The NDIS price guide, explained.
The NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits — the document everyone just calls the price guide — is the rulebook that sets the maximum you can charge for every support you deliver. It is not a suggestion, and it is not a starting point for a negotiation. The limits are caps, and the rate that applies depends on two things: what the support was, and when it was delivered.
Get it right and you bill cleanly. Get it wrong and you either leave money on the table or face a clawback at audit.
Updated for 2026–27. The new NDIS pricing came into effect 1 July 2026 — see every 2026–27 price guide change with old and new limits side by side. Verify the current rate limits at ndis.gov.au before billing.
The NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits set a maximum hourly rate for every registered support, varying by day type — weekday, evening, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday. These are price caps, not fixed fees. You may charge less, never more. A single incorrect rate or wrong line-item code is enough for a claim to be rejected or recovered at audit.
What the price guide actually is
The NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits is published by the National Disability Insurance Agency. For every claimable support, it sets out the maximum price a registered provider can charge a participant under their plan. The agency reviews it at least once a year, and a new version typically takes effect from 1 July — so the rate you billed in June may not be the rate you are allowed to bill in July.
The single most important thing to understand is that every figure in it is a price cap, not a fixed price. You are free to charge less than the limit, and some providers do. You are never allowed to charge more. A claim that exceeds the cap, even by a cent, is one the NDIA or a plan manager can reject or recover. Almost everything else in this guide follows from that one rule.
Hourly price limits by day type
Here is where the price guide trips up anyone used to a flat hourly rate. The same support, delivered by the same worker to the same participant, has a different price limit depending on when it happened. A two-hour visit on a Tuesday afternoon and the same two-hour visit on a Sunday are billed at very different rates, because the price guide sets a separate limit for each day type.
| Day type | Price limit |
|---|---|
| Weekday daytime | $70.23 / hr |
| Weekday evening (from 8pm) | $77.38 / hr |
| Saturday | $98.83 / hr |
| Sunday | $127.43 / hr |
| Public holiday | $156.03 / hr |
| Provider travel | $1.00 / km |
These are the current standard hourly limits for assistance with self-care and community participation — the supports most providers deliver day to day. They are reviewed at least annually, so always confirm the figure against the latest Pricing Arrangements before you rely on it. Your billing should price every claim from this ladder, and from the public holiday calendar, rather than from a rate someone typed in once and forgot.
Support categories and line-item codes
A price is only half of a claim. Every claim also has to say what it is for, and the price guide answers that with two layers: a support category and a line-item support code. The code is what decides which budget the claim draws from. At the top sit three budget types, each funded separately in a participant's plan.
Core supports
Everyday assistance, community participation and consumables. This is where most hour-based support work is funded.
Capacity Building
Supports that help a participant build skills and independence, including support coordination. Funded separately from Core.
Capital
Equipment, assistive technology and home modifications. A distinct budget that cannot be spent on day-to-day supports.
Money in one budget cannot be spent in another, which is why the category on a claim matters as much as the price. Underneath those budgets, each individual support has its own line-item code, and that code determines which budget a claim draws from. You do not need to memorise the whole list, but the shape is worth knowing: codes that start with 04_ are core daily and community supports — the hour-based work most support workers do — while codes that start with 07_ are support coordination, which is funded and billed separately.
When a claim carries the wrong code, it draws from the wrong budget, and it can be rejected or clawed back even though the support genuinely happened.
Travel, cancellations and the things people miss
Beyond the hourly rates, the price guide quietly contains several entitlements that providers forget to claim.
Provider travel
Provider travel can be claimed per kilometre when a worker travels to deliver a support, at a limit of one dollar per kilometre, on top of the support itself. Across a week of community visits, that adds up to a meaningful sum that often goes unbilled.
Short-notice cancellations
This is the entitlement most often missed. When a participant cancels with less than seven clear days' notice, the rules let you claim 100 per cent of the agreed price for that support, because the worker was rostered and the slot could not be refilled. It is a genuine entitlement, not a penalty — we cover exactly how it works in our guide to short-notice cancellation rules.
