WriteMyPapers.net What Essay Writing Services Cost — and the Real Price for Students
In short
- Reported prices range from a few pounds per 250 words to thousands for a dissertation.
- The sticker price is the smallest cost: integrity penalties can include expulsion or a revoked degree.
- Researchers have documented blackmail of former customers by contract-cheating providers.
- This site does not sell essays and has no prices; our guides are free.
This page used to show a price list for writing services. This site no longer sells anything: it publishes free guides that help students write their own work. But the question behind a search for essay prices is a fair one, so here is what is actually known about what these services charge, and why the real price for students is much higher.
What essay mills charge, according to the evidence
There is no official price list, and prices vary with the level, the length and above all the deadline. Three published sources give a sense of the range:
| Source | What it reported |
|---|---|
| UK Department for Education press release, 21 February 2017, citing the Quality Assurance Agency | Prices “from a couple of hundred pounds for a single essay to as high as £6,750 for a PhD dissertation”; over 100 essay mill websites in operation. |
| Kjellgren, Hamilton-Smith and Fraser, report for the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, June 2022 | Suppliers on online marketplaces offering to write assignments for “around £5 per 250 words”. |
| Wong, Whiting, Slade and Rowland (University of Queensland), 2016 analysis of contract cheating websites | Assignments “readily available at affordable prices”, with a strong relationship between price and delivery time. |
In short: cheap offers exist, urgent and advanced work costs far more, and the price says little about quality.
The costs that are not on the price list
1. Academic penalties
Submitting purchased work breaches the academic-integrity rules of practically every university. Outcomes depend on the institution and the case, but they include a zero mark, a failed module, suspension, expulsion, and in some cases the withdrawal of a degree already awarded. A failed module alone can mean paying to retake it, or an extra term or year of fees and living costs.
2. Blackmail
Researchers at Curtin University (Jon Yorke, Lesley Sefcik and Terisha Veeran-Colton) have documented contract-cheating providers demanding more money from students under threat of reporting them to their university. Around nine in ten students they surveyed did not know this happened. The provider keeps your details, your order and your university email: leverage that does not expire when you graduate.
3. Legal exposure of the seller, and of your data
In England, providing such a service commercially is an offence under the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022; Australia created criminal offences for providers and advertisers in 2020. Businesses operating outside the law have little reason to protect your payment details or personal data.
4. Lost learning
Every assessment practises something you will need again: building an argument, using evidence, writing clearly under time pressure. Skipping it moves the problem to the exam room or the dissertation, where no one can do it for you.
Why “plagiarism-free” and “guaranteed grade” promises mislead
Essay sites often advertise that their work is “100% original” and will pass plagiarism checks. That promise misses the point. Text-matching software looks for copied text; a commissioned essay is not copied, but it is still not your work, and universities do not rely on text matching alone. Markers compare a submission with your earlier writing, notice references that do not support the claims, and increasingly ask students to talk through their argument. If you cannot explain how you reached a conclusion, the originality report is irrelevant.
“Guaranteed grades” are just as hollow. The provider does not know your marker, your module or the feedback you received last term, and any refund policy is only as reliable as a business that, in several countries, now operates outside the law.
How common is it?
A 2018 systematic review by Philip Newton in Frontiers in Education, pooling studies of 54,514 participants, found that in samples collected from 2014 onwards 15.7% of students admitted to having paid someone else to do their work. The review notes that self-reported figures probably underestimate the real rate. Universities know this, which is why detection methods, oral checks and assessment design keep changing.
What free help costs: nothing
The legitimate alternatives are free or already included in your fees:
- university writing centres and academic skills teams;
- tutors' office hours and feedback on plans or drafts, where your course allows it;
- subject librarians for finding sources;
- free guides such as ours on planning an essay and on paraphrasing without plagiarising.
If money is the pressure behind the deadline, for instance long working hours alongside study, talk to your university's student support or hardship team: support funds and adjusted deadlines are often available. Our guide to budgeting your first year at university may also help.
Sources
- Department for Education, “Jo Johnson demands tough penalties on student plagiarism”, 21 February 2017.
- Kjellgren, R., Hamilton-Smith, N. and Fraser, A. (2022), “Criminal Grades? Contract cheating and student exploitation in Higher Education”, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.
- Wong, K. S., Whiting, B., Slade, C. and Rowland, S. (2016), “Contract cheating websites: An analysis of prices, services, and persuasive techniques”, Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education.
- Newton, P. M. (2018), Frontiers in Education, 3:67.
- Yorke, J., Sefcik, L. and Veeran-Colton, T. (Curtin University), contract cheating and blackmail, summarised by TEQSA.
- Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, section 27; TEQSA Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Act 2020.