Want the number for your own hours? The contribution estimator works out your weekly contribution by pension status, classification and the services you use, and shows it before and after free personal care starts on 1 October 2026.
What home care costs per hour, per night and live-in - and how to tell if yours is fair
Last updated 20 August 2026
Figures current as at 20 August 2026: median prices from the mid-2026 National Summary of Support at Home Prices.
The short version
- Providers set their own prices. Government hourly price caps were legislated for 1 July 2026 but deferred indefinitely on 19 May 2026.
- Instead, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can order refunds for overcharging, monthly statements are mandatory, and the government publishes a quarterly National Summary of Support at Home Prices.
- National medians: personal care around $115/hour, cleaning around $110, nursing around $145-$180. Full table below.
- Evening and weekend surcharges are common - always ask for the full price list before signing.
- Night care is priced differently. A sleepover carer is usually a flat rate per night, an awake carer is hourly, and live-in care is a daily rate. Overnight, 24 hour and live-in costs are covered below, including how far a package budget stretches on nights.
Why there's no price cap (for now)
Support at Home was meant to get government-set hourly price caps from 1 July 2026. On 19 May 2026 the government deferred them indefinitely, opting for transparency and enforcement instead. Consumer groups including COTA and OPAN criticised the deferral; providers welcomed it. What exists in place of caps:
- Refund powers - the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can order a provider to refund participants it finds have been overcharged.
- Mandatory monthly statements - every charge against your budget must be itemised, so overcharging is visible. Our guide to reading your statements shows what to look for.
- Quarterly price publication - the government's National Summary of Support at Home Prices reports what providers actually charge, giving you the medians below to benchmark against.
National median prices, mid-2026
| Service | National median (per hour) |
|---|---|
| Cleaning / domestic assistance | Around $110 |
| Social support | Around $111 |
| Personal care | Around $115 |
| Gardening (safety) | Around $118 |
| Community respite | Around $130 |
| Nursing - enrolled nurse | Around $145 |
| Home maintenance | Around $150 |
| Nursing - registered nurse | Around $180 |
| Physiotherapy | Around $194 |
| Occupational therapy | Around $222 |
Medians are weekday-daytime benchmarks. Half of providers charge less than these figures, half charge more - a price somewhat above median isn't automatically a rip-off, but a long way above deserves an explanation.
Evening, weekend and public-holiday surcharges are common and can add substantially to the hourly rate. Some providers also charge travel. Before signing a service agreement, ask for the complete price list - including after-hours rates - in writing.
Overnight, 24 hour and live-in carer costs
Most families start looking at overnight care after a run of bad nights: a parent with dementia up and wandering at 2am, a fall in the dark on the way to the toilet, an adult child sleeping on the couch and going to work exhausted. The daytime hourly rates above don't tell you much about what that costs to fix, because night care is priced in three different ways.
The three kinds of night care and what they cost
- Inactive (sleepover) overnight care. The carer sleeps in a bed or recliner at the house, usually for a 10 to 12 hour block, and gets up if needed. It's charged as a flat rate per night, commonly quoted at around $80 to $150 a night for an independent carer, with agencies and registered providers often charging more. Expect an extra charge if the carer is woken more than once or twice.
- Active (awake) overnight care. The carer stays awake all night and is charged by the hour, commonly around $40 to $60 an hour for an independent carer and noticeably higher through an agency or provider. A 10 hour active night is therefore $400 to $600 or more. This is the right option where someone needs turning, toileting, settling or supervision several times a night.
- Live-in care. One carer lives in the home and covers the day and a sleepover night, with set breaks. It's charged per 24 hours, commonly from around $600 a day upwards, and needs a spare bedroom. Fully awake 24 hour care (two or three carers rotating) is a different thing again and costs well over $1,000 a day.
Can overnight carers sleep?
Yes, if you book a sleepover (inactive) shift. The carer is expected to sleep and be woken only when needed. Most providers and independent carers set a limit on wake-ups, typically two in a night, beyond which the shift is re-billed at the active hourly rate or a per-wake-up fee applies. If your parent is up four or five times a night, ask for active overnight pricing from the start rather than being surprised on the statement. A carer on an active shift must not sleep, so you are paying for attention, not a bed.
The weekly and monthly maths
Night care is the fastest way to spend a home care budget, because it is seven nights a week whether or not anything happens. Using the ranges above for an independent carer, seven nights a week comes to:
- Sleepover overnight: roughly $560 to $1,050 a week, or about $2,400 to $4,500 a month.
- Active overnight (10 hours a night): roughly $2,800 to $4,200 a week, or about $12,000 to $18,000 a month.
- Live-in care: roughly $4,200 a week and upwards, or $18,000 a month and more.
