NDIS Provider Registration: How to Become a Registered NDIS Provider

Starting an NDIS business: what to do today

NDIS registration changed a lot in 2026. If you're starting an NDIS business now:

• Decide whether you need to register. You must for NDIA-managed participants and the supports listed below. Otherwise you can start unregistered, with self-managed and plan-managed participants.
• Apply in the new portal. Since 12 October 2026, new applications start in the new NDIS Commission Portal. You need an ABN and a myID.
• Register before you deliver SIL or run an NDIS digital platform. Both have needed registration since 1 July 2026, and the window for existing providers to apply and keep operating closed on 1 October 2026.
• Support coordination doesn't need registration yet. Mandatory registration for it is paused.
• Follow the NDIS Code of Conduct either way. The Commission can investigate and ban unregistered providers too.

Do you need to be a registered NDIS provider?

You must be registered with the NDIS Commission to:

• Work with participants whose funding is NDIA-managed (also called agency-managed)
• Provide specialist disability accommodation (SDA)
• Provide specialist behaviour support
• Provide plan management
• Provide supported independent living (SIL), since 1 July 2026
• Run an NDIS digital platform, since 1 July 2026
• Use regulated restrictive practices
• Deliver NDIS supports as a residential aged care provider

For every other support, registering is your choice. Unregistered providers can work with participants who self-manage or plan-manage their funding, but not with NDIA-managed participants.

What counts as SIL or a digital platform? SIL is a package of support for someone who needs help or supervision all or most of the day, managed and delivered by the provider. A few hours of support a day or week isn't SIL, and neither is a participant choosing and managing their own workers. An NDIS digital platform is a website or app whose main purpose is connecting participants with people who provide their NDIS supports, with the payments going through the platform. More on SIL, SDA and plan management.

You can also work under another provider's registration, as a subcontractor or through a brokerage arrangement. The registered provider then claims the payment, is responsible for the supports you deliver and must make sure you follow the Code of Conduct. Participants must be told who is responsible for their supports.

Registered vs unregistered NDIS providers

NDIA-managed participants can only use registered providers. Maximum prices don't apply to self-managed participants.

How to register as an NDIS provider

You apply on the NDIS Commission's Apply for registration page, which links to the new portal. The application has two parts, then an audit and a decision.

1. 1

   Check you can apply

   You need an ABN, and you must be able to show, with evidence, that you can deliver each class of support you apply for. Read the NDIS Practice Standards and check your policies and procedures against them before you start.

2. 2

   Get your key personnel screened

   Your key personnel (such as the CEO, managers and board members) and workers in risk-assessed roles need an NDIS Worker Screening clearance. Make sure each of your key personnel has at least applied before you start: you add their Worker Screening ID in Part 1, and the application won't move forward without it.

3. 3

   Set up myID

   You sign in with myID, the government's Digital ID app. If you're acting for a business, you also link it in Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM).

4. 4

   Complete Part 1 in the new NDIS Commission Portal

   Enter your ABN and the portal fills in your business details. Choose the supports you'll provide and add your key personnel, who each log in to answer some questions. You're told the outcome of this initial assessment.

5. 5

   Complete Part 2: your self-assessment

   Assess your business against the NDIS Practice Standards, with evidence. Submitting it gives you your scope of audit, which says whether you need a verification or certification audit. Finish the whole application within 60 days of starting it, or it's deleted.

6. 6

   Choose an approved quality auditor

   Use your scope of audit to get quotes outside the portal (the Commission recommends more than one), then select your auditor in the portal. Auditors are independent businesses on the Commission's approved list, not part of the Commission.

7. 7

   Have your audit

   The auditor checks how you meet the Practice Standards, may ask you to fix issues, then sends the Commission a recommendation.

8. 8

   Get the Commission's decision

   The Commission considers the auditor's recommendation and checks that your business and key personnel are suitable. If it plans to refuse, you can respond first. If you're approved, you get a certificate of registration listing your classes of support, your registration period and any conditions, and your details go on the NDIS Provider Register.

• Refused? You can ask the Commission to review the decision within three months, and then go to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
• Questions? Email registration@ndiscommission.gov.au or call the NDIS Commission on 1800 035 544.
• Using a consultant? You can, but the application is your responsibility. The Commission expects you to be closely involved, to understand what you submit and to use policies that describe how your business really works. Copied answers can get an application refused, and giving false or misleading information is an offence.

