A professional CV in the UK costs anywhere from about £40 to over £1,000. That range is so wide because “CV writing service” covers three very different products sold under the same name. This guide explains what you get at each price point, what actually drives the cost, how to tell a template mill from a writer, and how to judge whether it is worth paying at all.

The short answer

• £40 to £90: a template fill. You send your old CV, someone reformats it, often offshore, often with no conversation. Tidy, generic, fast.
• £150 to £400: a written CV. A questionnaire or a call, a writer who works in your level or sector, a draft, a revision. This is where most mid-career and management CVs should sit.
• £400 to £1,000+: executive and board-level. Multiple calls, an executive summary or board bio, LinkedIn, sometimes interview coaching. Priced for people whose next salary move is measured in tens of thousands.

Our packages, for reference: Professional CV £249, Executive CV £449, Leadership and Board CV £749, with a 48-hour express option on each for £75 more. Full details and what each includes.

What you are paying for

Four things drive the price of a CV, and only one of them is the writing.

1. Who the writer is

This is the big one. At the bottom of the market the “writer” is a template and a spellcheck. In the middle it is a freelance writer, often a former recruiter or HR person, who knows what a CV should look like. At the top it is someone who has hired at the level you are applying for, which is a different thing: they know which lines made them pick up the phone, because they were the ones holding it. Ask any service who will write your CV and what they did before they wrote CVs. If the answer is vague, so is the product.

2. How much of your time they take

A CV written from your old CV alone can only rearrange what is already there. The things that get interviews, the numbers, the context, the result nobody wrote down at the time, come out in conversation. A thirty-minute call is the minimum for a mid-career CV; executive packages should include two. If a service does not want to talk to you, it is a template fill, whatever it costs.

3. What is included

Formats (Word and PDF), the number of revision rounds, a cover letter, a LinkedIn rewrite, tailoring notes, turnaround time. Each of these is a cost to the provider and should be visible in the price. Beware packages that bundle ten items; most of them are padding.

4. Speed

Five working days is standard. Forty-eight hours costs more because the writer drops other work. Same-day is rarely worth it; a CV written in four hours reads like one.

Is a CV writing service worth it?

Do the arithmetic for your own situation. If a better CV gets you one more interview in a search that would otherwise take four months, and that shortens the search by a month, the service has paid for itself many times over at any salary above about £30,000. If it gets you a role at a £5,000 higher salary, it has paid for itself in a fortnight.

Where it is not worth it: if your CV already passes the twenty-second test (clear statement of what you are, numbers in the first half of page one, outcomes rather than duties), a writer will polish rather than transform, and you can do the polishing yourself with our free guide. Where it is most worth it: career changes, returning after a break, stepping up a level, and anyone who has not written a CV in more than five years.

How to tell a template mill from a real writer

• They want to talk to you. A call before writing is the clearest signal. No call, no writer.
• They can tell you who is writing it. Name, background, what they hired for. “Our team of certified writers” is a template mill with good copywriting.
• The samples have numbers in them. Look at their example CVs. If the achievements are “improved efficiency” and “drove growth”, that is what yours will say.
• Reviews mention outcomes. “Got three interviews in two weeks” is worth more than “lovely to deal with”.
• The price is not suspiciously low. A human in the UK cannot interview you, write two pages and revise them for £45. Someone is being paid very little, or nobody is.
• They do not guarantee interviews. Nobody can. A guarantee is a marketing device with terms attached.

What about AI CV builders?

Free or near-free, and fine for layout. The problem is the same as a template mill: the tool can only work with what you type in, and it cannot ask you the follow-up question that turns “managed a team” into “took over a team 22% behind target and finished 6% over”. We use software to structure first drafts ourselves; the value is in what a person who has hired at your level does with the draft afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I pay for a CV?

For a management or professional CV, £150 to £400. For director and above, £400 to £1,000. Below £100, expect a template fill.

Can I claim a CV writing service against tax?

If you are self-employed or a contractor and the CV is used to win work, it is normally an allowable business expense. As an employee looking for a new job, it is not. Check with your accountant.

How long does it take?

Five working days is typical from the call to the first draft. Express services deliver in 48 hours for a premium.

What if I am not happy with it?

Any reputable service includes at least one revision round. Ask what happens after that before you pay. Ours: one revision round on the Professional package, two on Executive and Leadership, and if the CV does not reflect the brief after that, we rewrite it.