Guide for chefs

What private chefs charge and earn in 2026

Private chefs mostly sell a price per person, not an hourly rate. A client wants to know what dinner for eight will cost; you want to be paid for the shopping, prep, travel, service and washing up behind it. This guide shows what chefs actually charge on UpChef, by country, from live menus, then explains how per-person, hourly and day rates relate, how to build your own price, and what you keep after fees.

One thing up front: UpChef’s figures are prices per person that chefs set on their menus. UpChef does not measure hourly or day rates, so this page does not publish a figure for them. Anyone quoting an “average private chef hourly rate” is usually converting from something else; below you can see how to do that conversion for your own work.

By UpChef · Published 2 November 2026

Per person, hourly or by the day: how private chefs price

Model	How it works	Best for
Per person	One price per guest, ingredients included, usually with a minimum number of guests.	Dinner parties and events. What customers compare on marketplaces, and what UpChef menus use.
Hourly	A rate for your time; ingredients billed separately at cost.	Cooking lessons, help in a client’s kitchen, open-ended work where the menu is not fixed.
Day rate	A fixed fee per day of work; ingredients usually extra.	Holiday villas, chalets, yachts, households, multi-day events.
Weekly meal prep	A fee per session or per week, plus groceries.	Personal chefs cooking for the same families every week.

Per-person pricing works for clients because the total is predictable, and for you because a larger group earns more without a new negotiation. Set a minimum guest count, or a minimum spend, so a dinner for two still covers your day.

What private chefs charge on UpChef, by country

These are the per-person prices chefs list on their live UpChef menus, read from the menus customers can see right now. Only private-chef menus priced per person count (classes, catering tiers and fixed-price items are left out), each menu counts once, and prices outside a plausible range for the country are excluded. A country appears only when it has at least five such menus.

Private chef prices per person on UpChef, by country (updated November 2026)
Country	Menus	Price per person	Typical
United Kingdom	32	£35–£250	£69–£150 (middle half of menus)
United States	47	$55–$400	$117–$173 (middle half of menus)
France	18	€50–€250	€85–€160 (middle half of menus)
Germany	11	€100–€195	€110–€155 (middle half of menus)
Spain	55	€40–€250	€75–€145 (middle half of menus)
Italy	6	€60–€150	€70–€108 (middle half of menus)
Switzerland	13	CHF 60–CHF 200	CHF 85–CHF 150 (middle half of menus)
Sweden	7	kr 649–kr 1,500	kr 749–kr 1,275 (middle half of menus)
Saudi Arabia	28	SAR 150–SAR 1,000	SAR 150–SAR 263 (middle half of menus)
United Arab Emirates	19	AED 200–AED 1,000	AED 325–AED 510 (middle half of menus)

Updated November 2026. Chefs’ own prices per person on live UpChef private-chef menus, in each country’s currency, before the customer’s service fee. “Typical” is the middle half of menus (the median when a country has few). Countries with fewer than five menus are not shown. Hourly and day rates are not measured.

These are chefs’ prices, before the customer’s service fee. The customer cost guides show the same market from the client’s side, city by city: UK, US, France, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Private chef hourly rate: how to work out yours

To know what you really earn per hour, work backwards from a booking. Take the price you charge, subtract ingredients and fees, and divide by every hour the booking takes, not only the hours in the client’s kitchen.

Illustration (not market data). A menu at 80 per person for 8 guests brings 640. Ingredients at 30% of the price cost 192. The booking takes 14 hours: 2 planning and shopping, 4 prep, 2 travel, 4 service, 2 cleaning down and packing. (640 − 192) ÷ 14 = 32 per hour, before platform or payment fees and taxes. Run the same sum with your own numbers and currency.

If the answer is below what you would earn on a kitchen shift, the menu is underpriced, the minimum guest count is too low, or the menu takes too long to prep. Fix the menu before you discount the price.

Day rates

A day rate makes sense when you cook several meals a day for the same group: a villa week, a ski chalet, a family on holiday. Quote it with ingredients billed at cost (agree a weekly food budget up front), say how many meals and guests it covers, and price days off, travel days and early starts separately.

A pricing worksheet for your menus

Fill this in once per menu, for a typical booking size. The per-person price is the total divided by the number of guests.

