Porous materials have been widely used in batteries and supercapacitors attribute to their large internal surface area (usually 100–1000m2g−1) and porosity that can favor the electrochemical reaction, interfacial charge transport, and provide short diffusion paths for ions. As a new type of porous crystalline materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have received huge attention in the past decade due to their unique properties, i.e. huge surface area (up to 7000m2g−1), high porosity, low density, controllable structure and tunable pore size. A wide range of applications including gas separation, storage, catalysis, and drug delivery benefit from the recent fast development of MOFs. However, their potential in electrochemical energy storage has not been fully revealed. Herein, the present mini review appraises recent and significant development of MOFs and MOF-derived materials for rechargeable lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors, to give a glimpse into these potential applications of MOFs. MOFs with large surface area and high porosity can offer more reaction sites and charge carriers diffusion path. Thus MOFs are used as cathode, anode, electrolyte, matrix and precursor materials for lithium ion battery, and also as electrode and precursor materials for supercapacitors. Display omitted •MOFs have potential in electrochemical area due to their high porosity and diversity.•We summarized and compared works on MOFs for lithium ion battery and supercapacitor.•We pointed out critical challenges and provided possible solutions for future study.