For comparison, a residential aged care home charges a basic daily fee set as a percentage of the single age pension, plus an accommodation payment that depends on your parent's assets and means. Sleepover care at home is usually cheaper than residential care; active overnight or live-in care is usually dearer, and often by a long way. That is the honest reason many families use sleepover care for as long as it is safe, then move to respite or residential care when active nights become the norm.
How much of this a package actually covers
Support at Home budgets are quarterly and do not have a separate overnight allowance: night care comes out of the same pot as showers, cleaning and nursing. A Classification 4 budget buys only a handful of sleepover nights a week before there is nothing left for daytime help. Even the top levels, Classification 7 and Classification 8, work out to a few hundred dollars a day across the year, which seven nights of active care will exhaust on its own. Level 4 Home Care Package holders who were grandfathered are in the same position. In practice most families use the package to fund a few sleepover nights or a daily evening settle, pay for extra nights privately, and lean on respite for the rest. If nights have become the main problem, ask for a reassessment, because overnight supervision needs are exactly what moves someone up a classification.
Platform carer or agency carer for nights?
Independent carers booked through an online platform are the cheapest way to cover nights, and many are excellent, but you are the employer in all but name. Agency and registered provider carers cost more and come with backup if someone calls in sick at 8pm. Whichever route you take, check before the first night: current police check and NDIS or aged care screening, insurance that covers them in your home, genuine dementia or falls experience (ask what they would do if your mother tried to leave the house at 3am), whether they will do personal care such as toileting and changing bedding overnight, and exactly what counts as a wake-up on the invoice. Our guide to choosing a provider has the full question list.
When overnight care stops being enough
Sleepover care works while the carer is woken once or twice. When every night is an active night, when two people are needed to transfer safely, or when your parent no longer recognises the carer and becomes frightened, the cost and the risk both climb fast. At that point residential respite gives everyone a break and a realistic look at whether residential care is the next step. It is not a failure to get there; it is usually the point where the money and the safety line up.
How to benchmark your provider
-
Pull out your price list or latest statement
10 minutesFind the hourly rate for each service you use. If you can't find a price list, ask your provider for one - you're entitled to it.
-
Compare against the medians above
10 minutesNote anything well above the median, and check whether surcharge hours explain the gap. Remember every dollar of price is also a dollar of budget: at around $115/hour, a Classification 5 budget buys roughly 88 hours of personal care a quarter; at $150/hour, about 67.
-
Ask, then act
This weekAsk your provider to justify above-median prices - some genuinely offer more (consistent workers, better trained staff, rural coverage). If the answer doesn't stack up, you can switch providers at any time, with no exit fees and your unspent funds following you.
Need overnight or live-in care, or a second opinion on your prices?
Tell us what the nights look like and which classification or package your parent has, and we'll match you with a provider who covers sleepover, active overnight or live-in care in your area and can show you how far the budget will stretch. Already with a provider? Send us your price list and we'll tell you honestly how it compares with what similar providers charge - and whether switching would leave you better off.
If you think you've been overcharged
Start with your provider: query the charge in writing and ask for a correction on your next statement. If that goes nowhere, complain to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, which can investigate and order refunds. Our complaints and refunds guide walks through the process step by step, including what to put in writing and how long each stage takes. Free advocacy support is available from OPAN on 1800 700 600 if you'd like someone in your corner.
Common questions
Are the price caps gone for good?
They're deferred indefinitely, not repealed - the government hasn't set a new start date. For now, plan on providers setting their own prices, with the quarterly National Summary as your benchmark. We track changes on our updates page.
Why do prices matter if a service is free to me?
Clinical care (and personal care from 1 October 2026) costs you no contribution - but the provider's price still comes out of your quarterly budget. A high hourly rate costs you hours of care instead of dollars.
Do higher contributions apply to higher prices?
Yes - your contribution is a percentage of the price. A self-funded retiree paying around 80% on cleaning pays $88 on a $110 hour but $104 on a $130 hour. Provider prices affect both your budget and your pocket. See what you'll pay for the percentages.
Can my provider raise prices mid-agreement?
Only in line with your service agreement, and they must tell you. If a rise arrives that you never agreed to, query it - and remember switching is free, needs no new assessment, and your funding follows you.
Where do I find the National Summary of prices?
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publishes it quarterly on health.gov.au. It reports actual provider prices by service, which is where the medians on this page come from.
Sources
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing - National Summary of Support at Home Prices (median service prices), 2026.
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, health.gov.au - deferral of Support at Home price caps, announced 19 May 2026.
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission - pricing obligations, complaints and refund powers.
- Support at Home Program Manual - provider pricing and monthly statement requirements.