remote ndis pricing 2026–27: why the same plan buys a third fewer therapy sessions

The same budget does not buy the same support everywhere

The NDIS sets three price limits for most supports: National, Remote and Very Remote. It is one of the least discussed parts of the schedule, and one of the most consequential if you live outside a major centre.

We checked all 596 hourly supports in the 2026–27 schedule. The pattern is completely uniform, with no exceptions:

• Remote price limits are 140% of the national limit — a 40% loading.
• Very Remote price limits are 150% of the national limit — a 50% loading.

This is not a therapy quirk. It applies to support work as well: an hour of standard weekday self-care assistance is $73.58 nationally, $103.01 remote and $110.37 very remote.

What a $15,000 plan funds, by location

The loading is a percentage, so the effect compounds against a fixed budget. Here is what the same $15,000 therapy budget funds at each price limit, based on one-hour sessions:

The arithmetic is consistent across every discipline: at the very remote limit, a fixed budget funds about a third fewer hours than the same budget at the national limit. For speech pathology, that is the difference between 77 sessions and 51 — 26 sessions, or most of a school year of weekly therapy.

Why the loading exists

It is worth being clear about what these loadings are for. Delivering supports over distance genuinely costs more — travel time, thinner workforce, higher cost of doing business. The loading is there to make it viable for providers to work in remote and very remote communities at all. Without it, the practical problem would not be price, it would be finding anyone to deliver the service.

So a higher price limit is not, in itself, a participant being short-changed. What matters is whether the plan budget reflects the price limits that apply where you live. That is a question for your plan, not the schedule — and it is worth raising directly at a planning meeting or reassessment.

Two things worth knowing

Telehealth does not lower the limit. We checked: the telehealth price limit carries the same loading as an in-person session — $271.59 remote for speech pathology, the same as direct service. What telehealth can avoid is a separate provider travel claim on top, since travel is claimable against its own item number at up to half the hourly rate.

The loading follows the support location. Which limit applies depends on where the support is delivered, not where the provider is based. If you are unsure which applies to you, the NDIS remoteness classifications are the place to check.

Check the limits that apply to you

• Search every NDIS support item — every item number with its 2026–27 National, Remote and Very Remote price limits.
• NDIS Budget Calculator — estimate how many sessions a plan funds.
• The State of NDIS Pricing in 2026–27 — our analysis of every price change, with the dataset in JSON and CSV.

Figures are price limits from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026–27, effective 1 July 2026. Session counts assume one-hour sessions at the price limit and a $15,000 budget, and are rounded down. For the rules on remoteness classifications and how limits apply, see the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. This is general information, not financial advice.