How much do recruitment agencies charge in the UK?

Almost every UK recruitment invoice comes from one of three commercial models. They differ in when you pay, how much you pay, and how much of the work is actually done before a CV lands in your inbox.

1. Contingency recruitment

• ·Fee range: 15-25% of first-year base salary (not total package).
• ·Tech-specific range: 18-22%, driven by talent scarcity.
• ·Payment trigger: only on successful placement — "no hire, no fee".
• ·Rebate period: typically 8-12 weeks; if the candidate leaves, you get a partial refund on a sliding scale.
• ·Typical use: mid-level permanent roles with standard skill sets.
• ·Worked example: a backend engineer hired at £75,000. At 20%, the fee is £15,000.
• ·Pros: zero upfront risk, and the agency is incentivised to fill fast.
• ·Cons: multiple agencies working the same role turns it into a race to submit — less investment in quality screening.

2. Retained search

• ·Fee range: 25-33% of first-year salary.
• ·Payment structure: three equal instalments — on engagement, on shortlist, on placement.
• ·Minimum floor: many firms set £15,000-25,000 regardless of salary.
• ·Typical use: senior and executive roles, niche specialists, confidential searches.
• ·Worked example: a VP of Engineering at £150,000. At 30%, the fee is £45,000 — £15,000 due before any CV arrives.
• ·Pros: dedicated resource, deeper market mapping, exclusive focus.
• ·Cons: upfront financial commitment with no guarantee of placement, though most firms offer a partial refund.

3. RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)

• ·Monthly management fee: £3,000-10,000 per month.
• ·Per-hire fee: £2,000-6,000 — lower than contingency, but stacked on top of the retainer.
• ·Typical use: organisations hiring at scale (20+ roles per quarter).
• ·Includes: recruiter capacity, process design, technology, and analytics.
• ·Not suitable for: occasional hiring, single urgent roles, or companies under 200 people.

ON3 Works runs a fourth model: pure success fee at 7% or 20%, with no deposit and no retainer on either tier. See our full pricing breakdown.

The two levers with the most room in them are exclusivity and volume. An agency working an exclusive role knows the search is worth investing in, so it will typically produce better candidates and often accept a lower percentage for the certainty.

• ·Technical testing. Many agencies charge £200-500 extra for technical assessments, or outsource to HackerRank/Codility at £100-300 per candidate. ON3 includes senior engineer interviews in all Atelier placements — no extra charge.
• ·Background and reference checks. £50-200 per candidate, often passed through. ON3 includes reference checks in Atelier.
• ·Job board advertising. £200-1,000+ per role posting, sometimes billed to the client. ON3 sources from its own index of 1.7M+ profiles.
• ·Salary benchmarking. Some agencies charge for market data. ON3 provides benchmarking from its dataset as standard.
• ·Replacement cost. If a hire leaves inside the rebate window you get a partial refund — but you still lose the onboarding investment and two to three months of productivity. ON3 offers free replacement within 60 days (Agentic) or 90 days (Atelier).
• ·Vacancy cost. The biggest hidden cost of all. For an £80,000 engineer, an unfilled role burns roughly £1,500 per week in direct salary equivalent — before the drag on the rest of the team.

Vacancy and bad-hire costs are exactly where the in-house-versus-agency maths usually gets decided. See: agency vs in-house hiring — the full cost comparison.

The AI platform gap

Platforms like Turing and Toptal run automated vetting but no live senior engineer interview. 74% of hiring managers distrust fully automated screening. ON3 combines AI scale with engineer judgement — the AI narrows, a domain-matched engineer decides. Read our full comparison of AI vs traditional recruiting.

The cost math

On an £85,000 backend engineer: traditional contingency at 20% is £17,000. ON3 Agentic at 7% is £5,950. ON3 Atelier at 20% is also £17,000 — but includes the engineer interview, scorecards, references and salary benchmarking that traditional agencies bill as extras.

Speed as a cost lever

A 24-48 hour shortlist against a 2-4 week agency norm removes two to three weeks of vacancy cost. At roughly £1,600 per week for an £85k role, that alone is £3,200-4,800 saved — before the fee difference. Demand is highest in the capital: see London tech recruiting and our UK engineering recruitment coverage.

Full tier detail, inclusions and replacement terms are on the pricing page.

Recruitment agency fees: frequently asked questions