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How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?
What AI consultants charge in the UK: day rates, monthly retainers and fixed-fee assessments, from the prices firms publish. Plus my own, in full.
In the UK, the day rates I found published for AI consulting ran from about £800 to £1,500. A monthly retainer for a part-time AI lead runs from about £2,500 to £8,500 or more. A fixed-fee assessment to get started is roughly £3,000 to £10,000.
Those numbers come from a review I ran in September 2026 of what firms advertise. Few publish prices, so they rest on a small number of firms. Treat them as a guide. Here is what I found, how the pricing works, and what I charge.
Where these numbers come from
I looked at the websites of firms and individuals offering AI consulting and fractional AI leadership, in the UK and abroad. Fewer than half of the fractional offers I looked at published a retainer price.
Two cautions. These are advertised prices, not what anyone ended up paying. And many are “from” figures, so treat the low end as a floor. Several of the UK prices are quoted excluding VAT.
Day rates
Very few UK firms publish a day rate. The ones I found ran from £800 to £1,500 a day.
One firm also publishes what it says the rest of the market charges: £500 to £900 a day for a freelancer, and £2,500 to £4,000 a day plus expenses for one of the big consultancies. I haven’t checked those, so take them as a rough guide.
Day rates suit one-off work: a workshop, a review, a short piece of building. They’re a poor fit for changing how a team works, because that takes months and needs someone to own the direction between visits.
Monthly retainers
This is how most ongoing AI consulting is sold. You pay a fixed amount each month for a set amount of time.
| What you get | Published UK price a month |
|---|---|
| An advisory tier | About £2,500 |
| About one day a week inside your team | About £3,000 to £4,000 |
| About two days a week, or an embedded lead | From about £5,000 |
| About three days a week | £6,000 to £8,500 or more |
That table rests on four UK firms, so read it as a guide to the shape, not a survey.
Three things move the price:
- Days. The unit that matters is days a month. If a retainer doesn’t say how much time you get, ask.
- Who you get. A named senior person costs more than a team with juniors, and is usually worth it.
- Minimum term. Three months with a review is normal in the UK. Cheaper offers are often month to month; the most expensive ask for six.
In the US, one guide puts the typical range at $5,000 to $15,000 a month, and the top of the market is far higher.
Fixed-fee assessments
Most consultants start with a fixed piece of work: an audit, a readiness assessment or a roadmap. The few UK firms I found that publish a price for an assessment of a week or two charge between about £3,000 and £10,000. A few short diagnostics cost less, and a full strategy over two to four weeks can run from about £22,000 to £35,000.
Lots of firms also offer a free “AI audit”. There’s nothing wrong with a free first call, but a proper assessment takes days of someone’s time. If it’s free, it’s a sales call. I’ve written about what a real one should include in AI readiness assessment: what to check before you spend anything.
Workshops are priced by the day. The one UK firm I found that publishes workshop prices charges from £1,500 for a half day and from £2,500 for a full day, plus VAT. Mine are the same.
What a full-time hire costs instead
The alternative to a consultant is hiring someone. UK firms selling fractional AI leadership quote anything from £120,000 to £400,000 a year for a full-time head of AI or chief AI officer. The lower figure, £120,000 to £180,000, is the one attributed to a recruitment firm. Remember these firms have a reason to make the full-time option look expensive.
Even at the low end, that’s a senior salary, plus recruitment, plus the months it takes to find someone good. For a business of 20 or 50 people it’s rarely the right first move. I’ve covered that comparison in what a fractional chief AI officer is.
If a retainer doesn’t say how many days you get, ask. Days a month is the unit that matters.
What I charge
My prices are on the site, because I’d want to see them if I were hiring.
| Price | What you get | |
|---|---|---|
| AI Blueprint | £2,500 fixed | About two weeks. A half-day session, conversations with the team, and a written plan for the first 90 days |
| Advisor | £1,250 a month | Two one-hour strategy calls a month, with research and reviews between them |
| Lead | £3,000 a month | A weekly check-in and two working days a month inside your team |
| Embedded | £5,500 a month | About one day a week inside your team, building on live work |
| Team workshop | £1,500 or £2,500 | Half day or full day, on your team’s real work |
All prices are plus VAT. Plans run for three months to start, then month to month. The Blueprint fee comes off your first month if you start a plan within 30 days. Your agency pays for its own software licences, so you keep control of them.
The full detail is on the how it works and pricing page.
How to judge whether it’s worth it
Work it out in hours. If a consultant costs £3,000 a month, and a 20-person team saves two hours each a week, that’s about 160 hours a month back. The fee works out at under £19 for each hour saved, so it only has to be worth more than that to your business. That’s an example, not a promise, so do the sum with your own numbers.
Then ask the harder question: will it still be working in six months, when the consultant has stepped back? The cheapest engagement is the one that leaves your team able to run it.
If you’d like to talk through what it would cost for your agency, send me a message.
