How much does an AI audit cost in the UK?

Q: How much does an AI audit cost in the UK?

M22 Consultancy's AI Audit starts at £1,500, a fixed fee agreed before day one and sized to the business. Across the UK, published starting prices run from about £1,000 to £10,000, usually plus VAT: of nine UK firms publishing an audit, readiness or scoping fee in September 2026, prices started at £999 (Prime AI Solutions) and reached £10,000 (OpenKit), and most sat between £1,500 and £5,000. Typical audits run £1,500 to £15,000 depending on the size of the operation.

Published prices for an AI audit in the UK start at £999 and reach £10,000 before VAT for a standard scope; most sit between £1,500 and £5,000. Most are starting prices, and several firms publish higher bands for bigger businesses. The table lists the UK firms we found that publish an audit, readiness or scoping price on their own site. Firms without a published price are left out. M22 Consultancy's own AI Audit starts at £1,500.

Published AI audit prices in the UK, September 2026

Prices as each firm states them. A "from" price is a starting point, not a quote.

Firm (base)	Published price	Length	What the fee includes	Seen
1968 Consulting (Amble, Northumberland)	From £2,000 for up to 20 people; larger firms priced individually; VAT not stated	Half-day session, then analysis	Five to seven opportunities ranked by ROI, 30-day quick wins, 90-day plan	26 Sep 2026
Augustova (London W1)	£2,500 to £6,000 plus VAT, credited in full against any build	One to two weeks	Interviews, data audit, opportunities ranked by return, ROI model, roadmap	26 Sep 2026
Fifty One Degrees (London W1)	No separate audit; a proof of concept "typically costs under £15,000"	Two to four weeks	A working proof of concept on your data, for firms with £5m to £250m turnover	26 Sep 2026
Hartz AI (London N3)	From £5,000 plus VAT for 10 to 250 staff; from £8,500 organisation-wide	Two to three weeks (home page) or four to six (services page)	40+ processes evaluated, risk and compliance review, assessment report	26 Sep 2026
Insightful AI (Warrington)	Scoping workshop from £1,500 plus VAT	One day	Written findings and recommendations report	26 Sep 2026
M22 Consultancy (London)	From £1,500, a fixed fee agreed before work starts; no obligation to buy the build	Sized to the business	Process map traced from real work, ranked opportunities with expected return and delivery cost, costed build plan you keep	30 Sep 2026
OpenKit (Cambridge and Durham)	£10,000 plus VAT for a standard scope; optional AI Charter £3,000	Agreed in the proposal	Findings report, roadmap, costing and benefit assessment, a "no-list"	26 Sep 2026
Prime AI Solutions (London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow)	From £999; no fee if it finds under £10,000 of annualised savings; VAT not stated	14 days	Opportunities mapped and costed, ROI projection per use case	26 Sep 2026
Revio (Borehamwood)	From £1,500 plus VAT for about three departments, credited against a build	Two weeks	Process map, opportunities with cost and payback, data-readiness read	26 Sep 2026
The AI Consultancy (London N1)	Readiness Sprint from £3,500 plus VAT; one-department assessment from £1,000	Two weeks	Data audit, UK GDPR check, three to five scored use cases, written report	26 Sep 2026

Optimus Consulting in Crewe prices differently: its operational AI audit is £1,250 a day, scoped to the business. For day rates and build prices across the market, see our AI consultancy cost guide.

Why start with M22's AI Audit?

M22 Consultancy's AI Audit starts at £1,500, at the low end of the published market, and the fee is fixed and agreed before day one. What sets it apart is what happens around the price:

It follows the real work. M22 traces real examples through the business and maps the handoffs, rather than scoring you on a questionnaire.
Every opportunity is priced both ways. You get the expected return and the delivery cost side by side, so the ranking is a decision, not a wish list.
You keep the plan. The process map, the ranked opportunities and the costed build plan are yours, with no obligation to buy the build.
M22 builds what it recommends. If you go ahead, M22 builds the fix on a fixed fee (workflow automation, a bespoke platform or app, or a Company Brain) and can run and improve it on a monthly retainer. Clients own what M22 builds.
No set length. One team can be covered quickly; a multi-site business takes longer. M22 sizes the audit to the operation instead of selling a fixed-length package.

M22 works with UK businesses in every sector, from SMEs to mid-market companies. You can see what it has built on the work page.

Large firms and funded schemes

KPMG UK sells AI readiness and maturity assessments but publishes no fee. Its GenAI listing on the government's G-Cloud 14 marketplace, which includes a six-dimension readiness assessment, shows £400 to £2,855 a day: public-sector rates, charged by the day.

