A fractional CTO in the UK usually costs a fraction of a full-time hire, but the right figure depends on how much time you need and how you choose to work together. Here is what drives the cost, the typical market rates, and how to get the most for your budget. New to the idea? Start with What is a fractional CTO, and does my business need one?
Typical UK rates
Published UK rates for fractional CTOs currently fall into these ranges (source):
| How you pay | Typical UK range |
|---|---|
| Day rate | £900 to £1,600 a day, with mid-market rates around £1,000 to £1,200 |
| Monthly retainer (one to two days a week) | £3,000 to £7,000 a month |
| Hourly advice | £150 to £350 an hour |
London specialists tend to sit towards the top of the day-rate range. These are asking prices, not what every business ends up paying: the way you choose to work together makes a real difference, as the next sections explain.
What drives the cost
Three things decide what you will actually spend:
- How much time you need. Steady guidance might take two days a month. A major system change might need two days a week for a few months, then less.
- How complex the work is. Choosing a new finance system is different from joining up five systems, bringing in AI and retraining 50 people.
- Ongoing or one-off. Ongoing support suits a monthly arrangement. A clearly defined piece of work can be priced as a project with a fixed outcome.
Ways to work together, and how to bring the cost down
How you pay matters as much as how much time you buy.
Day rate
You pay for each day used. It suits occasional advice or a short piece of work, but it is the most expensive way to buy time, and it can make people reluctant to pick up the phone.
Fixed monthly retainer
You agree a set amount of time each month for a fixed fee. Because the time is committed in advance, a retainer usually works out cheaper per day than paying the day rate. It also gives you something a day rate can’t: someone who knows your business, is on hand when questions come up, and can flex the time between quieter and busier months.
Longer commitments
Agreeing to work together for six or twelve months normally brings the monthly cost down further. It also means less time spent getting up to speed, and more time spent on the work that makes a difference.
Project or ongoing
Some businesses need help with one clear piece of work, such as choosing and rolling out a new system. Others want an ongoing technology lead keeping an eye on everything. I work both ways, and a project can lead into ongoing support if that suits you.
For most growing businesses, a monthly retainer over a longer period gives the best value. It keeps costs predictable and builds a working relationship that pays off over time.
Compared with a full-time CTO
A full-time CTO typically costs a UK business around £135,000 or more in the first year, once you add the costs on top of salary:
| Cost | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| Salary (London median) | £100,000 (IT Jobs Watch) |
| Employer National Insurance (15% above £5,000) | about £14,250 (GOV.UK) |
| Employer pension (legal minimum, 3% of qualifying earnings) | about £1,300, often more (GOV.UK) |
| Recruitment fee (20% to 33% of salary for senior and executive roles) | £20,000 to £33,000 (Recruitly) |
| Total, first year | about £135,000 to £149,000 |
That is before bonuses, share options and benefits, and it is a conservative figure: the London median was £120,000 a year earlier. Experienced London CTOs often earn more. Morgan McKinley puts the average London range at £120,000 to £170,000, rising to £170,000 to £345,000 for CTOs with more than five years’ experience (Morgan McKinley).
What that means as a day rate
A full-time employee works around 227 days a year, after 25 days’ holiday and 8 bank holidays. That puts the cost of a full-time CTO at roughly £600 to £650 for every working day.
That can look cheaper than a fractional day rate, but you pay it for all 227 days, whether there is CTO-level work to do or not. Most SMEs need somewhere between two and eight days a month. Two days a month at typical UK day rates comes to roughly £24,000 to £38,000 a year. A retainer of one to two days a week sits at around £36,000 to £84,000 a year.
Simpler, as well as cheaper
A fractional CTO also takes away the overheads and admin that come with any senior hire:
- No employer National Insurance, pension contributions or benefits
- No holiday pay, sick pay or cover to arrange
- No recruitment fees, appraisals or HR issues
- No desk, equipment or long onboarding
- When the work is done or your needs change, you simply give the agreed notice. Nothing else.
For most SMEs, that is senior experience at a fraction of the cost and with none of the complications, which is the whole point.
Value, not just price
The better question is not “what does it cost?” but “what will it be worth?”
I have been the fractional CTO for a 50-person London marketing agency for several years, on a long-term arrangement. As the business grew, its people were losing hours to spreadsheets, copying information between systems and building reports by hand.
We joined up their systems, brought in practical AI tools and trained every member of staff. Six months later, project managers were spending 20% less time on each campaign, the production team was spending 30% less time on manual tasks, and reports took half the time to produce.
Across a team of 50, savings like that are worth far more each year than the cost of a fractional CTO. And because the arrangement was long-term, none of that time went on getting to know the business all over again.
Why I tailor every proposal
You won’t find a price list on this site, and that is deliberate. No two businesses need the same amount of time, and a fixed price list would mean some clients paying for time they don’t use.
Instead, we start by getting to know each other. That might be one conversation or a few, so I can understand your business, your people and what you want to achieve. Only when there is a real connection, and I know I can help, will I put together a proposal: whether a project or ongoing support suits you best, how much time I think you need, and a clear monthly or project cost. If a longer commitment makes sense, I’ll show what that saves.
I work with SMEs across Greater London and the wider UK, with a mix of time on-site and remote working. Read more about my fractional CTO services, or contact me for a chat.
Sources
- Fractional CTO cost and day rates UK, Fractional Quest, updated September 2026
- Chief Technology Officer salaries, IT Jobs Watch, six months to October 2026
- Chief Technology Officer salaries in London, IT Jobs Watch, six months to October 2026
- CTO salaries in London 2026, Morgan McKinley
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, GOV.UK
- Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay, GOV.UK
- Recruitment agency fees 2026, Recruitly