Independent research, autumn 2026
The 2026 Speaker Industry Research
The second year of Dr Alison Edgar MBE's independent study of UK speaker bookers. 250 people who booked a speaker in the last six months told us what they paid. The average fee is £6,646, up 16% on 2025. Men still earn more per booking, 8.9% against 15% a year ago, and most of that gap now sits at the very top of the market.
The headline numbers, 2026
- £6,646average fee per booking, up from £5,707 in 2025
- 8.9%more per booking for men, down from 15% in 2025
- 56 / 44split of recent speaker bookings, men to women
- 32%of bookings were on AI and digital transformation, up from 8%
How much does a speaker cost in the UK in 2026?
The average fee for a speaker booking in the UK is £6,646, and the median is £6,550. Six in ten bookings fell between £5,000 and £7,000. The lowest fee anyone reported was £3,200 and the highest was £10,200.
That is 16% more than the 2025 average of £5,707, and the whole market has moved up. In 2025, three bookings in ten came in under £5,000. This year it was fewer than one in ten.
| Measure | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Average fee | £5,707 | £6,646 |
| Median fee | £5,900 | £6,550 |
| Lowest fee | £2,500 | £3,200 |
| Highest fee | £9,000 | £10,200 |
| Fee | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Under £5,000 | 30.0% | 8.0% |
| £5,000 – £5,999 | 35.6% | 21.6% |
| £6,000 – £6,999 | 24.8% | 41.2% |
| £7,000 – £7,999 | 8.4% | 14.4% |
| £8,000 and above | 1.2% | 14.8% |
The two years asked about slightly different bookings. In 2025 people could answer about a booking from up to two years earlier; in 2026, only about one from the last six months. Taking just the 2025 bookings from the previous six months gives an average of £5,673, so the rise holds when the two are compared like for like.
Is the gender pay gap for speakers closing?
It has narrowed. Male speakers averaged £6,892 per booking and female speakers £6,328, a difference of £564. Men earned 8.9% more per engagement, down from 15% in 2025. Measured the way the ONS measures the national gap, as a share of men's pay, it is 8.2%, against a UK gender pay gap of 12.8% (ONS, 2025).
- Male speakers£6,892Median £6,600. Fees ranged from £4,500 to £10,200
- Female speakers£6,328Median £6,300. Fees ranged from £3,200 to £9,700
Hover or tab to a bar for the median and range. Source: 250 UK bookers, autumn 2026.
With 250 bookings the gap can only be pinned down so far: the true figure is likely somewhere between 4% and 15%. It is clearly above zero, and most likely smaller than a year ago.
The bottom of the market has changed most. In 2025 the cheapest booking for a woman was £2,500 and not one woman reached £7,000. This year the floor for women was £3,200, and a quarter of bookings to women were at £7,000 or more.
Where is the gap now?
Almost all of it is at the top. Below £9,000, men and women were paid within 1.1% of each other. Above it, men took 24 of the 27 bookings.
- Male speakers17%24 of 141 bookings
- Female speakers3%3 of 109 bookings
Based on 27 bookings at the top of the market, so treat the exact split as indicative.
Remove those 27 bookings and the average for men is £6,307 and for women £6,240. So the everyday market is close to parity. The gap that remains is about who gets the biggest fees, and in 2026 that was still mostly men.
Which speaking topics are booked most?
AI and digital transformation, by a distance: almost a third of all bookings (32%), up from 8% in 2025. Wellbeing was second at 16%, and embracing change and personal growth followed at 11% each. Leadership fell furthest, from 12% of bookings to 4%.
The rise in AI is not a result of the shorter time window this year. Taking only the 2025 bookings from the previous six months, AI and digital transformation was 3 of 103, or 3%.
| Topic | Share, 2025 | Share, 2026 | Average fee, 2026 | Bookings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI and digital transformation | 8.0% | 31.6% | £6,692 | 79 |
| Wellbeing | 19.2% | 15.6% | £6,560 | 39 |
| Embracing change | 10.8% | 11.2% | £6,421 | 28 |
| Personal growth | 15.2% | 10.8% | £6,881 | 27 |
| Financial success | 11.2% | 8.0% | £6,130 | 20 |
| Sales and customer service | 10.0% | 7.6% | £6,987 | 19 |
| Sports success | 8.4% | 6.8% | £6,576 | 17 |
| High performance | 5.6% | 4.4% | £7,382 | 11 |
| Leadership and autonomy | 11.6% | 4.0% | £6,315 | 10 |
Fees by topic sit close together, from £6,130 for financial success to £7,382 for high performance. Several topics rest on 10 to 20 bookings, where one large fee moves the average by a few hundred pounds, so read the order as a rough guide. For the same reason this study does not report the gender gap topic by topic this year.
Who books speakers?
57% of the people who answered were women. Women and men booked a male speaker at almost the same rate, 55% and 58%, which matches 2025: the split in who gets booked does not come from men choosing men.
45% of respondents made the final decision after a colleague's recommendation, 40% researched the options and decided themselves, and 15% did the research for someone else to decide.
How the research was done
Alison Edgar Ltd commissioned the research, and LM Research & Marketing Consultancy ran it independently. Between 27 September and 14 October 2026 it surveyed 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous six months. They were asked six questions: when they booked, their own gender, their part in the decision, the speaker's fee net of VAT and expenses, the topic, and the speaker's gender.
The questions and topics are the same as in the2025 Speaker Industry Research. The one change is the time window, narrowed from two years to six months to focus on recent bookings.
Questions about the 2026 research
How much does a keynote speaker cost in the UK in 2026?
The average fee for a speaker in the UK is £6,646 per booking, and the median is £6,550, according to Alison Edgar Ltd’s 2026 Speaker Industry Research, a survey of 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous six months. Six in ten bookings fell between £5,000 and £7,000, and fees ranged from £3,200 to £10,200.
Have speaker fees gone up?
Yes. The average fee rose from £5,707 in the 2025 study to £6,646 in 2026, an increase of 16%. The 2025 study covered bookings made up to two years earlier; taking only its bookings from the previous six months gives £5,673, so the rise holds on a like-for-like basis.
Is there still a gender pay gap among professional speakers?
Yes, though it is narrower than in 2025. Male speakers averaged £6,892 per booking and female speakers £6,328, so men earned 8.9% more, down from 15%. Most of the gap sits at the top of the market: 17% of bookings to men were at £9,000 or more, against 3% of bookings to women. Below £9,000, average fees for men and women were within 1.1% of each other.
Which speaking topics are booked most?
AI and digital transformation, at almost a third of all bookings (32%), up from 8% in 2025. Wellbeing was second at 16%, followed by embracing change and personal growth at 11% each.
Who conducted the research, and how?
The study was commissioned by Dr Alison Edgar MBE and conducted independently by LM Research & Marketing Consultancy. Between 27 September and 14 October 2026 it surveyed 250 UK professionals who had booked a speaker in the previous six months, asking what they paid, on what topic, and whether the speaker was a man or a woman. It is the second wave of the Speaker Industry Research, after the 2025 study.
Can the data be quoted or referenced?
Yes, with attribution to Alison Edgar Ltd’s 2026 Speaker Industry Research. Journalists and researchers wanting the underlying detail or a comment from Dr Alison Edgar MBE can contact the team.
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