Tending the chair
Per session, per month and per year, in four countries. Most price guides stop at the session figure, which is the least useful number there is. Nobody pays for one session.
Crisis support costs nothing. US: call or text 988. UK and Ireland: Samaritans, 116 123. Canada: 1-866-585-0445. Australia: Lifeline, 13 11 14. More on our crisis page.
A single session runs about $165 in the US, £60 in the UK, C$150 in Canada and A$260 in Australia before any rebate.
Weekly, that is roughly $715, £260, C$650 or A$1,000 a month. The rest of this page shows where those numbers come from, what insurance and public schemes genuinely take off, and what the online platforms charge instead.
$100 to $250 a session without insurance, with a national average around $165 in 2026. In San Francisco, New York and similar cities, $250 is common and $300 is not rare. Sliding scale slots, where a therapist offers them, can bring a session to $30 to $80. In-network copays usually run $20 to $50, but a large share of experienced therapists do not take insurance at all. If you have no coverage, or a plan that does not cover your therapist, see therapy without insurance, including the written estimate you are legally owed.
Counsellors £40 to £70, psychotherapists £60 to £100, clinical psychologists £100 to £180 and up. The most recent BACP survey puts the average private rate at £60 to £80, and more than half of therapists on the BACP directory advertise between £40 and £60. London runs 15 to 25 percent above the rest of the country. Online sessions are typically 20 to 40 percent cheaper than in person. NHS talking therapies are free, and the wait is the cost.
Registered psychotherapists C$120 to C$180, registered social workers C$130 to C$200, psychologists C$200 to C$350. Qualifying therapists and interns working under supervision charge C$50 to C$125 and are a genuinely good option. Provincial plans such as OHIP do not cover private psychotherapy. They do cover psychiatrists, who are physicians, and some hospital and community programmes, usually with long waits. Most workplace extended health plans cover some sessions, often with an annual cap that runs out after a handful of them.
A$200 to A$320 a session before the rebate. With a Mental Health Treatment Plan from a GP, Medicare rebates updated on 1 July 2026 return A$149.05 for a clinical psychologist, A$101.55 for a general psychologist and A$89.50 for a social worker, leaving most people A$75 to A$175 out of pocket. The catch that every price guide should say louder: the rebate covers 10 sessions a calendar year. Session 11 onward is full price. Some practices bulk bill eligible clients, meaning no gap at all, and they are worth asking about.
Therapy is not a purchase, it is a subscription you pay by the hour. Typical session figures, multiplied out. Weekly is the session price times 52 over 12. Fortnightly is times 26 over 12. Australian figures are blended across the 10 rebated sessions and the full-price remainder.
| Country | Typical session | Weekly, per month | Weekly, per year | Fortnightly, per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $165 (range $100 to $250) | about $715 | about $8,600 | about $360 |
| United Kingdom | £60 (range £40 to £100) | about £260 | about £3,100 | about £130 |
| Canada | C$150 (range C$120 to C$350) | about C$650 | about C$7,800 | about C$325 |
| Australia | A$260 before rebate (range A$200 to A$320) | about A$1,010 blended | about A$12,200 | about A$450 blended |
Rounded, and indicative. Your own figure is your session price times 4.3 for weekly or 2.2 for fortnightly. Figures as of August 2026; verify with any provider before relying on them.
Subscription therapy apps bill $60 to $120 a week, charged monthly or every four weeks, so roughly $260 to $520 a month as of August 2026, for a licensed therapist, usually one live session a week plus messaging. That is cheaper than weekly private therapy in a major US city and more expensive than fortnightly private therapy almost anywhere. The therapist you are matched with can change, and that is the trade-off people most often report.
Messaging-only plans start lower, around $69 a week, with live sessions costing more, and a few platforms accept some US insurance, which can bring the cost down a long way. We set the category against Hearth in Hearth vs. therapy apps, using the largest platform as the worked example.
Prices on these platforms change often and vary by location and promotion. The figures above come from BetterHelp’s FAQ and Talkspace’s pricing page, checked in August 2026. Check the platform’s own page on the day.