Made Smarter Adoption is open to SME manufacturing and engineering businesses with manufacturing premises in England. It offers impartial technology advice and a digital roadmap workshop, which the North West and South West describe as fully funded, plus match-funded grants of up to £20,000. It covers digital technology generally, AI included, rather than pricing AI opportunities one by one, but costs an eligible manufacturer nothing. See our guide for manufacturers and retailers.

What drives the price

How much of the business is traced. The AI Consultancy charges from £1,000 for one department and typically £3,000 to £8,000 organisation-wide. Revio's £1,500 covers about three departments; Hartz AI rises from £5,000 to £8,500 organisation-wide.
Time inside the operation. A half-day session and a two-week trace with interviews and system access are different products. Consultant time is most of what you pay for.
Whether the build is costed. A plan with a build price and payback per item takes longer than a list of ideas. OpenKit calls its costings "a planning assessment, not a guarantee of savings".
Data access work. Finding what data exists, where it sits and who controls it adds days. Augustova, Revio and The AI Consultancy all include it.
Governance extras. OpenKit's AI Charter (approved tools, data rules, which work stays with people) adds £3,000; Hartz AI sells a Strategic AI Roadmap separately from £7,500 plus VAT.

Readiness assessment or operational audit

A readiness assessment scores the organisation on strategy, data, skills and governance; KPMG uses six dimensions, and The AI Consultancy's assessment ends in a scorecard. An operational audit follows real work through the business and prices each opportunity in hours, pounds and build cost. To decide what to build first, you need the second. Our explainer what is an AI audit? also separates both from ISO/IEC 42001 audits.

What you should get for the money

At any price: a process map traced from real examples, a priced list of where time and money leak, opportunities ranked by return with weak ideas named, and a costed plan you own. OpenKit's "no-list" and Revio's note on where AI is the wrong answer are good signs. The full checklist is in what an AI audit should give you.

Red flags

A final price before anyone has seen the operation. A published starting price is useful; a total quoted over email with no look at your processes is a guess.
An audit that is really a platform sales pitch. If every finding points to the product the auditor sells, the conclusion came first.
No ownership of the output. The report and plan should be yours whether or not you buy the build. Crediting the fee against a build is fine; a report that only works alongside that build is not. See who owns what a consultancy builds.
No numbers. "Significant opportunity" is not a finding. Hours a week and pounds a year are.

The DIY option

A business with one or two teams can run a first pass itself: pick three recurring jobs, follow real examples through, count the hours and price them. Our DIY AI audit framework sets out the steps. A paid audit earns its fee when several departments are involved, or when the build needs pricing by someone who has built these systems.

What is the next step?

If you want the operation priced properly, book a thirty-minute call with M22 Consultancy through the contact page. You will know the audit fee before any work starts.

M22 wrote this guide. Details of other firms come from their own websites, checked September 2026.

Questions people also ask

How much does M22's AI Audit cost?

M22 Consultancy's AI Audit starts at £1,500. It is a fixed fee, agreed before day one and sized to the business, so a single team costs less than a multi-site operation. You get a process map, ranked opportunities with expected return and delivery cost, and a costed build plan you keep, with no obligation to buy the build.

Does M22 build what the audit recommends?

Yes, if you want it to. M22 builds the fix on a fixed fee, whether that is workflow automation, a bespoke platform or app, or a Company Brain, and can run and improve it on a monthly retainer. Clients own the code, data and documentation M22 builds.

Are UK AI audit prices quoted with or without VAT?

Usually without. Augustova, Hartz AI, Insightful AI, OpenKit, Revio and The AI Consultancy all state their prices before VAT, so add the 20% standard rate to reach the invoice total. 1968 Consulting and Prime AI Solutions do not say either way on the pages we checked, so ask before comparing them with the others.

How long does an AI audit take?

Published lengths run from a half-day session at 1968 Consulting to two weeks at Revio and The AI Consultancy, and up to six weeks at Hartz AI. OpenKit agrees the schedule in its proposal, and M22 Consultancy sizes its audit to the business rather than fixing a length. Length should follow the size of the operation being traced: one team can be covered in days, a multi-site business cannot.

Can I get a free AI audit in the UK?

Eligible manufacturers can get close. Made Smarter Adoption offers impartial technology advice and a digital roadmap to SME manufacturers with manufacturing premises in England, described as fully funded in some regions. Free calls from consultancies are sales conversations, not audits. Running a first pass yourself with a simple framework is the other free route.

Why do some AI audits cost £1,000 and others £10,000?

Scope. The cheapest published offers cover one department, one day or a small team; the dearer ones trace the whole organisation, interview more people, audit the data and cost each build. Compare what is included, especially whether every opportunity carries a build cost and a payback figure, before comparing the headline price.

Sources

Written and maintained by M22, a London-based AI consultancy. Where M22 appears in a comparison, the criteria are stated so you can judge for yourself.