Verification vs certification: which NDIS audit do you need?

The classes of support you apply for decide your audit. If even one of them needs a certification audit, your whole application has a certification audit. The scope of audit you get after Part 2 confirms which.

• Auditors rate each standard from 3 (best practice) to 0 (major non-conformity). A major non-conformity holds up your registration until it's fixed. A minor one gives you longer, and your application keeps moving.
• No participants yet? Newly registered providers may have to finish the participant parts of the audit within a set time after they start delivering supports, and the Commission can require a later audit if not all certification classes of support were seen.
• Being "certified" isn't a separate status. Certification is a type of audit, and either audit leads to the same certificate of registration.

Choose from the Commission's list of approved quality auditors. All of them work Australia-wide.

NDIS registration groups (classes of support)

Registration groups are also called classes of support. There are 38, and each sets the audit you need: 15 need a certification audit and 23 a verification audit. Two were added from 1 July 2026: 0137 for NDIS digital platforms and 0138 for SIL.

From the NDIS Commission's registration groups or classes of support list. To add a class of support later, you apply to vary your registration and may need an extra audit.

How much does NDIS registration cost?

Registering with the NDIS Commission is free. Your main cost is the audit: you choose and pay an approved quality auditor, and the Commission doesn't set audit prices. The price depends on the size and scale of your business and the number of participants you support, so get quotes from more than one auditor and compare them.

Also budget for:

• NDIS Worker Screening Checks. Workers pay a fee when they apply to their state or territory's worker screening unit. See our NDIS Worker Screening Check guide.
• Insurance. The Practice Standards expect appropriate cover, including professional indemnity, public liability and accident insurance.
• Later audits. After a certification audit you have a mid-term audit 18 months into your registration, and every provider needs a new audit to re-register.

How long does NDIS registration take?

There's no set time. The Commission says it depends on the size and scale of your business, and on how many supports you apply for and how complex they are. These timeframes are fixed:

• You must finish your application within 60 days of starting it, or it's deleted.
• For certification, the Stage 2 onsite audit should happen within 3 months of Stage 1.
• The auditor's report is due to the Commission within 14 days of a verification audit, or 28 days of a certification audit.
• A major non-conformity must be fixed within 3 months.
• In January to March 2026, the Commission's median time from receiving the auditor's recommendation to deciding a new application was 36 days.

Start worker screening early, because your application can't move forward without it. Registration usually lasts three years. You can apply to re-register in the 6 months before it ends, and if you apply before it expires, your registration stays valid until the Commission decides.

The NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct

The NDIS Practice Standards are the quality and safety standards registered providers are audited against. They come in modules:

• Core module, for higher-risk supports: rights and responsibilities, governance and operational management, how supports are provided, and the environment they're provided in.
• Supplementary modules, depending on your supports: high intensity daily personal activities, specialist behaviour support, implementing behaviour support plans, early childhood supports, specialised support coordination, specialist disability accommodation, and SIL (new from 1 July 2026).
• Verification module, for lower-risk supports: human resources, risk, complaints and incident management.

The Commission is also reviewing the Practice Standards as a whole. The NDIS Code of Conduct applies to every provider, registered or unregistered, and to their key personnel and workers. It requires you to:

• Respect people's rights to freedom of expression, self-determination and making their own decisions
• Respect people's privacy
• Provide supports safely and competently, with care and skill
• Act with integrity, honesty and transparency
• Promptly raise and act on concerns about the quality and safety of supports
• Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to violence, exploitation, neglect and abuse
• Take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct
• Not charge, or show, higher prices for goods for NDIS participants without a reasonable justification

NDIS worker screening and the worker orientation module

The NDIS Worker Screening Check is done by the worker screening unit in your state or territory and lasts up to 5 years. It's a national check, so you don't reapply if you move states.

• Registered providers must make sure key personnel and workers in risk-assessed roles have a clearance. A risk-assessed role delivers supports with more than incidental contact with people with disability, such as physically touching them or building a rapport.
• Unregistered providers aren't legally required to use screened workers, but the Commission recommends it, and self-managed and plan-managed participants can decide their workers must have a clearance.
• Sole traders are both the worker and the employer. First you get access to the NDIS Worker Screening Database through the Commission's Applications Portal, which gives you an Employer ID. Then you apply to your state or territory's unit and verify your own application within 28 days.