Quoting
Some supports are not in the standard price tables at all, and instead have to be quoted and agreed with the participant before delivery. The principle to take away is simple: the price guide is broader than a list of hourly rates, and the parts people skip are usually the parts that cost them money.
Why the price guide trips providers up
Almost every billing mistake in the NDIS traces back to one of these. None of them throws an error in an accounting package, which is exactly why they persist.
Billing the weekday rate for an evening or weekend shift
The support was delivered after 8pm or on a Saturday, but the claim went out at the weekday limit, so the difference is simply gone.
Missing a public holiday
A shift on a public holiday attracts the highest limit on the ladder, and billing it as an ordinary day leaves more money on the table than any other single error.
Charging over the cap by a cent
On odd quantities, a unit price that rounds a fraction above the limit turns a valid claim into one that can be rejected or recovered.
Claiming against the wrong category
A support coded into the wrong budget draws from funding that may not have the room, and the claim bounces.
Forgetting the cancellation entitlement
A short-notice cancellation that nobody claims is a rostered shift you paid for and never billed.
Each of these is quiet money lost or a clawback risk, and none of them announces itself. That is the argument for NDIS invoicing software that prices each claim from the shift's actual times rather than a rate someone typed in once.
For NDIS providers using practice management software
Rostrel automatically applies the correct NDIS price guide rate to every shift based on its actual start and finish times — weekday, evening, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday rates are selected without manual input, and the claim amount is always kept at or below the current cap. Travel kilometres are calculated per shift and added as a separate line item, and short-notice cancellations generate a billable claim at 100 per cent of the agreed rate as soon as the cancellation is recorded. Every line item is mapped to the correct support category code so claims draw from the right budget without the provider needing to look anything up.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NDIS price guide?
The NDIS price guide — formally the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits — is the document published by the National Disability Insurance Agency that sets the maximum price a registered provider can charge for every claimable support. It is the rulebook that decides what you are allowed to bill, by support type and by day type, to the cent.
Are the price limits a cap or a fixed price?
Every figure in the price guide is a price cap, not a fixed price. You are free to charge less than the limit, but you can never charge more. A claim that exceeds the cap, even by a cent, is one the NDIA or a plan manager can reject or recover at audit.
How often do the NDIS price limits change?
The NDIA reviews the Pricing Arrangements at least once a year, and a new version typically takes effect from 1 July. The rate you billed in June may not be the rate you are allowed to bill in July, so always confirm the figure against the current Pricing Arrangements before you rely on it.
Why is the rate different on weekends and public holidays?
The same support delivered by the same worker has a different price limit depending on when it happened. The price guide sets a separate cap for weekday daytime, weekday evening, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays — so a two-hour visit on a Tuesday afternoon and the same visit on a Sunday are billed at very different rates.
Can I claim for a short-notice cancellation?
Yes. When a participant cancels with less than seven clear days' notice, the rules let you claim 100 per cent of the agreed price for that support, because the worker was rostered and the slot could not be refilled. It is a genuine entitlement, not a penalty, and it is one of the most commonly missed claims.
What changed in the NDIS price guide for 2026–27?
The 2026–27 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits took effect on 1 July 2026, alongside a new NDIS Pricing Schedule the NDIA published following its Annual Pricing Review. Most therapy price limits (except psychology) and support coordination levels 2 and 3 were held at existing levels, and the short-notice cancellation window for non–disability-support-worker supports moved to two business days. If a change affects an existing service agreement, you must agree it with the participant. Always claim from the current document, since limits update every 1 July.
Bill to the price guide without thinking about it
Rostrel prices every claim from the shift's actual start and finish times against the current price-guide ladder — so weekday, evening, weekend and public holiday rates apply without anyone choosing them, travel is added by the kilometre, and every line stays inside the cap.
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