Architect Fees in the UK: How Architects Charge, by RIBA Stage, and What Changes the Number

Architect fees in the UK: the three ways practices charge

The RIBA, the architects' professional body, describes three ways of calculating a fee. Each suits a different kind of project, and a practice may use more than one on the same job.

The percentage model has a built-in conflict. The architect is paid more when the building costs more. The RIBA's guidance notes the usual fix. Many practices agree a variance of up to 10% of the construction budget before the fee is adjusted. Beyond that, the fee is renegotiated.

For commercial and development work the common answer is a fixed fee per RIBA stage. You know the cost of the next stage before you commit to it, and you can stop at the end of any stage. Structures can also be mixed: a time charge for the feasibility study, then a lump sum for the stages that follow.

Published percentages exist only for householder work. The HomeOwners Alliance guide for 2026 puts architects' fees between 3% and 15% of construction cost, with hourly rates of £50 to £100. Treat those as a householder benchmark, not a commercial one.

RIBA stages: what you get, and roughly when you pay

The RIBA Plan of Work 2020 splits a project into eight stages, from Stage 0 to Stage 7. Most projects run from Stage 1 to Stage 6. A fee proposal that follows the stages tells you what you receive for each payment, which is the only way to compare two quotes.

Two things in that table matter for your budget. Stages 0 to 3 produce the planning application, so a design appointment that stops at planning is roughly the first third of a full service. Stage 4 is where the money is protected: it produces the technical package the build is priced from.

The RIBA also warns about a habit it sees among private clients. Submitting the planning application near the beginning of Stage 3, before the design is coordinated, brings early clarity on Section 106 and CIL. It also creates project risks, so the RIBA recommends it only for experienced clients.

We explain the application route in how to get planning permission for a development.

What moves an architect's fee up or down

Two buildings of the same size can carry very different design fees. The things that move the number are mostly visible before the appointment is signed.

1. Novelty. A repeated floor plate costs less to draw per square metre than a one-off building with a bespoke facade.
2. Planning risk. A scheme that needs pre-application meetings, a design review and a committee takes more rounds of drawing than one that fits the local plan.
3. Listed buildings and conservation areas. The RIBA notes these are likely to attract higher fees, because more statutory consents are needed.
4. Scale. Fees as a share of construction cost fall as the project grows, which is why the householder percentages do not transfer to commercial work.
5. Changes. Every change after a stage is approved is redrawn work. Under a percentage fee it also raises the base the fee is calculated on.
6. The procurement route. Under a traditional route the architect also administers the building contract on site, which is a Stage 5 fee. Under design and build that role sits with the contractor's team.

The item owners control most is the brief. A brief that fixes the area, the use, the budget and the opening date before Stage 2 removes most of the redrawing that inflates fees.

The extras nobody budgets for

The architect's fee is rarely the whole design cost. The RIBA is explicit that payments to the local authority for planning and building control sit outside the fee, as do travel and printing. VAT is usually charged on top. Beyond that, a commercial scheme needs people and reports the architect does not supply.

The duty-holder roles are yours until you appoint someone

The last of those catches commercial clients out. Under CDM 2015 a client with more than one contractor on the project must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing. Since 1 October 2023 the Building Regulations require the same two appointments. If you do not make them, the law says you hold those duties yourself.

The council's planning fee is set nationally; our guide to planning application fees 2026 gives the current figures.

Design and build: one fee, one team

Under a traditional route the architect designs, the scheme goes to tender, and the builder prices it. If the tender comes back over the appraisal, the drawings go back to the architect. That redesign is paid for twice: once in fees and once in months.

Under design and build the design and the construction sit in one contract. The design fee is agreed with the team that will build the scheme, and the drawings are costed as they are made. At our practice that means a cost plan beside every option, so the scheme the council approves is the scheme you can afford to build.

How the two routes compare is in design and build vs traditional procurement.

Three projects where design and build set the number

Three Craftex projects show what that looks like. At Allitsen Road in St John's Wood a vacant corner building became four design options in four weeks. Each carried a schedule of accommodation and its own cost plan, compared on buildability, planning risk and viability.

Medusa in Knightsbridge arrived at RIBA Stage 2, a concept with a few visuals. Our in-house team completed the design. Because the same company builds, we could see the cost of every design decision and offer more affordable solutions. The 180 sq m clinic was designed and built across four floors in 17 weeks.

Portsoken House in Aldgate was designed by our in-house team and built by it. The result was 1,550 sq m of premium offices, delivered in seven months around occupied tenants.

How we quote design

We do not quote design as a percentage of anything. Design is agreed per stage and quoted after a first meeting, once we have seen the building and the brief. Design commissions start at £15,000 and construction runs from £100,000 under the same contract.

A workplace brief that starts with headcount and desks goes to our office design and space planning team. Private houses go to our high-end residential architects.

How to brief an architect so the fee is right first time

A fee proposal is only as good as the brief behind it. Most fee disputes start with a scope that was never written down. These six steps keep the number honest.

1. Write the brief before you ask for a fee. Area, use, budget, opening date, and what the scheme must earn. A practice can only price a scope it can read.
2. Ask for the fee by RIBA stage. One figure per stage, with the deliverables listed, so you can stop at any stage and compare quotes line by line.
3. Ask what is excluded. Engineers, planning consultant, surveys, council fees, principal designer duties, VAT. Every exclusion in writing, before Stage 1.
4. Fix the change procedure. What counts as a change, who approves it and how it is priced, so the fee cannot drift.
5. Check the register. Only a person on the ARB register may practise or carry on business under a title containing the word architect.
6. Get the build cost in the room early. A builder's cost plan beside the Stage 2 options is the cheapest insurance against a scheme that cannot be built on the number.

Put the terms in writing

Written terms are not optional. ARB guidance supporting the 2025 Architects Code expects clear written terms before work starts. They should name the parties, the scope, the fee or the method of calculating it, responsibilities, liability and how disputes are resolved. Amendments are recorded in writing too.

Our guide to how to choose an architect in London covers the questions to ask at the first meeting. The checklist below is the short version.

Craftex has worked this way since 2016, with around 60% of our labour in-house and every project delivered ahead of programme and on budget. Have a building or a site in London? Discuss your project and you will get the design route and a costed first option before you commit to a stage.