How much does an MC cost in New Zealand?

I know how frustrating this question can be. You ring an agency, you ask a simple thing, how much is an MC, and you get back, well, it depends. How long is a piece of string. What's your budget?

How much does an MC cost in New Zealand?

The short answer. MC fees in New Zealand start from around fifteen hundred dollars and run to about ten thousand, in New Zealand dollars and excluding GST. Capable MCs for smaller events start from fifteen hundred. MCs the room will recognise start from around three and a half thousand. Well known Kiwis in high demand run from five and a half thousand up to ten. How long you need them for, and who they are, are the two things that move the number.

Now here's the detail behind that.

I know how frustrating this question can be. You ring an agency, you ask a simple thing, how much is an MC, and you get back, well, it depends. How long is a piece of string. What's your budget?

I understand why that happens and I'll come back to it. But it's not much use to you when you've got a line to fill in and a committee meeting on Thursday.

So let me put some actual numbers on it.

All figures are in New Zealand dollars and exclude GST, travel and accommodation.

From fifteen hundred dollars

You can get a great MC who will do a really fantastic job for fifteen hundred dollars, especially if it's a smaller event.

Will they have a huge profile? Possibly, possibly not. Will they do a great job? Absolutely.

What I'd say honestly is that your more high profile people aren't going to do something for fifteen hundred, because they've got other people who'll pay them more. That's just how it works.

But if the job is to hold your day together and keep it moving, and that is a genuine skill, this band does it very well. Quite frankly I think people skip past it too quickly.

From three and a half to five and a half thousand

Here you're into MCs the room will recognise.

Two things move you around inside this band. The first is how long you need them for. Are they there all day, or for a couple of hours? That's a big difference and it should be priced like one.

The second is simply who the person is. One person will want more than another for the same day and there's no formula for it.

That second one is where an agency actually earns its keep, by the way. Knowing who sits where, and who's going to be worth it for your particular room.

From five and a half to ten thousand

Really well known Kiwis in serious demand.

This is also the band where you'll often find an MC who can do some comedy as well, and that combination is worth a lot on a long day. Someone who can hold the structure together and then lift a flat room after lunch is doing two jobs, and you should think of it that way when you look at the fee.

What isn't in those numbers

GST sits on top. That's the one that quietly blows a budget when the invoice turns up.

Travel and accommodation are separate. An Auckland based MC doing an Auckland event is a very different proposition to that same person doing an event in Invercargill, because the second one eats two days of their week rather than a few hours.

And if you want them across a dinner as well as the day, that's more of their week again.

One more thing worth saying. Fees are set by the speakers and MCs themselves, not by us. Some sit outside these ranges entirely, in both directions.

Is an MC cheaper than a keynote speaker?

Usually, though not always, and it's the wrong comparison anyway.

They're doing different jobs. A keynote speaker delivers an idea for forty five minutes and goes. An MC runs your entire day, introduces everyone, keeps you to time, fills the gap when the video won't play and reads the room from start to finish.

If anything I'd say the MC is the one people underbudget for. A weak MC costs you more than a weak keynote, because they're on stage all day and every transition belongs to them.

On ringing around for quotes

I was brought up to get three quotes for anything and that's sensible advice for most things you'll ever buy.

With MCs and speakers you'll find it doesn't get you as far as you'd expect. If you ring around and get wildly different numbers for the same person, something has gone wrong in the communication somewhere rather than someone having found you a bargain.

So by all means ring around. Just know you're probably not choosing on price.

What you're really choosing on is who takes the time to understand your event, who tells you honestly when a name won't work for your room, and who's still answering the phone at seven in the morning when your MC is stuck in Wellington.

Want a real number for your event?

Tell us the date, the city, roughly how many people and how long you need someone for. We'll come back with names and actual fees.

No charge for that and no obligation.

Last updated July 2026. We review these figures annually.