The progress in the field of electrochemical supercapacitors employing polyaniline and polypyrrole during the past decade is reviewed, with special emphasis on electrochemical characterization techniques. The magnitude of the specific capacitance from the galvanostatic charge-discharge studies, cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy has been compiled. The merit of the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy in deducing the system parameters is pointed out. The unsolved issues pertaining to the conducting polymers based supercapacitors are highlighted. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.