How much does an architect cost? How UK architect fees work

Quotes for the same project can differ because an architect prices a specific brief, and the number depends on how the fee is calculated as much as on the scope. This guide explains the three ways fees are set, how payments are usually staged and which costs sit outside the fee. The planning fees quoted are for England and Wales; check your council for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

What the official guidance says about price

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) says that an architect essentially charges for their time, and sets out three ways of calculating a fee: a percentage of the construction cost, a lump sum, or a time charge (RIBA, How do architects calculate their fees?). The RIBA page gives no typical percentages or day rates. The price guides that came up when we searched are mostly commercial sites with a stake in the answer, so this post quotes none of their figures. The reliable way to price your project is to compare written quotes that cover the same work.

The three ways architects charge

You do not have to use one method for the whole project. RIBA gives the example of a time charge for an early feasibility study, followed by a percentage or lump sum for the later stages.

When you pay: the RIBA work stages

RIBA says an architect will usually invoice monthly, or at the end of its work stages (RIBA). The split it gives is shown below.

To show the arithmetic only, take a hypothetical fee of £10,000. That split would be £3,500, £3,500 and £3,000. The £10,000 is a round number chosen for the sum and is not a typical price. RIBA also notes that you can pause at the end of any stage before moving to the next.

Costs that are not in the architect's fee

RIBA says payments to local authorities for the planning application and building control are in addition to the architect's fee, as are the architect's travel and printing costs (RIBA). These are the ones you can put a figure on today.

• Planning application fee. In England the fee for a householder application to enlarge, improve or alter a single dwellinghouse (not flats) is £548 from 1 April 2026. A prior approval application for a larger home extension is £249 (Planning Portal, fees guide for England). The Planning Portal gives £585 as the typical householder fee in Wales (Planning Portal FAQ).
• Planning Portal service charge. Online applications with a fee over £100 carry a separate service charge when you submit, so check the total at checkout.
• Building regulations fees. These are set by each local authority building control body and vary (Planning Portal).
• VAT. The standard rate is 20% (GOV.UK). RIBA says VAT is charged on construction costs and usually on the architect's fees too.

If you are buying as a business, whether you can recover that VAT depends on your VAT status. That is a question for a local accountant, not for the architect.

What pushes a fee up

RIBA says a property that is listed, or in a conservation area or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is likely to need more statutory consents, so the fee is likely to be higher (RIBA). RIBA also says design changes part-way through can mean the fee is renegotiated. Separately, work on a roof or a shared wall can bring building regulations and party wall requirements of its own (Planning Portal, GOV.UK); our loft conversion guide lists them for lofts. The other big variable is scope. An architect can design the building and produce drawings. An architect can also obtain planning permission, obtain quotes from builders and manage the relationship with your builder (ARB). A quote that covers only the first will look cheaper than one that covers all four.

How to compare two quotes

The Architects Registration Board (ARB), the UK regulator, publishes a checklist for the conversation before you hire. These are the fee questions it suggests, and they work as a template for comparing quotes.

1. What will the fee be, and how is it calculated?
2. Are there any additional or potential extra costs?
3. Does the architect take commission from other suppliers or contractors?
4. Who will do the work, and if it is not the architect you are meeting, is that person ARB registered or supervised by someone who is?
5. When will you receive terms of engagement, and do they cover the parties, the work, the fee or how it is worked out, responsibilities, cancellation, disputes, insurance and complaints?

Check the person is on the register

In the UK a person must be on the ARB Register to call themselves an architect professionally, and using the title in business without being listed is a criminal offence. Every architect has a registration number you can ask for. ARB says that if you cannot find someone on the Register using the details they gave you, they are not an architect (ARB). When you are ready to compare practices, you can browse architects by city or by service, such as extensions or planning applications.

If you only need drawings, a fixed fee may fit

Not every project needs full architectural services. If what you mainly need is drawings for a planning application or building regulations, some firms sell them as a fixed-price package. FixedFeePlans is part of the same network as this site, and publishes a price list for London drawings. On 11 October 2026 it listed a complete planning drawing service at £1,750 and building regulations drawings at £1,750, with council fees charged separately. We give this as one example of a fixed-fee offer, not as a market benchmark. It covers the drawing stages on its list, such as survey, existing and proposed drawings, the application pack and submission. It does not include supervising the build, so whether it is enough depends on your project.