How Much Does a Bid Writer Cost?

The four pricing models you will be quoted

Almost every UK bid consultancy prices in one of four ways, and the model matters more than the headline number because it decides who carries the risk of a tender taking longer than expected.

• Day rate — commonly £350–£800 depending on seniority and sector. Flexible, but open-ended: you carry the overrun risk.
• Fixed fee per tender — commonly £1,500–£6,000 for a standard public-sector ITT. The writer carries the overrun risk, so scope is defined tightly.
• Monthly retainer — commonly £1,500–£5,000 for an agreed volume of bids. Best value if you bid regularly, poor value if you bid twice a year.
• Success fee — 1–3% of first-year contract value, usually alongside a reduced base fee. Uncommon in public procurement because award timescales are long and outcomes are outside the writer's control.

What changes the price

Two tenders of the same contract value can differ threefold in cost to write. The drivers are word count, the number of scored quality questions, whether a full method statement and mobilisation plan are required, and how much usable material you already hold.

A supplier with a current policy set, recent case studies and an accreditation folder will pay significantly less than one starting from a blank page, because most of the writer's time goes into evidence gathering rather than writing.

Comparing outsourcing against writing it yourself

The honest comparison is not fee versus zero. Writing in-house consumes senior time — usually the people who also deliver the work — and that time has a real cost.

Estimate your internal hours across bid/no-bid review, evidence gathering, drafting, pricing, internal review and portal submission, then multiply by a loaded day rate. For most SMEs a first public-sector bid absorbs 5–12 working days of internal effort. Set that number against the quote before deciding.

What a fee should include

Ambiguity here is where disputes start. Confirm in writing whether the fee covers clarification questions to the buyer, a compliance check against the ITT, pricing schedule completion, portal upload, and one or two rounds of your review comments.

• Number of review and amendment rounds included
• Who drafts clarification questions and by when
• Whether pricing schedules and financial annexes are in scope
• Who is responsible for portal submission and the deadline
• Whether post-award feedback and debrief analysis are included

Warning signs in a quote

Guaranteed win rates are the clearest red flag: no writer controls the buyer's evaluation panel or your competitors' pricing. Treat quoted win rates as marketing unless the writer will name the frameworks and show the scoring feedback.

Be equally cautious of very low fixed fees for complex tenders. They usually mean templated content, and evaluators score templated answers poorly because they fail to address the specification.

Frequently asked questions