How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK? Day rates, audits and retainers

How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?

We're Logica HQ, an AI engineering firm that sells AI consultancy, so our own prices sit in this guide beside everyone else's. UK contract ads for AI consultants offered a median of £564 a day in the six months to 17 October 2026, says ITJobsWatch. The middle 80% of those ads paid between £425 and £713.

Firms that sell consultancy directly charge more per day, and many sell fixed pieces of work instead. The ones that publish a day rate mostly quote £950 to £1,500 (The AI Consultancy, Optimus Consulting). Paid audits and readiness sprints start at £3,000 to £4,800 (Indexify, Precise Impact), and other firms' published monthly retainers start at £1,500 (Insightful AI).

Ours are fixed. The audit call is free, and a £495 discovery sprint is credited against the build. An AI roadmap is £995, and a fractional AI lead is £1,450 a month. The rest of this guide shows where each figure comes from and what it buys.

What do UK AI consultancies publish on their own pages?

Most AI consultants don't publish a price. These do, on the pages we opened on 17 October 2026, listed alphabetically with ours last. Any consultant whose taxable turnover passes £90,000 in 12 months must register for VAT, so check whether a quote includes it.

Two cautions on the day rates. The ITJobsWatch median is what recruiters advertise for contractors who work inside a client's team, not the price of a finished audit. The G-Cloud listings are what suppliers offer public-sector buyers, and a range such as Shivom's can cover several grades of staff.

Should you pay by the day, by the project or by the month?

Pay by the project when you can describe the outcome, and by the day when you can't yet. Pay by the month only when there's a regular flow of AI work that someone has to own.

Day rates are where budgets run over. If an audit billed at Optimus Consulting's £1,250 a day takes three days, it costs £3,750; if it takes five, £6,250. A fixed price moves that risk to the consultant. That's why we price every piece of work as a fixed figure agreed before it starts (our full price list).

What should you budget for a first piece of AI work?

Budget for two things: finding the one job worth automating, and building it. Here are both on our prices for a job that touches one system, with a published alternative beside each step.

1. Find the job

   A free audit call with us, or a paid audit elsewhere. Indexify's starts at £3,000 and The AI Consultancy's readiness sprint at £3,500.

2. Scope it, if it's bigger

   A written AI roadmap is £995 with us, and our £495 discovery sprint is credited in full against the build. Precise Impact's strategy sprint is £4,800.

3. Build one thing

   A simple custom agent starts from £1,450 with us: one task, up to one connected system, live in 1 to 3 weeks. Precise Impact prices a first pilot at £18,000 to £45,000 over four to eight weeks, for one workflow with integration, monitoring and 30 days' support.

4. Add ongoing help only if more work follows

   A fractional AI lead is £1,450 a month with us. Hartz AI's middle tier is £4,000 a month plus VAT.

On our prices, a free audit and a £1,450 build come to £1,450; add a roadmap and it's £2,445. Every figure is on our pricing page, and each one is agreed before work starts.

Do AI consultants cost more in London?

Not on the latest job-ad data. ITJobsWatch puts the London median for AI consultant contracts at £552 a day over the same six months, from 43 ads. That's slightly below the UK figure of £564. That's a small sample, so read it as no clear premium rather than a discount.

Several cost guides add a London premium anyway. Where the consultant sits matters less when the work can be done remotely: Insightful AI offers its £1,500 workshop on-site or remote, for example.

Do you need to check IR35 when you hire an independent AI consultant?

Yes, if the consultant works through their own limited company and your business is medium or large. HMRC's IR35 guidance says the client usually decides the worker's employment status for tax, and should give a status determination statement with its reasons. If a small client outside the public sector hires them, the consultant's own company decides.

Medium or large means meeting two of three tests for two financial years running (HMRC's thresholds from April 2025). The tests are turnover over £15 million, a balance sheet over £7.5 million, and more than 50 employees.

The rules cover a worker supplying their own services through their own company. If you're unsure whether an arrangement counts, HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives a view.

Is there funding for AI consultancy in the UK?

For manufacturers, yes. Made Smarter's adoption programme is for small and medium-sized manufacturing and engineering businesses with premises in England. It offers impartial advice from digital technology specialists, and match-funded grants of up to £20,000 for hardware and software. Our page on AI for manufacturers covers what's worth building first.

Outside manufacturing, we haven't found a national scheme that pays for a consultant's time. If a quote depends on a grant, confirm the grant with the body that runs it before you sign.

Do you need an AI consultant at all?

Often you don't. If you want help writing, summarising or drafting, a ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot subscription does that, and an afternoon of trying it costs nothing extra. A consultant earns the fee when the time goes on work that moves between systems. Think enquiries read and priced, calls answered, or details retyped from one app to another.

Before you pay anyone, check what the software you already pay for can do once it's switched on. Our guide to what an AI agent costs covers the agents sold inside Salesforce, Microsoft 365 and Intercom. If you're weighing a hire against buying the work in, our guide to hiring an AI developer, contractor or agency costs each route.

If enquiries, quotes or retyping eat your week, book a free audit call. We'll say which one is worth fixing first, whether or not you work with us.

What should you ask an AI consultant before you sign?

• Is this a day rate or a fixed price, and what happens if the work runs over?
• Does the price include VAT and travel?
• Who does the work: you, or someone you subcontract to?
• What will I have at the end: a list of jobs worth automating, a costed plan, or a working system?
• Can you build what you recommend, and what would that cost?
• Is there a minimum term on the retainer?
• If anything gets built, will the accounts, code and data be in my business's name?

Quick answers

• What is an AI consultant's hourly rate in the UK?

  Divide the day rate by about 7.5 hours. The £564 contract median is roughly £75 an hour, and £1,250 a day is about £167. Most firms sell days or fixed projects rather than hours.

• How much is an AI audit?

  Published prices run from free (our audit call) to £4,800 for Precise Impact's strategy sprint. Indexify charges £3,000, or £7,500 for regulated or sensitive-data work.

• How much is a fractional AI officer?

  Published retainers start at £1,450 a month (ours) and £1,500 (Insightful AI). The AI Consultancy's Embedded CAIO tier starts at £8,500 a month.

• Do AI consultants charge VAT?

  Those registered for VAT do, and registration is compulsory once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in 12 months. Most published prices above exclude it.

• Is an AI consultant worth it?

  When the time goes on work that crosses systems, often yes. When you mainly want help writing, a subscription is cheaper. Start with a free or fixed-price first step so finding out is cheap.