Ask five people in Ireland what a GP visit costs and you will get five different answers, all of them honest. That is not because anyone is confused. It is because there is no set fee.
This article explains what is and is not fixed, what makes one practice dearer than another, which related charges are set by law, and how to reduce what you actually end up paying.
Charges and rules below are as of August 2026. Statutory charges are set by the Minister for Health and change from time to time; the official sources are linked throughout.
Most Irish GPs are private practitioners operating within a mixed system. They hold a public contract for card holders and charge everyone else privately. As Citizens Information puts it, GPs are usually part of the private healthcare system and there are no set fees or charges for GP services.
That means:
Be sceptical of any article — including this one — that gives you a confident national average. There is no published national dataset of private GP fees in Ireland to average. Practices that publish a price list do so voluntarily and inconsistently. The reliable way to find out is to ring the practice and ask before you book, which is a perfectly ordinary question and one receptionists answer many times a day.
Before working out what you would pay, check whether you should be paying at all.
The under-8s and over-70s entitlements are automatic on age, but they are not issued automatically — somebody has to apply. If you fall into one of those groups and are paying privately, you are paying for something you are entitled to have free. We set out exactly what each card covers, and the important differences between them, in our guide to the medical card vs the GP visit card.
Note that the free visit applies to the GP you are registered with under the public contract. A private consultation with a different doctor or service is a private consultation and is charged as one.
Since nothing is fixed, the price you are quoted reflects the practice's own cost base and the nature of the appointment. The main drivers:
Premises costs are the largest single variable in general practice overheads, and they differ enormously between a city-centre building and a rural one. Practices in expensive urban areas generally sit at the higher end.
A visit during ordinary surgery hours and a visit at 10pm on a Sunday are not the same product. Out-of-hours care is delivered by a different organisation on a different cost base — see our guide to out-of-hours and weekend GP options — and it is charged separately from your day practice.
A standard consultation, a long consultation, a minor procedure, a dressing, a vaccination, a driving-licence medical and a pre-employment medical are usually priced differently. Anything with a consumable or a lab cost attached to it tends to carry its own fee.
Several things commonly appear as separate charges rather than being included:
Ask what is included when you ring. "How much is a visit?" and "what will today cost me in total?" are different questions.
Some practices charge a different rate for someone who is not a registered patient of the practice, and some will not see non-patients at all. If you have no GP, that matters — see how to get a GP in Ireland.
The confusion about GP fees is worsened by the fact that the charges around them are set nationally and are precise. It is worth knowing which is which.
If you attend a public hospital emergency department without a GP referral, there is a statutory charge of €100. Per Citizens Information's hospital charges page, you do not pay it if:
You are also not charged again for follow-up outpatient visits relating to the same illness or injury.
Local injury units treat things like broken bones, sprains, dislocations, wounds and minor burns, without an appointment. The charge is €75, and again it does not apply if you hold a medical card or arrive with a GP referral letter.
This produces a genuinely counter-intuitive piece of arithmetic: for a suspected fracture, seeing a GP first and arriving at the injury unit with a letter can cost you less overall than walking in, as well as getting you to the right place. It is not always practical, but it is worth knowing.
If you hold a medical card, you pay a small per-item prescription charge with a monthly cap; if you do not, the Drugs Payment Scheme caps approved monthly prescription spending for a household. The current levy and cap amounts, and how the schemes work, are set out in how prescriptions work in Ireland.
This is the most consistently underclaimed money in Irish healthcare.
GP fees you pay yourself, and that are not reimbursed by a card, a scheme or an insurer, are qualifying health expenses. Revenue grants relief on them at the standard rate of 20%.
The practical points:
Twenty per cent of a family's annual GP and prescription spend is rarely trivial, and the claim takes minutes once your receipts are together.
Our own prices are published rather than quoted on request: consultations are from €35 during normal hours (Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00, Irish time) and from €50 outside those hours, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays. The full breakdown is on our pricing page.
What that buys is a real diagnostic consultation by video or phone with an Irish-registered GP — an assessment, a clinical decision, and where the doctor judges it appropriate, a prescription sent securely to your pharmacy, a medical certificate, or a referral letter.
What it does not replace is a physical examination. If your problem needs someone to listen to your chest, palpate your abdomen, look in an ear or take bloods, an online consultation cannot do it, and a responsible service will tell you so rather than take your money. The honest framing is that online consultation and in-person general practice are complementary, not interchangeable, and the fee buys the assessment either way.
No. There is no regulated or recommended national fee. Each practice sets its own, and it can differ by appointment type within the same practice.
Different premises costs, different staffing, different appointment lengths and different inclusions. A dearer practice is not necessarily charging more for the same thing — check what the fee covers before comparing.
Practices set their own policy. Many charge a reduced fee for a prescription-only interaction and some do not offer one at all without a consultation, because issuing a prescription is a clinical decision that requires the doctor to be satisfied it is safe.
Yes, if the practice has a stated policy and told you about it. This is a matter of the practice's own terms.
Some policies include a GP-visit benefit, often capped at a set amount per visit and a set number of visits per year, and often with an excess. It is a benefit on the policy rather than a general entitlement — check your own plan's table of benefits.
It can be, if the service was outside what the public contract covers — certain certificates, medicals and forms are commonly charged to card holders because they sit outside the GMS scheme. Ask the practice which service you were charged for and why.
No. Card entitlements apply to the GP you are registered with under the HSE contract. A consultation with a separate private service is a private charge, though it is a qualifying health expense for the 20% Revenue relief like any other.
You can see an Irish-registered GP online without ringing to ask what it costs — our prices are published, and you book a consultation at the price shown. Certificates and prescriptions are issued where clinically appropriate following the consultation, and every consultation is with a doctor registered with the Irish Medical Council. You can see who they are on our doctors page.
This article is general information about healthcare charges in Ireland. It is not financial, tax or medical advice. For your own entitlements, contact the HSE, Revenue or a Citizens Information centre.
This article was reviewed by Dr. Shahnawaz, a General Practitioner registered with the Irish Medical Council. The information provided is for educational purposes and does not replace personalised medical advice.
Editorial
The GetYourGP Editorial Team prepares informational health content for GetYourGP.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Shahnawaz on 3 August 2026
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Our consultation prices are published up front — from €35 during normal hours and from €50 evenings, weekends and bank holidays, with an Irish-registered GP.