A total of 364 female Ross 308 chicks (1 d old) were used in the present study conducted in floor pens to investigate the effects of graded levels of supplementary bacterial phytase on dietary energy utilisation and growth performance. For this purpose, four maize -soyabean-based diets were offered to the birds from 0 to 21 d of age. These included a suboptimal P negative control (NC, 3·0 g/kg non-phytate P), NC þ 250 phytase units (FTU)/kg feed, NC þ 500 FTU and NC þ 2500 FTU. The effect of phytase activity on bird growth performance was best described as a linear relationship between increasing dose and increased feed intake (P,0·001), but was quadratic for body-weight gain (P¼ 0·002) and feed efficiency (P¼ 0·023). There was no significant response (P. 0·05) of dietary apparent metabolisable energy (AME) to supplementary phytase. The birds fed phytase increased their retention of total carcass energy in a linear fashion (P¼ 0·009) with increased phytase dose. The efficiency of dietary AME used for overall carcass energy retention also improved (P¼0·007) in a linear manner with increased dietary phytase activity. Dietary net energy for production (NE p ) increased (P¼ 0·047) with an increase in phytase dose following a linear pattern, as an increase of 100 FTU increased dietary net energy by 15·4 J (estimated within the range of doses used in the present experiment). Dietary NE p was more highly correlated with performance criteria than dietary AME, and it seems to be a more sensitive way to evaluate broiler response to phytase supplementation.Key words: Chickens: Bacterial phytase: Net energy: Energy retention Diet composition is a major variable in poultry production. There is a wide range of feedstuffs available to the feed industry and the decision to use a specific feedstuff is often price dependent. The price of feedstuffs depends, among other factors, on their nutrient composition and the concentration of available energy. The cost of supplying available energy accounts for about half of the cost of a broiler chicken feed (1) .The availability of dietary energy in turn depends on the availability of carbohydrates, protein and starch, all of which may be impaired by anti-nutritive factors. Dietary phytate, a mixture of phytic acid and its salts, has been viewed as an anti-nutrient due to its ability to chelate minerals and react with starch and protein, reducing their availability for poultry (2,3) . Poultry do not produce meaningful quantities of endogenous phytase (4,5) and, as a result, the detrimental effects of phytate in poultry diets can be ameliorated by the addition of microbial phytases.So far, the majority of the studies evaluating the effect of phytase on available energy have been performed using the metabolisable energy system, i.e. dietary apparent metabolisable energy (AME). Although dietary AME is widely used to describe the available energy concentration in poultry feedstuffs, diets with the same AME are not necessarily used with equal efficiency when fed to poultry (6 -9) . ...