How Much Does NDIS Registration Cost in 2025–2026? (Complete Breakdown)

The NDIS Commission Does Not Charge an Application Fee

The single most important thing to understand about NDIS registration costs is that the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission charges no application fee. The Commission portal is free to use, and submitting a registration application costs nothing. This is a common misconception among new providers who assume there is a government fee attached to the process.

The costs of NDIS registration are entirely external to the Commission — they are the costs you incur in preparing for and undergoing the mandatory independent audit, and the costs of developing the documentation your organisation needs to meet the Practice Standards. The Commission does not receive any of these fees.

Audit Fees: How Your AQA Sets Them

The audit fee paid to your Approved Quality Auditor (AQA) is the single largest cost component in most registrations. AQA fees are set independently by each AQA — they are not regulated by the NDIS Commission, and we do not publish other organisations' fees. What drives the quote is well understood: your provider size, the number of registration groups you apply for, the number of service sites the auditor has to cover, and how far the auditor has to travel.

Verification Audits

Providers whose registration groups require only a verification audit are assessed on documents alone — there is no on-site visit and no staff or participant interviews. It is the shorter of the two audit types, and the auditor quotes it accordingly.

Certification Audits

Providers delivering SIL, High Intensity Daily Activities, Therapeutic Supports or other certification-required registration groups undergo a two-stage audit with an on-site component, staff and participant interviews, and a wider evidence sample. More auditor days — and more of them on site — means a larger quote, and each additional service site adds to it.

Document Preparation Costs

Before your audit can begin — or proceed successfully — you need a complete library of policies, procedures, forms, and registers that map to the NDIS Practice Standards. How you obtain these documents has a significant impact on your total registration cost.

Option 1: Build Documents Internally (DIY)

Writing policies from scratch in-house costs nothing in cash, but it takes real time. For a full Core Module policy library of 20–25 policies plus associated forms and registers, a competent compliance writer working full-time would take 3–6 weeks. A non-specialist staff member attempting this alongside their regular role could take 3–6 months.

The risks of fully DIY document development are significant: policies that miss key Practice Standard indicators, incorrect cross-referencing between documents, and evidence gaps that only become apparent during the audit. If your DIY documents result in multiple non-conformity findings, the cost of a re-audit can negate the savings.

The real DIY cost is time, not cash: plan on 3–6 weeks of full-time work for a competent compliance writer, or 3–6 months alongside an existing role — before any rework if the documents turn out to be inadequate at audit.

Option 2: Engage an NDIS Compliance Consultant

An NDIS compliance consultant writes a bespoke policy library for your organisation and quotes the engagement individually — there is no list price, and the scope depends on your registration groups and how much of the work you keep in-house. It is the hands-on pathway: expert knowledge, someone else doing the drafting, and sometimes pre-audit review support included.

Consultancies in this space range from large national firms to sole practitioners, and NDIS-specific experience varies widely between them. Ask any of them for a written scope alongside the written quote: what is included, what is charged separately, and who owns the documents at the end.

What to ask a consultant for: a written quote against a written scope for your document pack, with a separate line for anything billed on top — self-assessment support, audit liaison and corrective action assistance are often quoted separately.

Option 3: Use a Professional Template Pack

Template packs such as the Complete SIL Kit provide pre-built, audit-mapped documents developed by NDIS compliance specialists. The documents are mapped to specific Practice Standard outcomes, use the correct terminology, include all required sections, and are customisable with your organisation's details.

The Complete SIL Kit is $297, one time, for over 136 documents — policies, forms, registers, worked examples and an audit evidence checklist. Providers typically spend 10–20 hours customising them with their own organisation's details, against 3–6 weeks to write an equivalent set from scratch.

Template pack cost: $297 for the Complete SIL Kit, a one-off purchase. The audit fee is separate, and it is set by your AQA.

Staff Time Costs

Regardless of which document preparation pathway you choose, staff time is a real cost that is often overlooked in registration budgeting. Key staff time investments include:

• Completing the self-assessment: 8–20 hours for a compliance manager or director
• Customising template documents: 10–20 hours if using a template pack
• Preparing the evidence folder: 4–8 hours
• Briefing staff before the on-site audit: 2–4 hours
• Management participation in the on-site audit: 1–3 days
• Responding to non-conformity findings (if applicable): 10–40 hours

Whichever pathway you choose, budget those hours into someone's workload rather than assuming they will be absorbed. Add them up for your own organisation using the list above — for most small providers the self-assessment and the evidence folder are the two that get underestimated.

Re-Audit Costs if Non-Conformities Are Found

A first-pass NDIS certification audit rarely results in zero non-conformities. Minor non-conformities are addressed through a corrective action plan and documented evidence — no re-audit required. Major non-conformities, however, require a focused re-audit to verify that the issues have been resolved.

A re-audit takes one of three forms, and your AQA sets its own fee for each:

• Desktop corrective action review — document-only, for resolved minor-to-moderate issues. No return visit.
• Focused on-site re-audit — for major non-conformities that need observation or interview to verify.
• Full re-audit — where significant gaps run across multiple outcomes.

The way to avoid a re-audit fee altogether is to enter the audit with a complete document library that maps to the Practice Standard outcomes the auditor will sample, with the evidence already assembled against each one.

Ongoing Compliance Costs

NDIS registration is not a one-time cost. Ongoing compliance obligations create recurring expenses that should be factored into your business model from the outset:

• Mid-term audit (certification providers, approximately 18 months after registration): quoted by your AQA — ask whether it is already covered by your initial engagement
• Renewal audit (at 3-year renewal): a fresh quote from your AQA
• NDIS Worker Screening Checks: a per-worker application fee set by your state or territory worker screening unit, renewed every 5 years — check the current fee with the unit in your state
• Staff mandatory training renewals: first aid every 3 years, plus manual handling and medication management — priced by whichever training provider you use
• Insurance renewals: professional indemnity and public liability, priced by your insurer against your cover levels, your services and your claims history
• Ongoing document management: Annual policy reviews, document updates when Practice Standards change, continuous improvement records

None of these disappear once you are registered. Build them into your operating budget from the outset, and get the renewal quotes in writing the same way you got the first ones.

Comparing the Three Preparation Pathways

Cash cost is only one axis, and on two of the three pathways the cash figure is set by someone else. Here is what actually differs between them for a small SIL provider (5–10 staff, single site) seeking certification registration:

Building Your Own Registration Budget

We do not publish other organisations' fees, so the honest version of this section is a method rather than a table. Four lines make up a registration budget, and you can fill in three of them with real numbers this week:

1. Commission application fee — there is none. Submitting the application costs nothing.
2. Audit fee — ask two or three AQAs for a written quote against the same scope: your registration groups, staff count, number of sites and location. Ask each whether travel is included or billed on top.
3. Document preparation — the Complete SIL Kit is $297 for over 136 documents; a consultant writes a bespoke set and quotes the engagement individually; writing from scratch costs weeks rather than dollars.
4. Your own staff hours — take the list in the staff time section above and cost it at your own rates.

Add the recurring items while you are at it: the mid-term audit at roughly 18 months, the three-year renewal audit, worker screening renewals, training renewals and insurance. Ask for those in writing at the same time as the initial audit quote, so the whole picture is visible before you commit.