point is simpler: a table built from business relationships can leave out some of the lowest prices.

What the FTC says about paid placement

The Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides give an example of a review site that ranks products. If the site “accepts money … in exchange for higher rankings,” the FTC says a general disclosure of payments doesn’t fix it “because the payments actually determine the … relative rankings.” If a site is only paid for referrals and doesn’t sell rankings, the FTC says it “should clearly and conspicuously disclose that it receives such payments.” [11] FTC staff made a similar point to search engines: people “ordinarily expect” results to be ranked by relevance, “not based on payment,” and ranking something “in whole or in part based on payment is a form of advertising.” [12]

That’s the standard to hold any comparison site to, this one included. If money affects what you see, you should be told clearly, where you’re shopping, not only in the terms.

How to tell if a comparison site is paid

Look for “How we make money,” “advertiser disclosure,” or “monetization disclosure.” If you can’t find one, check the Terms and Conditions. That’s where Georgia Gas Savings’ language is. [7]
Look for “Sponsored,” “Featured,” or “Recommended” labels, and whether the site explains what they mean.
Count the marketers. The PSC chart listed 10 marketers with standard 12-month fixed plans in October 2026. [10] If a site shows fewer, it isn’t a full comparison.
Watch for the phone number. A toll-free number next to every plan usually means the site gets paid when you call. [4][2]
Check the date. Make sure the rates are this month’s.

Compare without a middleman

You don’t need a paid site to compare Georgia gas plans:

The Georgia PSC’s Gas Marketers Pricing Comparison is the official monthly chart. It “allows consumers to compare rate plans that are offered by certificated natural gas marketers” and shows what a typical customer would pay with each one. [13]
The PSC’s Gas Marketer Scorecard shows monthly complaint counts for each marketer, including billing, service and marketing complaints. [14]
Open Natural Gas’s Georgia page takes the PSC’s filings and ranks every filed standard 12-month fixed plan by estimated annual cost, with links back to the source PDF. The ranking formula is on the methodology page. [15]
Sign up with the marketer directly. Call or use the website of the company whose plan you picked, and confirm the rate, the monthly customer service charge, the term, and the early termination fee before you agree.

A comparison site can still be useful. Just know what it is: a storefront for the companies that pay it, not a full map of the Georgia market.

Sources

All accessed October 9, 2026.