How to set your coaching fees in the UK

Set your coaching fee from the number of paid sessions you can really deliver in a year, not from what other coaches charge. Published rates run from about £30 to £500 an hour, so they won't tell you much. Your own sums will.

There's no reliable UK fee survey. In 2021 authors writing in Coaching at Work tried to get a benchmark funded and failed. So everything below is a guide, and most of it comes from people with something to sell.

What UK coaches charge

Here's what I found, side by side. They don't agree, and I wouldn't expect them to, because a £60 life coach and a £400 board coach aren't selling the same thing.

The best-sourced figure isn't UK-only. The 2024 International Career Coach Landscape Report surveyed 423 career coaches in 50 countries, and found a median of £110 an hour and £1,105 for a package.

Bark's location figures are interesting: £125 an hour in London, £63 in the North East. No sample is shown, so read that as a direction, not a fact.

Corporate rates need care too. As reported by Coaching at Work, the 6th Ridler Report (2016) put 75% of senior manager coaching at £500 an hour or less. The magazine points out that those figures may overstate what practitioners receive, because an intermediary takes a share.

Work out the fee you need

You need three numbers: what you want to earn, what the practice costs to run, and how many sessions you can fill and deliver.

That sits between Bark's average and the executive rates, which is about right for a general business or career coach. It would look low for board work, and high for a new life coach with no track record.

Filled sessions do most of the work

Ten paid sessions a week doesn't sound like much. It's a lot. Each one needs preparation, notes and a gap to think, and you still have to find the clients. In ICF's 2023 study, the average Western European coach spent 12 hours a week coaching and had 11.5 active clients. That's a survey average that includes part-timers, so it isn't a limit. But it's a useful cold shower if you've planned on 25 sessions a week.

Going from 8 to 12 sessions a week takes £57 off the fee you need. That's why getting clients isn't separate from pricing. A coach with a thin diary needs a high fee just to break even, and that's when coaches get nervous and discount.

Choose how you'll charge

I'd sell programmes. A client who's bought six sessions has made a decision, and the work gets better for it. Here's the example fee in action: six sessions at £137 is £822. You might publish £820 or £850.

Now check that against the diary. At six sessions each, 440 sessions a year is about 73 programmes, or six new clients a month. That's a lot for one person to win. A 12-session programme brings it down to about three a month, which is why longer work and repeat clients matter so much in this business.

For organisations, include the extras in writing. Are the three-way meetings with the sponsor billed? Is the report? Psychometrics? AHUA's rate sheet lists travel and psychometric reports as extras, which is a clean way of doing it.

Publish your fee, or at least a range

Published coaching fees are less common than they should be. I'd show a range. It filters out people who can't pay, and it saves you discovery calls that were never going to work.

If you sell to consumers, the price you publish must include VAT if you charge it. The CAP Code says quoted prices must include non-optional taxes, and VAT-exclusive prices only work where everyone addressed pays no VAT or can recover it. "Mainly businesses" doesn't meet that test. If your audience is mixed, publish the VAT-inclusive fee.

The 14-day rule that catches coaches out

If you sell to a consumer by Zoom, phone, email or a web page, you've probably made a distance contract under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. A life coach or career coach is often in this position. A business coach selling to a company or a sole trader for their business usually isn't, but check, because the rules turn on what the person's buying for.

Here's how it works. A life coaching client pays £820 by bank transfer on Monday and wants to start on Thursday. They need to say, in writing, that they want you to start early. If they cancel after one session, you can keep a fair share for that session and refund the rest.

Your contract should cover this, plus what's confidential, what isn't, and what happens to missed sessions. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you must also use reasonable care and skill. A "no refunds under any circumstances" line in your terms won't get you past that, in my view.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your professional body or a solicitor can check your contract.

New subscription rules

If you sell an auto-renewing monthly package to consumers, watch this one. Law firm Gowling WLG reported on 21 October 2026 that the Consumer Subscription Contracts (Cancellation and Information) Regulations 2026 had been laid in draft, aimed at 1 January 2027 for contracts made from that date. I couldn't confirm Parliament has approved them, and earlier reports pointed to spring 2027, so treat the date as a target. I can't tell you yet how they'll treat a coaching retainer, so ask a solicitor if rolling packages are your main income.

VAT, and why it bites consumer coaches

Registration is compulsory once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any 12 months, or you expect it to in the next 30 days.

Coaching is usually standard-rated, in my understanding. HMRC's private tuition exemption depends on things like the subject being one ordinarily taught in a school or university, and on who's teaching and how they trade. A company doesn't get it. I wouldn't assume a coaching session qualifies, so ask your accountant.

The VAT threshold hits consumer coaches hardest. Businesses reclaim VAT, but a life coaching client can't. At the example fee, a VAT-inclusive £137 leaves you about £114. If you're near £90,000, price for it before you cross it.

Raise your fee without losing good clients

• Raise fees for new clients first. It's the easy test.
• Put them up once a year, on a set date.
• Give current clients fair notice, and honour what they've already bought.
• If nobody ever flinches at your fee, it's probably low. That's my rule of thumb, not data.

David Bell, founder of Real Business Systems

David helps small UK businesses get found, answer every enquiry and keep customers coming back. We sell some of the services mentioned here, and we say so where they come up.