How Much Does Therapy Cost in Kolkata in 2026?

Advertised private sessions in India commonly run from around ₹800 with a newly qualified psychologist to ₹3,000 or more with an experienced specialist, and online sessions usually cost less than seeing someone in person. Those advertised ranges come from blogs and market guides, not official authoritative sources. Use with caution. Therapists set their own fees, and Kolkata practices rarely publish them.

We do not print a Kolkata price list, because too few Kolkata practices publish a fee to build one honestly. What follows is what is published: the government psychiatric hospital that serves the city, the national institutions' own registration fees, a free helpline, and the questions that change what you pay.

What one Kolkata practice publishes

One Kolkata practice publishes its full consultation schedule, which is rare enough in India to be worth reporting: counselling at ₹500 a session, counselling with CBT at ₹600 to ₹700, and specialised child, adult and couples work at ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 a session. That is one practice's own published page, not a market rate, and it sits well below what Kolkata psychologists and psychiatrists are advertised at elsewhere. Two practitioners in the same city may charge very differently, so ask any practice directly for theirs.

The public route, and what it costs to walk in

India's flagship public institutions publish their own patient instructions, and the figures are startling next to private fees. At NIMHANS in Bengaluru, the national mental health institute, a first visit means a screening slip costing ₹100. At AIIMS Delhi, "OPD Card costing Rs. 10/- can be purchased from main counter, OPD ground floor". Your local government hospital sets its own registration fee, and it is typically of that nominal order rather than a private fee.

In Kolkata itself the public specialist service is the Institute of Psychiatry, a Centre of Excellence in Mental Health attached to SSKM Hospital and IPGMER, founded in 1817 and the third-oldest surviving mental hospital in India. Its outpatient department runs Monday to Friday from 9am to 2pm and Saturday mornings, with a 24-hour emergency service, and it holds named weekly clinics for de-addiction, older adults, children and OCD. Outdoor tickets can be booked through the West Bengal health department's online system instead of queued for. Government hospital psychiatric outpatient departments across the city work on the same nominal-registration model. Bring any existing medical records and a valid ID, and arrive early.

The real cost of the public route is time and persistence: early arrival, queues, and a system that sees very large numbers of people. For complex or severe difficulties, the concentration of specialist expertise in the public teaching hospitals is genuinely hard to match privately.

Tele-MANAS, free on 14416

The National Tele Mental Health Programme runs a toll-free helpline on 14416, available 24 hours a day in 20 Indian languages, free. In the Ministry of Health's own words, "individuals can access telephone-based counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatric consultations, and referral services, including urgent care, without the barriers of distance or cost". If you are unsure where to start, cannot afford private fees, or need someone now, this is the right first call.

Who is qualified, and why it changes the price

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can diagnose and prescribe medication. A clinical psychologist provides assessment and talking therapy and cannot prescribe. A counsellor works with day-to-day difficulties and generally charges less. Which you need depends on what you are bringing, and a first consultation is often the fastest way to find out. Ask about the practitioner's registration when you book.

Questions worth asking before you book

• What is the fee, and how long is the session?
• Is the first consultation charged differently from later ones?
• Do you offer shorter follow-up sessions at a lower fee?
• Is an online session cheaper?
• Are you a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist or a counsellor, and what is your registration?
• Do you keep any reduced-fee places?
• Roughly how many sessions do you expect this to take?

Sources

• Institute of Psychiatry (Centre of Excellence), Kolkata, Outdoor Services and Special Clinics: the OPD hours, the emergency service and the named weekly clinics, from the institute's own pages.
• NIMHANS, Psychiatry OPD: the ₹100 screening slip and the walk-in process, from the institute's own patient instructions.
• AIIMS Delhi, OPD patient information: the ₹10 OPD card, from the institute's own instructions.
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Tele MANAS: Revolutionizing Mental Health Care in India: the 14416 helpline, free, 24/7, 20 languages.

Reviewed August 2026. The public-sector figures are from the institutions' own published patient instructions. The private schedule is one practice's own published page. Advertised ranges are drawn from blogs and market guides rather than published schedules, because Indian providers do not generally publish them, and are labelled accordingly. We do not publish city price lists we cannot trace to sources that charge them.