Healthcare copywriting in Australia costs roughly $495 to $2,000 per blog post, $2,500 to $7,700 for a compliant website copy package, and $397 to $7,500 for a website compliance audit. Marketing retainers run $1,450 to $4,000 a month. Most providers hide their prices behind a quote call. This guide publishes the real bands, and my own fixed prices, so you can compare properly.
What does healthcare copywriting cost in Australia?
Here are the published bands, gathered from Australian providers' own pages and the industry rate guides they cite. All figures AUD.
| Deliverable | Australian market band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blog post (health, researched) | $495 to $2,000 | The top end includes interviews and full SEO work |
| Website copy, small package (3 to 5 pages) | $1,835 to $2,750 | Often capped at 400 words a page. Check the word count |
| Compliant clinic website package (5 to 10+ pages) | $2,527 to $7,697 | The specialist band for AHPRA-checked website copy |
| Website compliance audit | $397 to $7,500 | Scope varies wildly. See the audit section below |
| Healthcare marketing retainer | $1,450 to $4,000+ a month | Agency pricing. Copy is one line inside it |
| Solo specialist minimum project | $750+ | A common floor for established health writers |
Two things hide inside those bands. Word counts differ, so a cheap page can cost more per word than a dear one. And most quotes exclude the compliance check, which in healthcare is the part that protects you.
Why does almost nobody publish prices?
I reviewed the visible pricing of five established Australian health copywriting providers this month. One published full package prices. The other four ask you to book a call, fill a questionnaire, or request a quote. One published only a minimum. An agency published nothing at all beyond hosting.
There are honest reasons for this. Scope really does vary. But hidden pricing also does two other jobs. It lets a provider price each client differently. And it stops you comparing.
You can still benchmark. Divide any package quote by its page count and its included word count. Ask whether compliance checking is inside the price or extra. Ask what a revision round costs. The bands in the table above are what those answers should roughly land inside.
What makes healthcare copy cost more than generic copy?
A generalist copywriter and a healthcare copywriter are not pricing the same job. The healthcare job carries three extra layers.
The rules layer. Every word a clinic publishes counts as advertising under the National Law. Testimonials about treatment are banned. Outcome promises are banned. Some treatment framings cannot be advertised at all. A writer who does not know this writes you a liability. One advertising breach can cost an individual practitioner up to $60,000.
The evidence layer. Claims in health copy need sources. "Gentle and effective" is a claim. So is "trusted by thousands". Checking what can be said, and citing why, takes time that generic copy never spends.
The patient layer. Health copy is read by worried people. Writing that is clear at a reading age of 12 to 14, without dumbing down the medicine, is a craft skill. It is also what Google and AI search reward.
That is why the specialist band ($2,527 to $7,697 for a site) sits above generic web copy rates. You are paying for the words and the checking.
What does a compliance audit cost?
The audit market splits into three tiers, and they are not the same product.
Free audits from marketing agencies. These exist to qualify you for a $1,450 to $4,000 a month retainer. The audit is the top of their funnel. You get findings sized to make you buy the retainer.
Short paid reviews, $397 to $1,395. Typically 3 to 5 pages, compliance only, with the rewrites quoted separately afterwards. Good for a quick temperature check on a small site.
Full site audits, $1,500 to $7,500. The top end is corporate compliance subscription territory. The mid band, around $1,500, is where a whole clinic site gets checked properly. If you are comparing quotes here, ask three questions. How many pages? Compliance only, or search visibility too? And are the fixes included, or sold back to you afterwards?
My own audit sits in that mid band, and the fixes are included. Most compliance audits check 3 to 5 pages, for compliance only, and quote the rewrites separately. The GhostRank Audit checks up to 20 pages against AHPRA, TGA, Google ranking and AI search visibility, and every flagged line comes with a suggested compliant rewrite in the report.
What are my fixed prices?
I publish my prices, because a clinic owner should not need a discovery call to learn a number. These are fixed, in AUD, and current as of August 2026.
| Service | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| GhostRank Audit | $1,500 | Up to 20 pages, 226 checks, every flag cited to the rule, compliant rewrites suggested, video walkthrough, 90 day roadmap. Full refund if it finds nothing worth fixing |
| Website copy, 5 pages | $2,490 | Written to bring patients, checked against every AHPRA and TGA rule, delivered with the evidence report |
| Website copy, 10 pages | $4,390 | Same, larger site |
| Ongoing SEO | $2,000 a month | 2 blogs and 1 landing page every week, on a six month minimum, because search results do not show inside three |
Founding client rates apply to the website copy packages for the first three clients, traded for a named testimonial and a published case study. The trade is stated openly because that is what it is.
What are the red flags when comparing quotes?
No mention of AHPRA or TGA in the quote. If the compliance check is not named, it is not happening. You carry the risk.
Hourly rates for a defined job. A fixed deliverable should have a fixed price. An hourly quote for a 5 page website makes the risk of overrun yours.
A free audit with a retainer attached. Nothing wrong with retainers. But know that the free audit's findings are shaped to sell one.
Testimonial-heavy proof with no verifiable detail. In a market where health businesses cannot use patient testimonials, some providers still decorate their own sites with unverifiable praise. Ask for something checkable instead: a sample, a process, a named piece of published work.
No stated turnaround. "We're currently booking a few weeks out" is common in this niche. If timing matters, get the delivery date in writing before you pay a deposit.
Related reading:
