How Much Does Therapy Costs in Pune, India? 2025 Guide

What therapy costs in Pune in 2026

Indian mental health providers rarely publish their fees, and Pune is no exception. We are not publishing a Pune price list, because we do not print figures we cannot trace to a source that charges them. What we can give you is what is actually published in India: the flagship public institutions' own registration fees, one practice's full published schedule, a free national helpline, and the questions that change what you pay.

These are guiding estimates. Therapists set their own fees.

Across India, advertised private sessions 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. The published figures below are harder ground.

The one private schedule we can actually cite

One Kolkata practice publishes its full consultation schedule, which is rare enough in India to be worth quoting as a calibration point rather than a market rate: 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 an hour. Two practitioners in the same city may charge very differently, so treat this as proof that modest published fees exist, and 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 Pune, the practical route is the psychiatric outpatient department of your nearest government or district hospital, which works on the same nominal-registration model. Bring any existing medical records and a valid ID, arrive early, and expect the day to take longer than a private appointment would.

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

• 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.
• A Kolkata practice's published consultation fees: the one full practitioner-published schedule we have found in India.

Reviewed July 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.