Learn about the fees associated with accessing UK Biobank data.

Find detailed guidance for researchers on our researcher Community site, a hub for knowledge, collaboration and learning.

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Affordable access to ground-breaking research

UK Biobank is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving public health. We aim to keep access to our database as affordable as possible and only charge our researchers to cover the costs of handling access applications.

Fee structure

First 3 years – access to data with scheduled updates

Tier 1

  • Questionnaire and physical measurements
  • Health outcome phenotypes
  • Linked health data
  • Web-based questionnaires
£3,000

£1,000 per year extension

Tier 2

Everything from Tier 1, plus:

  • Biochemical, haematological assays and proteomic data (currently available under Tier 1 for a limited period)
  • Other platform-based assays
  • Measured and imputed genotypes
  • Other enhancements
£6,000

£2,000 per year extension

Tier 3

Everything from Tier 2, plus:

  • Imaging data (currently available under Tier 2 fees for a limited period)
  • Other large-scale assay data
  • Whole genome sequence data
  • Whole exome sequence data
£9,000

£3,000 per year extension

Additional institution fee – each additional institution added to an application

£1,000 for the first 3 years (£500 per year extension)

Lower income countries and student researchers.

£500 for the first 3 years (£175 per year extension)

Notes on the fee structure

Fees are exclusive of VAT and include access to data exclusively via the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP). In exceptional circumstances, UK Biobank will consider applications to temporarily download certain data fields, which if approved, are subject to the Tier 3 fee. Find out more on our Applying for a data access exemption article on the Community.

Find out more about reduced access fees on our Financial Support page.

Costs for your analysis

In addition to the access fee, researchers using the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP) will incur costs related to their analysis. These include:

  • Compute resources: Charges apply based on the computational power used, which varies depending on the type of virtual machine selected for your analysis.
  • Storage of data: Charges apply for storing any data uploaded by researchers.
    Note: There is no charge for storing UK Biobank data that has been dispensed to a project, thanks to the generous support of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  • Data egress: Charges apply for transferring data out of the UKB-RAP cloud environment.

To help researchers manage these costs, all researchers receive £40 of credit upon joining UKB-RAP from DNAnexus. All new projects will receive a £1000 credit to support their research (until Summer 2026) and further financial assistance is available.

Supporting global research

Two people sit in front of a computer screen smiling

UK Biobank invests hundreds of millions of pounds in developing and managing our data, thanks to generous funding from our supporters. These costs are not passed on to researchers, allowing us to focus on enabling ground-breaking discoveries without financial barriers.

We are also committed to making our resources accessible to researchers globally. Financial support packages are available for eligible applicants, including:

  • students
  • early career researchers
  • researchers from low and middle-income countries

These initiatives reflect our dedication to fostering inclusive and impactful research.

Access financial support