Line	What to count	Tip
Ingredients	Everything on the menu at what you pay, plus 10% for waste and spares.	Re-cost every few months; prices move.
Your time	Planning, shopping, prep, travel, service, cleaning, admin.	Price every hour at a rate you would accept for skilled work.
Travel	Fuel or fares, parking, tolls.	Include it up to a set distance, charge beyond it.
Equipment	Hire, consumables, wear on your own kit.	A small fixed amount per booking adds up.
Staff	An assistant or server for larger groups.	Make it a separate line the client can see.
Overheads	Insurance, training, phone, marketing, platform and payment fees.	Spread the yearly total over the bookings you expect.
Margin	What the business keeps after all of the above.	This pays for slow months and new equipment.

Your rate card

A rate card is the one-page version a client sees: each menu with its price per person and minimum guests, what is included, the travel area, extras (staff, wine pairing, tableware hire) and how far ahead to book. On a platform, your menus are your rate card, so keep each one specific about what it includes.

What you take home after fees: two worked examples

On UpChef the commission is 0% for every chef, so your earnings are 100% of the price you set. The customer pays a service fee on top of your price (7%; 15% in Mexico), plus tax on that fee (in the UAE, 5% VAT on the whole order). What comes off your side depends on how you are paid:

United Kingdom (card payout)

Example price: the median UpChef menu in the UK, rounded to the nearest 5.

Your price: £85 × 6 guests: £510
Customer’s service fee (7%): £35.70
VAT on the fee (20%): £7.14
Customer pays: £552.84
Your earnings (0% commission): £510
Payment-processing fee (6%): − £30.60
Paid to your bank: £479.40

The payout is released 48 hours after the end of the service.

Saudi Arabia (in-app wallet)

Example price: the median UpChef menu in Saudi Arabia, rounded to the nearest 5.

Your price: SAR 200 × 6 guests: SAR 1,200
Customer’s service fee (7%): SAR 84
VAT on the fee (15%): SAR 12.60
Customer pays: SAR 1,296.60
Your earnings (0% commission): SAR 1,200
Gateway fee when you withdraw (6%): − SAR 72
Reaches your bank after withdrawal: SAR 1,128

Credited to your in-app wallet 48 hours after the end of the service; the 6% applies when you withdraw.

Ingredients come out of your earnings, as with any per-person price. Mexico has no fee on the chef’s side, but in-app card payment is not live there yet. In Brazil and Colombia customers pay the chef directly, as agreed in chat, and UpChef processes no payment. For how this compares with other platforms, see private chef platforms compared.

How much do private chefs make?

There is no honest single figure. Income is bookings per month × what you keep per booking, and both vary enormously with your city, your cuisine, your reviews and how many evenings you want to work. A chef doing two dinners a weekend has a very different year from one cooking five events a week in peak season. Three things move it most:

Repeat clients. A host who books you every quarter is worth more than a one-off at a higher price. See how to get hired and keep clients coming back.
Minimums. A minimum guest count or spend protects your evenings from small, unprofitable bookings.
Menu design. Menus with more prep ahead and less last-minute work let you take larger groups without hiring.

Starting out? Read how to become a private chef and how to start a private chef business for the setup costs (training, insurance, registration) to include in your overheads.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average private chef hourly rate?

There is no reliable public average, and UpChef does not measure one: chefs on UpChef set a price per person. To find your own hourly rate, take a booking’s price, subtract ingredients and fees, and divide by every hour it takes, including shopping, prep, travel and cleaning.

How much should I charge as a private chef?

Build each menu price from ingredients, every hour of your time, travel, equipment, staff, overheads and a margin, then compare it with what other chefs in your country charge per person. Set a minimum number of guests so small bookings still cover your day.

Do private chefs charge per person or per hour?

Most charge per person for dinners and events, with ingredients included. Hourly rates are used for lessons and open-ended work, and day rates for villas, chalets, yachts and households, usually with ingredients billed separately.

How much does UpChef take from a private chef’s price?

UpChef takes 0% commission from every chef. In card-payment countries a 6% payment-processing fee is deducted from your payout (none in Mexico). In Saudi Arabia and the UAE your earnings go to the in-app wallet and a 6% gateway fee applies when you withdraw. Customers pay a service fee on top of your price.

When do I get paid for an UpChef booking?

For card payments, the payout is released 48 hours after the end of the service; the customer can report a problem until then. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE the amount is credited to your in-app wallet on the same timing, and you withdraw it when you choose.