Last Updated on September 8, 2026
Finding
An emergency locksmith costs £80 to £200 an hour at published UK rates, yet the trade body’s own guide says most emergency locksmiths charge no call-out fee, a spread Whito read across three published guides on 4 September 2026.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/for/locksmiths/emergency-locksmith-cost-uk, September 2026. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Emergency locksmith pricing is where honest firms and rogues meet, and the published numbers are worth knowing on both sides of the door. Three guides publish real figures: two aggregators and the Master Locksmiths Association itself.
Published emergency rates, 2026
| Item | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Standard hourly rate | about £65 (Checkatrade), up to £80 (MyJobQuote), £85 (MLA guide) | all read 4 Sep 2026 |
| Emergency hourly rate | £80 to £200 (Checkatrade), about £90 (MyJobQuote) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
| Emergency call-out fee | £50 to £150 (Checkatrade), up to £100 (MyJobQuote), most charge none (MLA) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
| After midnight | about £120 an hour (Checkatrade), £153 in London (MLA) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
| Gaining entry, non-destructive | £100 to £160 (MyJobQuote), about £110 average (Checkatrade), from £90 (MLA) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
| Entry with drilling and new lock | £180 to £300 and up | MyJobQuote |
| Euro cylinder change | about £125, £150 anti-snap (Checkatrade); £70 to £100 (MyJobQuote); from £105 (MLA) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
| 5 lever mortice change | about £140 (Checkatrade), £190 (MyJobQuote), from £148 (MLA) | read 4 Sep 2026 |
London runs 20 to 25% above national figures by the MLA’s own guidance. One caveat the MLA makes that aggregators do not: many locksmiths are not VAT registered, so two identical quotes can differ by 20% in the final bill. Ask.
The £49 advert is not a price
The MLA’s published scam guidance describes the 49er: jobs advertised at £39, £49 or £59 that end in bills over £500, and a 66% rise in overcharging complaints since it began recording them. Set the published tables above against those adverts and the pattern is obvious: no genuine emergency locksmith is profitably attending for £49. If you are the customer, treat a too-low headline as the warning itself. If you are the locksmith, publish your real numbers next to a plain-English explanation of the bait, because the customer who understands the scam picks the honest quote.
For locksmiths: price transparency is positioning
Fewer than half of business websites publish any price, per Whito’s price transparency study. In this trade the silence is worse than elsewhere, because the void is filled by bait. A published from-price for gaining entry, cylinder change and out-of-hours work, dated, with the VAT position stated, is both a conversion asset and a defence exhibit.
Common questions
How much does an emergency locksmith cost in the UK?
At published 2026 rates, emergency hourly rates run £80 to £200 with call-out fees of £50 to £150 at aggregator guides, while the Master Locksmiths Association’s own guide puts standard labour at £85 an hour and says most emergency locksmiths charge no call-out fee. Read 4 September 2026.
Why do some locksmiths advertise £39 or £49 jobs?
The MLA documents this as bait pricing, the 49er scam: a low advertised price that becomes a bill over £500 once the door is open. A genuine emergency attendance cannot profitably be done at that price at published market rates.
How much does it cost to change locks after a break-in?
A euro cylinder change runs roughly £70 to £150 at published 2026 rates depending on the guide and whether anti-snap is fitted, and a 5 lever mortice £140 to £190. Out of hours attendance adds the emergency premium.
Do locksmith prices include VAT?
Not always. The MLA notes many locksmiths are not VAT registered, so quoted prices may or may not include VAT. Ask before work starts, and if you are the locksmith, state your VAT position on your published prices.
Before you spend any of this, check what the machines can read
The free Whito Visibility Check runs seventeen checks on your website, scored out of 100, every result shown on the page, no email needed.
The structural checks behind this research run on any website in about twenty seconds. Enter yours and read the full result on the page. Free, and we do not ask for your email.
Run the free Visibility Check