Full steps and fees are in our NDIS Worker Screening Check guide (in Western Australia, see the WA guide).

The free online Worker Orientation Module, "Quality, safety and you", explains workers' obligations under the Code of Conduct. It's mandatory for staff of registered providers and useful for every NDIS worker, and you get a certificate when you finish. The Commission's other free modules cover new worker induction, supporting effective communication and supporting safe and enjoyable meals.

Do you need an ABN and an NDIS provider number?

You need an ABN to register, and plan managers need a valid ABN on your invoices unless you're exempt from quoting one.

The NDIA, not the NDIS Commission, issues NDIS provider numbers. Once you're registered, you'll find yours by logging in to the my NDIS provider portal, and you claim payment for NDIA-managed participants through the NDIA's provider portals. See our NDIS provider portal guide.

How you get paid depends on how the participant's plan is managed:

• NDIA-managed: you claim from the NDIA in the provider portal. Registered providers only.
• Plan-managed: you invoice the participant's plan manager.
• Self-managed: you invoice the participant, who pays you from their plan.

Our free NDIS invoice template covers what plan managers look for.

What can NDIS providers charge?

The NDIS sets a maximum price for each support. Since 24 September 2026 the Minister for Disability and the NDIS has set them in a pricing determination, in line with the NDIA's NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27. Until 2025-26 the NDIA's list was the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, often called the price guide.

The maximums apply when a participant's funding is NDIA-managed or plan-managed, whether you're registered or not. For example, the national maximum for standard weekday daytime help with self-care activities is $73.58 an hour. Look up any support in our NDIS price guide, or see the NDIS support worker rates for every time and day.

Two pricing changes are coming. Changes to the SCHADS Award take effect on 1 December 2026, and the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule will be updated later this year to reflect any required changes. The government is also consulting on differentiated pricing, which would set different prices for registered and unregistered providers delivering social, civic and community participation, capacity building daily activities and assisted daily living.

The Code of Conduct also requires fair pricing: don't charge NDIS participants more for goods than other customers without a reasonable justification.

Can a sole trader become an NDIS provider?

Yes. A sole trader can work unregistered with self-managed and plan-managed participants, deliver supports under another provider's registration, or register through the same process as a larger business.

• If you register, you count as both key personnel and a worker in a risk-assessed role, so you need an NDIS Worker Screening clearance.
• If you're registered for 0107 Assistance with daily personal activities and you're the only worker supporting someone who lives alone, extra conditions apply: you must assess the risks to them and monitor the quality of your support and their satisfaction with it.
• If you manage and deliver someone's SIL supports, you're a SIL provider and must be registered. Delivering SIL without registration can bring up to 2 years in prison, a fine of 120 penalty units, or both.

How to check if an NDIS provider is registered

Search the NDIS Provider Register on the NDIS Commission website. Choose the status "Approved" to see current registered providers, with the registration groups they're approved for and any conditions. "Revoked" shows providers who've been banned or had their registration revoked, and banning orders have their own search.

A separate list (Part 3 of the register) shows unregistered SIL providers and NDIS digital platforms that applied by the 1 October 2026 deadline and can keep operating until their application is decided.

Choosing a provider for yourself or someone you care for? Our NDIS provider checklist has 20 questions to ask first.

NDIS registration changes: what's in place and what's coming

Announced without a start date: a new enrolment system that records basic details of most NDIS providers. Not yet decided: the wider risk-based registration model the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce recommended in 2024. The government consulted on a new legal definition of an NDIS provider until 28 February 2026. Check the Commission's mandatory registration page for updates.

How to find your first NDIS clients

Registration doesn't bring clients with it. These help new providers get started:

• Once you're registered, your details are on the NDIS Provider Register, and participants can search for registered providers in the NDIA's Provider Finder.
• Tell local support coordinators and plan managers what you offer, where, and when you can start.
• Have a clear price list within the maximum prices, a written service agreement and invoices plan managers can pay without chasing you.
• With Help Alliance you only see requests that match your services and area. You see the support needed, suburb, distance, funding type, start date, frequency and hours before you choose to accept, and the first three providers to accept get the person's details.

NDIS provider registration questions