The characteristics of the gate electrode have significant effects on the behavior of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), which are intensively investigated for applications in the booming field of organic bioelectronics. In this work, high specific surface area activated carbon (AC) was used as gate electrode material in OECTs based on the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS). We found that the high specific capacitance of the AC gate electrodes leads to high drain-source current modulation in OECTs, while their intrinsic quasi-reference characteristics make unnecessary the presence of an additional reference electrode to monitor the OECT channel potential.