Electricians in Australia commonly charge around $80 to $150 per hour, or a call-out fee of roughly $80 to $150 plus an hourly or fixed rate for the job itself. Where you land in those bands depends on the work, your region, and whether you are calling someone out after hours, when the rate climbs.
Those are useful starting figures (last checked June 2026), but they are not a quote. A small job and a switchboard upgrade are priced in completely different ways, and the only number that means anything is the one a sparkie gives you after seeing the work. Below is how the pricing breaks down, what the common jobs cost, and why this is never a job to tackle yourself.
How electricians price the work
There are two numbers to understand before any quote makes sense: the hourly rate and the call-out fee.
The hourly rate, commonly around $80 to $150, is what you pay for the electrician’s time on site. It reflects the licensing, the insurance, and the fact that getting mains power wrong is a serious matter. A bigger firm with a fleet of vans often sits higher, a sole trader sometimes lower.
The call-out fee, roughly $80 to $150, covers the trip and the first chunk of attendance. Some fold a set amount of labour into it, others charge it on top of the hourly rate, and a few waive it if the job goes ahead. For anything bigger than a quick fix, most will quote a fixed price after a look, which is usually the better deal for you because the risk of the job running long then sits with them.
So a five-minute fix can still cost the better part of a hundred dollars once the call-out is counted. You are paying for someone to turn up, not just for the minutes they hold a screwdriver, and it is the same logic that runs through what a plumber costs in Australia.
What common jobs cost
Most household electrical work falls into a handful of familiar jobs, each in its own range. The table below sketches indicative figures. Treat them as a starting point, not a price (last checked June 2026), because the size of the job, the age and access of the wiring, and after-hours timing all move the number around.
| Job | Indicative range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Install a power point or light fitting | ~$100 to $300 | Number of points, cable runs, wall access |
| Replace a switchboard or add a safety switch | ~$1,000 to $3,000 | Board condition, circuits, compliance upgrades |
| Full house rewire | ~$8,000 to $15,000+ | Home size, access, storeys, fit-out |
| Emergency or after-hours call-out | Higher than standard | Time of day, weekend, urgency |
A single power point near an existing circuit sits at the bottom of that first band, while several points, a long cable run through a finished wall, or a fitting in an awkward spot push it up. A switchboard job swings widely depending on whether you are adding a safety switch or replacing an old fuse board and bringing it up to current standards, which often uncovers other work once the cover comes off.
A full house rewire is the big one, commonly around $8,000 to $15,000 or more, and the spread is enormous because so much depends on the home. A compact single-storey place with accessible roof and subfloor space is far cheaper to rewire than a double-storey home with plaster walls, no access, and wiring from decades ago. Rewires are disruptive too, so they are often timed to a renovation, worth factoring into your wider home renovation costs before you commit.
After-hours and emergency work costs more
If the power goes out at two in the morning or a circuit trips on a public holiday, you will pay more than the standard rates above, sometimes considerably more. After-hours, weekend, and emergency call-outs carry a premium because the electrician is dropping everything to attend at an awkward time.
That premium is fair, but avoidable for anything that is not a genuine emergency. A flickering light or a power point you would like added is a normal-hours job. A burning smell, sparks, or a board that keeps tripping is not something to sit on, and the after-hours cost is the right call.
Why it must be a licensed electrician
Here is the part that is not negotiable. All electrical work in Australia must be carried out by a licensed electrician. Wiring up mains power yourself is both illegal and genuinely dangerous, and that is not regulatory fussiness, it is because the failure mode is electrocution or fire. There is no DIY tier here the way there is with painting or basic landscaping.
This is also why the hourly rate sits where it does. You are paying for a licence, the training behind it, the insurance that backs it, and the legal responsibility the electrician carries for the work being safe. A cut-price quote from someone who cannot show a licence is not a bargain, it is a liability you do not want attached to your home.
If someone offers to wire your house and cannot produce a licence, the price stopped mattering the moment they said it.
When you are picking who to use, the licence is the first thing to check, not the last. It is straightforward to find a licensed electrician and line up a couple of itemised quotes rather than guessing from a single figure or hiring on price alone.
The Certificate of Electrical Safety
Once the work is done, a licensed electrician should provide a Certificate of Electrical Safety, or the equivalent document in your state or territory. This is not paperwork to file and forget. It is the formal record that the work was carried out by a licensed person and meets the required standards.
That certificate matters for more than peace of mind. It can be relevant when you sell the home, when you make an insurance claim, and as proof the work was done properly if it is ever questioned. If an electrician is reluctant to provide one for work that calls for it, treat that as the warning sign it is. Asking up front also loops back to the principle in our guide on how to find a good tradie: the documentation tells you most of what you need to know.
The bottom line
As a rough guide for 2026, electricians in Australia commonly charge around $80 to $150 per hour, with a call-out fee of roughly $80 to $150 on top of an hourly or fixed rate. Installing a power point or light fitting tends to run around $100 to $300, replacing a switchboard or adding a safety switch around $1,000 to $3,000, and a full house rewire around $8,000 to $15,000 or more depending on the home. Emergency and after-hours work costs more, so save it for the jobs that genuinely cannot wait. For a quick fix the hourly rate plus call-out is all you need to budget around, but for anything bigger get it scoped and quoted in writing first, and compare itemised quotes from two or three licensed electricians rather than a single vague one-liner.
Whatever the job, it has to be done by a licensed electrician, and you should get a Certificate of Electrical Safety for work that calls for one. Prices vary by job, region, and after-hours timing, so treat every figure here as a guide, and remember the only number that counts is the one a licensed electrician writes down after seeing the work.