How much does a locksmith cost in New Zealand?

Locksmiths in New Zealand charge roughly $70 to $120 an hour, and the callout is the larger part of most jobs. A typical visit — a lockout, a rekey, a lock replaced — comes to about $250, with simple work from $120 and after-hours or multi-lock jobs reaching $500.

Updated September 2026

TYPICAL HOURLY RATE

$70 to $120 an hour

Most locksmith work is short, so the callout dominates and many quote a job price rather than an hourly one. Hardware is separate, and the difference between a basic cylinder and a restricted-key system is large.

A TYPICAL JOB

$250

Most land between $120 and $500

The low end is a straightforward daytime entry or a single rekey. The top is an after-hours attendance, or rekeying a whole house to one key.

Both figures are national and GST inclusive. Neither is a quote: what you pay depends on your job, and the only way to know it is to have someone price that job.

WHAT CHANGES THE PRICE

Why two quotes for the same job differ

The time of day

Lockouts happen at night and at weekends, and that is when the premium applies. The same entry on a weekday afternoon is markedly cheaper.

Whether the lock survives

A locksmith who can pick or bypass charges labour. One who has to drill charges labour plus a replacement lock, and the replacement is often the bigger number.

The hardware you choose

A basic replacement cylinder is inexpensive. A restricted-key system, where keys cannot be copied without authority, costs more per lock and is worth it for a rental or a business.

How many locks match

Rekeying so that one key opens everything is efficient per lock but adds up across a house. Say up front how many doors are involved so the quote is real.

HOW TO PAY LESS

Three things that actually reduce the bill

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Rekey rather than replace. If the hardware is sound, changing the pins is much cheaper than new locks and achieves the same thing after a lost key or a tenancy change.

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Leave a key with someone you trust. Almost every lockout callout is avoidable, and the cheapest locksmith is the one you do not need at 11pm.

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Do all the doors in one visit. The callout is charged once and the per-lock cost falls sharply after the first.

COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT COST

How much does it cost to get let into my house?

A daytime lockout on a standard door is normally a callout plus a short labour charge — toward the lower end of the range. After hours it can be double. If the lock has to be drilled because it cannot be bypassed, add the price of new hardware, which is why it is worth saying on the phone what kind of lock and door you have.

Should I rekey or replace my locks after losing a key?

Rekey, in almost every case. It changes which key works without buying new hardware, takes less time and costs less. Replace only when the lock itself is worn, damaged, or not up to what your insurer requires.

Can a locksmith open a car?

Many can, but not all, and modern vehicles with transponder keys need specific equipment and coding. Say the make, model and year when you call — an auto locksmith and a domestic locksmith are not always the same business.

Will they check I live there?

Yes, and you should expect it. A locksmith who opens a door without confirming you are entitled to be behind it is one you would not want working in your street.

WHERE THESE NUMBERS COME FROM

The hourly rate is the range NovaPay uses across the site for this trade, and the typical job figure is the mid-market New Zealand price its assistant works from when it helps somebody set a budget. Both are the same numbers the product uses when you are inside it, published here rather than kept behind a sign-in.

What they are not: a survey, an average of anyone’s invoices, or what businesses on NovaPay charge. There is no dataset here large enough to claim any of those, so this page does not claim them. It also publishes no per-job price list, because a list like that would be exactly that claim in a more convincing format.

Treat the figures as an order of magnitude for planning. The real number for your job is a quote from somebody who has understood it.

GET A REAL NUMBER

Find out what yours costs

Describe the job once. NovaPay asks local locksmiths on your behalf and brings the quotes back to one place, priced for your job rather than as a rate card. Free for customers, and every quote waits for your OK.

Tell us the job

More about hiring locksmiths on NovaPay

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