Hearth is on this table, and it is not the cheapest thing on it. Read the clinical-care column before the price column: the cheap rows and the clinical rows are different products.
| Option | Per month | What you get | Clinical care? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hearth, Hearthside | $39 | One Keeper, matched by hand and kept. A Sit every two weeks, unlimited Long Talk, a written note every Friday. | No | Hearth pricing |
| Hearth, Hearth Deep | $99 | Everything in Hearthside, with a Sit every week and priority replies on the Long Talk. | No | Hearth pricing |
| Online therapy subscription | $260 to $520 | $60 to $120 a week, billed monthly or every four weeks. A licensed therapist, usually one live session a week plus messaging. The therapist can change. Some platforms accept US insurance. | Yes | BetterHelp FAQ, Talkspace pricing |
| Private therapy, weekly | About $715 | At the US average of $165 a session. $430 to $1,080 across the usual $100 to $250 range. Licensed clinician, in person or online. | Yes | Our cost guide |
| Private therapy, every two weeks | About $360 | Same clinician, half the frequency. $215 to $540 across the usual range. | Yes | Our cost guide |
| Free listener services | Free | Trained volunteer listeners, available now, a different person each time. Not clinicians. Some offer a separate paid therapy tier. | No | 7 Cups |
Figures as of August 2026. Subscription prices change and vary by location and promotion; the sources are each provider’s own pricing page, checked on that date. Hearth is peer support, not therapy. Keepers do not diagnose, treat or prescribe, and a cheaper non-clinical service does not meet a clinical need.
Not because anyone is profiteering. A 50-minute session comes with notes, treatment planning, supervision, continuing education, licensing, professional insurance and office costs, and a therapist cannot fill every hour of a working day with clients. You are paying for a skilled person’s labour, and the price reflects that labour fairly accurately.
That does not make it affordable. It does mean the price is rarely negotiable downward except through the routes built for it: sliding scale, training clinics, community centres, Open Path. We wrote those up in what to do when you cannot afford therapy, including the exact words to use when asking for a lower fee.
Hearth is a peer-support membership at $39 a month for fortnightly conversations, or $99 for weekly. You are matched with one Keeper, a trained peer companion rather than a clinician, and you keep the same person for as long as it serves you.
It costs a fraction of the figures above because it is not the thing above. Keepers do not diagnose, treat or prescribe. If what you need is clinical care, the right move is the low-cost therapy routes, not a cheaper non-clinical service. If what you need is someone who stays, through grief, a hard year, or the ordinary weight of a life, that is what we do, and here is how to tell which you need.
In the US, $100 to $250 without insurance, with a national average of about $165 in 2026. In the UK, £40 to £80 for a counsellor and £60 to £100 for a psychotherapist. In Canada, $120 to $200 for a registered psychotherapist or social worker and $200 to $350 for a psychologist. In Australia, $200 to $320 before the Medicare rebate, and roughly $75 to $175 out of pocket after it.
It depends entirely on frequency, which is the part most price guides skip. Weekly therapy at the US average of $165 is about $715 a month. Fortnightly is about $360. At the top of the range in a major city, weekly sessions can pass $1,000 a month. Multiply your session price by 4.3 for weekly or 2.2 for fortnightly to get a realistic monthly figure.
Because you are paying for a licensed professional's hour, plus the unpaid time around it. A 50-minute session usually comes with notes, treatment planning, supervision, continuing education, licensing fees and insurance, and therapists typically cannot fill every hour of a day. The price reflects a skilled person's labour, not a markup. That does not make it affordable, but it does mean the price is rarely negotiable downward except through sliding scale.
In the US, often partly: a copay of $20 to $50 per session is typical in-network, but many experienced therapists do not take insurance at all, and out-of-network reimbursement requires a superbill and a deductible. In the UK, NHS talking therapies are free but waits are long. In Canada, provincial plans do not cover private psychotherapy, though most workplace extended health plans cover some sessions up to an annual cap. In Australia, a Mental Health Treatment Plan from a GP unlocks Medicare rebates on up to 10 sessions a year.
For a clinical condition, a period of crisis, trauma, or a pattern you genuinely cannot break alone, yes, and the cost is worth finding a way to cover. For the ordinary weight of a life, such as grief, family strain, loneliness or a hard transition, it is worth asking first whether what you need is clinical treatment or someone who stays. Those cost very different amounts because they are very different things.