Buying AI
What AI consultancy costs in the UK
Real UK market rates for AI consulting in 2026: day rates, fixed-fee audits, project costs and retainers, plus where the money usually gets wasted.
On this page
Most UK AI consultancies will not publish a price. The stated reason is that every engagement is different. The usual reason is that the number is set by what the client appears able to pay.
We publish ours. Here is what AI consultancy costs in the UK in 2026, what you get at each level, and where organisations waste the most money.
The short version
- Day rates: roughly £600 to £1,200 for an independent, £1,000 to £1,800 for a boutique, and £1,500 to £3,000 or more at a large consultancy.
- Fixed-fee assessments run from about £750 to £35,000 depending on scope and firm. Ours starts at £4,500 for two to three weeks.
- Projects run from £2,500 to £250,000 or more, and retainers from £500 to £6,000 a month.
- Most waste comes from five places: strategy you already have, pilots on synthetic data, compliance found at the end, rented architecture, and proofs of concept that were never going to production.
- The best question to ask any supplier: what stops working if we part company?
The market rates
Across the UK market in 2026, four pricing models dominate.
| Model | Typical UK range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Day rate | £600-£1,800 (SME-focused); £1,500-£3,000+ (enterprise firms) | Ongoing advisory, filling a specific capability gap |
| Fixed-fee audit or assessment | £750-£35,000 depending on scope and firm tier | Deciding what to do before committing budget |
| Project / implementation | £2,500-£250,000+ | Building a defined thing with a defined outcome |
| Retainer | £500-£6,000 per month | Continuity, escalation cover, incremental improvement |
The spread within each row is large, and it is not mainly a quality signal. It tracks the supplier’s cost base far more closely than the outcome you receive.
These ranges are indicative. Use them as a sanity check on a quote, not as a benchmark.
What the tiers are
Independent consultants: £600-£1,200/day
One experienced practitioner. At the good end, someone who has shipped systems and will tell you the truth quickly, because their reputation is the whole business. At the bad end, someone who completed a course in March.
The test is simple. Ask what they have personally put into production, and what broke. Anyone who has done the work has a specific and slightly painful answer. Anyone who has not will talk about frameworks.
Good for: assessments, architecture decisions, a second opinion on a vendor proposal, unblocking a stuck team. Bad for: anything needing delivery capacity or continuity beyond one person.
Boutique and specialist firms: £1,000-£1,800/day, projects £25k-£150k
Small teams, usually specialised by sector or capability. Enough capacity to deliver, senior people on the work, and a partner who notices if it goes wrong.
Good for: production builds in a regulated context, work that needs both engineering and governance. Bad for: very large multi-workstream transformations where you need sheer headcount.
Large consultancies and systems integrators: £1,500-£3,000+/day, projects £250k+
Brand assurance, scale, and the ability to satisfy a procurement process that requires a supplier of a certain size. Real strengths for large programmes.
The known failure mode is the seniority gap between the pitch team and the delivery team. It is manageable if you address it in the contract: name the individuals, fix their allocation, and make substitution require your approval.
Good for: enterprise-wide programmes, board-level cover, work that must survive a formal procurement. Bad for: a single well-defined build, where you pay a large premium for overhead you are not using.
What we charge
| Service | Fee | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| AI readiness assessment | From £4,500 | 2-3 weeks |
| AI governance and compliance | From £7,500 | 3-6 weeks |
| Private / self-hosted AI deployment | From £18,000 | 4-8 weeks |
| AI implementation | From £25,000 | 6-12 weeks |
| Advisory retainer | From £1,800/month | Rolling, 30 days’ notice |
Fixed fee wherever the scope can be fixed. If we cannot scope it confidently, we propose a short paid discovery to get to something we can quote.
For a worked example, the implementation table in our NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform guide shows how these fees apply to a real DGX or HGX project.
Where the money goes wrong
Having seen a reasonable number of these budgets, the waste is remarkably consistent.
Paying for strategy you already have. A large share of AI strategy engagements produce a document confirming what the leadership team already believed, at £15,000-£35,000. If you can already name the three processes that hurt most, you do not need a strategy phase. You need someone to assess whether AI can address them.
Piloting on synthetic data. The pilot succeeds, and then real data turns out to be messier, more sensitive and differently structured. The pilot proved that the vendor can build a demonstration. Insist on a small slice of real data under a proper agreement, even if it takes three weeks to arrange. Those three weeks are the cheapest de-risking available.
Discovering the compliance requirement at the end. The most expensive failure by a wide margin. A system built around a hosted API, then blocked at information governance, often cannot be fixed by adjustment. The data flows are wrong at the foundation. Rebuild costs typically exceed the original build.
Rented architecture. Beware anything where the consultancy’s own middleware sits permanently between you and your systems, licensed per seat. The build price looks competitive. The five-year cost does not. Ask directly: if we part company in a year, what stops working?
Paying for a proof of concept that was never going to production. PoCs are worth doing when there is real technical uncertainty. They are not worth doing to convince a stakeholder who has already decided, or to satisfy a requirement to be seen doing AI. £25,000-£85,000 is a lot to spend on internal politics.
What good value looks like
Reasonable questions to ask any supplier before signing:
- What will you tell me not to build? If the answer is nothing, they are quoting, not advising.
- Who does the work, and are they on the call today?
- What do I own at the end, and what stops working if we part company?
- How will we measure whether this worked, and who agrees the measure?
- What data classification will touch this in production, and does the architecture support it?
- What is the exit? Can my team run this without you in six months?
The last one matters most and is asked least. A supplier who is comfortable making themselves unnecessary is worth a great deal more than one who is not.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI consultant cost per day in the UK?
In 2026, roughly £600 to £1,200 for an independent, £1,000 to £1,800 for a boutique or specialist firm, and £1,500 to £3,000 or more at large consultancies and integrators. Day rates suit advisory work. Defined pieces of work are better on a fixed fee.
How much does an AI readiness assessment cost?
Market fixed fees run from about £750 to £35,000 depending on scope and firm. Ours starts at £4,500 for two to three weeks.
Is a fixed fee better than a day rate for AI projects?
For defined work, usually. A day rate rewards taking longer. A fixed fee needs a written scope, and we re-quote if the scope changes. Where scope cannot be fixed, a short paid discovery gets you to something quotable.
What should you ask an AI consultancy before signing?
What they will tell you not to build, who does the work, what you own at the end, how success is measured, what data classification will touch the system, and what the exit looks like.
Our pricing page lists everything with what is included. To see how the choices behind a quote are made, read self-hosted or hosted LLMs. If you want to talk through which tier your problem needs, book a call.