--- title: "UK AI Consultancy Price Index 2026: Day Rates and Project Costs | Helium42" description: "What AI consultancy costs in the UK, from published prices only: day rates from 230 G-Cloud 15 suppliers and the prices 67 UK consultancies publish. Median data scientist rate £900." image: https://helium42.com/hubfs/reports/images/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026-og.png --- Edition One · October 2026 # The UK AI Consultancy Price Index 2026 What AI consultancy costs, built only from prices that suppliers publish Helium42 · Data captured 3–4 October 2026 A buyer trying to budget for AI consultancy in the United Kingdom meets a market that mostly declines to say what it charges. Fewer than one in three UK AI consultancies publish a price of any kind. The large firms publish none. The cost guides that fill search results are written, almost without exception, by consultancies describing the market in which they sell, and they tend to cite one another rather than any primary record. This index takes a different approach. It uses only prices that suppliers have published themselves, and it anchors them to the one large, standardised, public record of what AI specialists charge in the UK: the rate cards that suppliers file on the government’s G-Cloud 15 framework. Every figure below can be traced to a captured public source. Helium42’s own prices are excluded, because a consultancy should not benchmark itself. Section One ## The Headline Figures £900 median published day rate for a data scientist G-Cloud 15 · n=206 suppliers 31% of UK AI consultancies publish any price at all 21 of 67 firms · Oct 2026 0 of 12 large firms publish a price Big Four, strategy houses, global integrators £3,000 median published price for a discovery or readiness assessment n=15 firms 71% of firms that publish prices sell fixed-price packages 15 of 21 firms 1.78× the chief data officer rate relative to a data scientist G-Cloud 15 medians All figures are published prices, not transaction prices. A published price is what a supplier states it will charge; the amount a client finally pays can differ. Section Five sets out the method and its limits. Section Two ## What Government Suppliers Publish Every supplier on the G-Cloud 15 framework files a rate card that prices each role against the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Because every supplier uses the same role names and levels, the rate cards can be compared directly, which no consultancy marketing page allows. We screened 363 suppliers whose Cloud Support services matched “artificial intelligence” or “machine learning”. Of these, 244 offer a service primarily about AI, machine learning or data science, and we took one rate card per supplier. 232 of those rate cards price at least one of the roles below; after excluding two cards that were internally inconsistent, 230 suppliers contribute to the figures. They range from AI specialists and consultancies to systems integrators, specialist recruiters and resellers. ### Median published day rates by role Bar shows the middle half of suppliers (25th to 75th percentile); the marker shows the median. Data scientist £900 Senior machine learning engineer £1,019 Data engineer £800 Data architect £974 Solution architect £950 Business analyst £805 Delivery manager £900 Product manager £850 Data ethics lead £1,067 Chief data officer £1,600 Chief technology officer £1,600 | Role (standard level) | Suppliers | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Data scientist | 206 | £754 | **£900** | £1,092 | | Senior machine learning engineer | 203 | £875 | **£1,019** | £1,250 | | Data engineer | 212 | £650 | **£800** | £1,000 | | Data architect | 214 | £800 | **£974** | £1,158 | | Solution architect | 218 | £800 | **£950** | £1,100 | | Business analyst | 212 | £682 | **£805** | £997 | | Delivery manager | 217 | £765 | **£900** | £1,075 | | Product manager | 204 | £718 | **£850** | £1,050 | | Data ethics lead | 179 | £900 | **£1,067** | £1,378 | | Chief data officer | 203 | £1,350 | **£1,600** | £2,020 | | Chief technology officer | 205 | £1,350 | **£1,600** | £2,000 | ### Three patterns in the rate cards **Seniority is priced steeply.** Within the data science family, the median runs from £700 a day for an associate data scientist to £900 for a data scientist, £1,100 at principal, £1,250 at lead and £1,500 for a head of data science: a little more than double from entry to leadership. A chief data officer is priced at 1.78 times a data scientist. **Governance carries a premium.** The data ethics lead, the role closest to AI governance, has a median of £1,067, about 19% above a data scientist and above every other non-executive role in the table. As AI regulation tightens, the specialists who can evidence responsible use are priced accordingly. **Many suppliers do not price roles separately.** 30% of suppliers (59 of 197 that list all three roles) charge exactly the same rate for a data scientist, a data engineer and a business analyst. For a buyer, that is a prompt to ask who will actually staff the work, because a flat rate card reveals nothing about the mix. **How to read these figures.