How much do recruitment agencies charge in the UK?

What percentage do recruitment agencies charge?

UK recruitment agencies charge these percentages of first-year base salary:

• —Contingency: 15-25%
• —Technical and IT roles: 18-22%
• —Retained search: 25-33%
• —AI/ML and cybersecurity: 22-25%+
• —AI-native (ON3 Works): 7% Agentic, 20% Atelier

What would a UK agency charge for your hire?

ON3 Agentic saves £9,750 against a typical 20% agency on this hire.

Fees are a percentage of first-year base salary. Market rates are the typical UK ranges covered in this guide; your agency's terms may differ. ON3 fees are success-only: you pay nothing unless you hire. Add VAT, retained instalments and the rebate: full fee calculator →

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 percentage is only half the bill; the salary it applies to is the other half. This table puts the two together for the four roles UK tech teams hire most, at the midpoint of each London base-salary band, using the percentage an agency typically charges for that role and level. A senior ML engineer is the most expensive hire on the sheet: £25,100–£28,500 through an agency, against £8,000 with ON3 Agentic. Outside London the salaries are lower, so the fees are too; the percentages don't change.

Two things the table makes obvious. First, the gap between agency and ON3 grows with the salary: on a senior backend engineer at £100,000 it is £11,000–£15,000 per hire on the Agentic tier. Second, Atelier at 20% sits inside the normal agency range for mid and senior roles; what changes is what the fee buys, a senior engineer from the same stack interviewing every finalist, not the price.

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 percentage is negotiated in a call; the money is decided by the terms of business you sign before the first CV arrives. Most UK agency terms share the same six clauses. Read these before you agree the rate.

The clause that costs most in practice is the ownership one. A CV that arrives unsolicited, which you ignore, can still trigger a full fee if you meet the same person six months later through LinkedIn. The practical defence is simple: reply in writing to any CV you didn't ask for, saying you don't accept it, and keep the email. To see what any rebate schedule actually gives back on your salary, the fee calculator shows the sliding scale week by week.

AI-native recruiters are a fourth line on the same market pricing sheet. Where contingency runs 15-25% and retained 25-33%, ON3 Works charges 7% (AI-led) or 20% (engineer-vetted) of first-year base salary, success-fee only, with no deposit or retainer on either tier. Speed is part of the price: a 24-48 hour shortlist against a 2-4 week agency norm removes two to three weeks of vacancy cost, which on an £85,000 role is roughly £1,600 a week. Choosing between the models is a separate question from how the fees are structured — AI vs traditional agency cost comparison.

£19,000 vs £6,650 on a £95,000 senior engineer: that is the gap between a 20% agency and ON3 Agentic on one hire. We quote both tiers on your actual role within a day.Get the exact fee for your role →

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

Recruitment agency fees: frequently asked questions