** G-Cloud rates are the maximum a supplier may charge a public-sector buyer under the framework. They are a published ceiling and a reliable reference point. They are not a statement of what a private organisation will be charged. Section Three ## What Consultancies Publish The second half of the index records the prices that UK AI consultancies publish on their own websites. We checked 68 firms drawn from a fixed set of nine searches and two existing comparisons, recording only prices stated by the firm itself, with the quoted text and capture date for each. One site could not be reached, leaving 67. ### Who publishes a price | Type of firm | Checked | Publish a price | Share | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Large (Big Four, strategy houses, global integrators) | 12 | 0 | **0%** | | Mid-tier (generalist digital, data or IT firms) | 25 | 4 | **16%** | | Boutique and independent AI specialists | 28 | 17 | **61%** | | Type unclear | 2 | 0 | 0% | | **All firms** | **67** | **21** | **31%** | Price transparency is a specialist’s habit. The larger the firm, the less likely it is to say what it charges, which means the published market describes the boutique and small-business end far better than the enterprise end. ### What the published prices say | Stage | Published figure | Basis | | --- | --- | --- | | Discovery, audit or readiness assessment | Median £3,000 | 15 firms; range £997 to £10,000; median upper bound £5,500 (8 firms) | | Pilot or proof of concept | Median £12,000 to £15,000 | 5 firms; indicative only | | Production build | £1,500 to £250,000 | 13 firms; too dispersed for a meaningful median; median upper bound £57,500 (8 firms) | | Specialist day rate | Median £1,200 to £1,500 | 5 firms; range £950 to £2,250 | **Fixed prices dominate where prices are published.** 15 of the 21 firms (71%) sell fixed-price packages, most often for discovery and pilot work. Time and materials and retainers appear for open-ended advisory and support. **Private specialists publish higher day rates than the government ceiling.** The firms that publish a day rate quote a median of £1,200 to £1,500, against G-Cloud medians of £800 to £1,019 for the core AI delivery roles. The private sample is small, so the gap is indicative; it is consistent with framework rates being negotiated ceilings for high-volume public buyers. Section Four ## How to Budget for AI Consultancy Taken together, the two halves of the index support a practical budgeting ladder for a mid-market organisation. These are market ranges drawn from published prices, not any one supplier’s fees. To turn them into an indicative figure for a specific build, use the [AI development cost estimator](https://helium42.com/tools/ai-development-cost-estimator). | Stage | Budget range | What the evidence shows | | --- | --- | --- | | Discovery or readiness | £1,000 to £10,000 | Published median £3,000; typically two to four weeks | | Pilot or proof of concept | £5,000 to £35,000 | Published median £12,000 to £15,000; one use case on your own data | | Production build | from about £8,000 to £250,000 and above | Driven by scope: a single workflow sits at the bottom, an enterprise programme at the top | | Specialist day rate | £900 to £1,500 | G-Cloud medians £900 to £1,019 for senior AI roles; private published medians £1,200 to £1,500 | ### Five questions to ask before you sign **1. Who will do the work?** A third of rate cards price every role identically. Ask for the named roles and the split of days between senior and junior staff. **2. Is the price fixed, and for what?** Fixed prices are common for discovery and pilots. Confirm what is in scope, what counts as a change, and how changes are priced. **3. What happens to data preparation?** Pilot prices usually assume your data is usable. Ask how cleansing, access and integration are costed if it is not. **4. What does it cost to run once it is built?** Infrastructure, licences and monitoring continue after delivery. Ask for a twelve-month running-cost estimate alongside the build price. **5. Will your team be able to run it without the supplier?** Knowledge transfer is the difference between a capability and a dependency. Ask how it is delivered and when. Section Five ## Method and Limitations **Government rate cards.** Source: the [Digital Marketplace, G-Cloud 15, Lot 3 (Cloud Support)](https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/search?lot=cloud-support), published under the [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/). Services matching “artificial intelligence” or “machine learning” were screened for relevance; one rate card was taken per supplier; UK rates only. Roles follow the [Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework](https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/); the framework renamed the data ethicist role in August 2026, after these cards were filed. Placeholder grids that price every role identically at one figure were not captured, and two internally inconsistent cards were excluded. Data captured 3 October 2026; values were spot-checked against live pages. **Consultancy prices.** 68 UK AI consultancies were identified through nine fixed searches and the firms named in two existing published comparisons. Only prices stated on the firm’s own website were recorded, with the quoted text and capture date (4 October 2026); market ranges quoted on those pages were excluded. Firms showing prices only after a form or a call count as not publishing. Where a firm published an hourly rate but no day rate, the day rate was taken as 7.5 hours (two of the five day rates). Helium42 and its parent company were excluded. **Limitations.** Published prices are not transaction prices. G-Cloud rates are public-sector ceilings. Firms that publish prices are not a random sample of the market, and the pilot and day-rate samples (five firms each) are small. The share of firms publishing prices is 29% within the plain search results alone, the least selective part of the sample. **Corrections.** Suppliers who believe a figure is wrong may contact [info@helium42.com](mailto:info@helium42.com); corrections are published with the date. Questions ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does an AI consultant cost per day in the UK? Across 230 suppliers on the UK government's G-Cloud 15 framework, the median published maximum day rate is £900 for a data scientist, £1,019 for a senior machine learning engineer and £1,600 for a chief data officer. Specialist consultancies that publish a day rate on their own websites quote between £950 and £2,250, with medians of £1,200 to £1,500. ### How many UK AI consultancies publish their prices? Fewer than one in three. Of 67 UK AI consultancies checked in October 2026, 21 (31%) publish any price on their website. None of the 12 large firms checked publishes a price, against 61% of boutique and independent specialists. ### How much does an AI discovery or readiness assessment cost? The median published price for an entry-level discovery, audit or readiness assessment is £3,000, across 15 UK firms, with a published range of £997 to £10,000. ### How much does an AI pilot or proof of concept cost? Published pilot prices in the UK cluster between £12,000 and £15,000 at the median, from a small sample of five firms. The budgeting range in this index is £5,000 to £35,000, depending on scope and data readiness. ### Do UK AI consultancies charge fixed prices? Most of those that publish prices do. Of the 21 firms with published prices, 15 (71%) offer fixed-price packages, typically for discovery and pilot stages, with time and materials or retainers used for open-ended work. ### About Helium42 Helium42 is an AI consultancy working with mid-market organisations across the United Kingdom and the DACH region, from offices in London and Hamminkeln. It was founded by Clwyd Probert, previously of the HubSpot Diamond partner agency Whitehat, and Peter Vogel, who has led digital marketing transformation programmes for over 500 organisations across the UK and Europe. Between them they have delivered more than 200 workshops and trained over 2,000 professionals. Engagements follow an education-to-implementation pathway: teams learn what AI can do in their own work before anything is built, so that what is built is used, and the team can run it after the engagement ends. [Join the free AI webinar](https://helium42.com/ai-education/intro-to-ai-webinar)  [AI consultancy →](https://helium42.com/ai-consultancy)  [AI consultancy pricing guide →](https://helium42.com/blog/ai-consultancy-pricing-uk)  [Cost estimator →](https://helium42.com/tools/ai-development-cost-estimator) [Also from Helium42: The AI Governance Readiness Benchmark 2026 →](https://helium42.com/reports/ai-governance-readiness-benchmark-2026) ### Sources Digital Marketplace, G-Cloud 15 service listings and rate cards, Lot 3 Cloud Support (Open Government Licence v3.0), captured 3 October 2026 · Government Digital Service, Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework, updated 30 September 2026 · Published price pages of 68 UK AI consultancies, captured 4 October 2026 Helium42 is a trading name of White Hat SEO Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 07802734. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://helium42.com/reports/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026#report", "@type" : "Report", "about" : [ "AI consultancy pricing", "AI consultant day rates", "G-Cloud 15" ], "author" : { "@id" : "https://helium42.com/#organization" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-17", "datePublished" : "2026-10-17", "description" : "A price index built from published sources only: the UK day rates of 230 AI and machine-learning suppliers on the government's G-Cloud 15 framework, and the prices that 67 UK AI consultancies publish on their own websites.", "headline" : "The UK AI Consultancy Price Index 2026: What AI Consultancy Costs, from Published Prices", "image" : "https://145656140.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/145656140/reports/images/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026-og.png", "inLanguage" : "en-GB", "isBasedOn" : [ { "@type" : "Dataset", "license" : "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/", "name" : "G-Cloud 15 service pricing, Digital Marketplace", "url" : "https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/search?lot=cloud-support" } ], "name" : "The UK AI Consultancy Price Index 2026", "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://helium42.com/#organization" }, "url" : "https://helium42.com/reports/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://helium42.com/reports/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026#dataset", "@type" : "Dataset", "creator" : { "@id" : "https://helium42.com/#organization" }, "description" : "Aggregate published UK day rates by Government Digital and Data role for 230 G-Cloud 15 AI and machine-learning suppliers, and published project-stage prices from 21 of 67 UK AI consultancies, captured 3 to 4 October 2026.", "image" : "https://145656140.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/145656140/reports/images/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026-og.png", "name" : "UK AI Consultancy Price Index 2026 (aggregate figures)", "spatialCoverage" : "United Kingdom", "temporalCoverage" : "2026-10-03/2026-10-04", "variableMeasured" : [ "Published maximum day rate (GBP) by role", "Share of consultancies publishing prices", "Published discovery, pilot and production prices (GBP)" ] } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://helium42.com/#organization", "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://145656140.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/145656140/brand/helium42-logo-schema.png" }, "name" : "Helium42", "url" : "https://helium42.com" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://helium42.com/reports/uk-ai-consultancy-price-index-2026#faq", "@type" : "FAQPage", "mainEntity" : [ { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Across 230 suppliers on the UK government's G-Cloud 15 framework, the median published maximum day rate is £900 for a data scientist, £1,019 for a senior machine learning engineer and £1,600 for a chief data officer. 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