The Sovereign Grant was £132.1m in 2025–26 (£137.9m for 2026–27). The full public cost of the monarchy is not published.
The Sovereign Grant is £132.1m. Crown Estate profit to the Treasury is £487m — not the same money. The total public cost of the monarchy is not published as one figure, and "it pays for itself" has never been demonstrated.
The claim
"The monarchy costs taxpayers £X" / "the King hands the Treasury £Y" / "it pays for itself through tourism" — pick one, usually stated as settled fact.
What is true
The Sovereign Grant genuinely is £132.1m for 2025/26, rising to £137.9m in 2026/27, and the Crown Estate genuinely did return £487m of profit to the Treasury in 2025/26 — both real, published, and often the two figures wrongly compared as if they were the same transaction.
Put it in scale
£132.1m
Sovereign Grant (known)
Grant funding is not net expenditure: the accounts report £117.2m net expenditure and £14.9m transferred to reserve. Property maintenance spending was £67.5m. Rises to £137.9m in 2026/27, the final scheduled tranche for the Buckingham Palace reservicing programme.
£487m
Crown Estate return (known, not the King's money)
NOT the King's personal money — the Crown Estate is a statutory public corporation the King neither owns nor controls; comparing this figure directly against the Sovereign Grant as if the King "gives back less than he takes" misdescribes both numbers.
Not published as one figure
Total public cost (unknown)
Security costs are excluded from the Sovereign Grant and not separately published; other identified public costs (Royal Household pensions £5m, Lord-lieutenants £1.5m, the 2023 Coronation £50.3m plus £21.7m policing, the 2022 state funeral £161.7m) sit in different departments' accounts, in different years, and are not summed into one official total anywhere.
Not demonstrated
Tourism "profit" (unproven)
No robust counterfactual exists showing how much tourism would be lost without the monarchy, or that any such revenue is attributable to public spending on it rather than to historic sites, culture or the country generally.
What we know / don’t know
What is the total public cost of the monarchy, including security?
Security costs specifically are excluded from all published royal-finance figures for operational-security reasons, and no other single official publication sums every identified public cost across departments into one total.
The verdict
Both the "it costs £X" and the "it pays for itself" slogans claim more precision than the published data can show.
Every number on this card
| Figure | What it counts | Geography · period | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £132.1m | Sovereign Grant, 2025/26Grant funding is not net expenditure: the accounts report £117.2m net expenditure and £14.9m transferred to reserve. Property maintenance spending was £67.5m. Rises to £137.9m in 2026/27, the final scheduled tranche for the Buckingham Palace reservicing programme. | United Kingdom · 2025/26 | KNOWN | Royal Household, Financial reports 2025-26 (Sovereign Grant Report) |
| £487m | Crown Estate profit paid to the Treasury, 2025/26NOT the King's personal money — the Crown Estate is a statutory public corporation the King neither owns nor controls; comparing this figure directly against the Sovereign Grant as if the King "gives back less than he takes" misdescribes both numbers. | United Kingdom · 2025/26 | KNOWN | The Crown Estate, Annual Report |
| Not published as one figure | Total public cost of the monarchySecurity costs are excluded from the Sovereign Grant and not separately published; other identified public costs (Royal Household pensions £5m, Lord-lieutenants £1.5m, the 2023 Coronation £50.3m plus £21.7m policing, the 2022 state funeral £161.7m) sit in different departments' accounts, in different years, and are not summed into one official total anywhere. | United Kingdom · Various | NOT COLLECTED | Royal Household, Financial reports 2025-26 (Sovereign Grant Report) |
| Not demonstrated | "The monarchy pays for itself through tourism"No robust counterfactual exists showing how much tourism would be lost without the monarchy, or that any such revenue is attributable to public spending on it rather than to historic sites, culture or the country generally. | United Kingdom · N/A | NOT COLLECTED | app/monarchy tourism-claim analysis |
- Do not compare £132.1m (Sovereign Grant) with £487m (Crown Estate profit) as though they were the same transaction; both figures cover 2025/26 — the Grant is set as a percentage of Crown Estate profit, lagged by two years.
- Grant funding, property spending and the following-year settlement were rechecked against the original HM Treasury 2025–26 accounts on 11 October 2026. The next-year settlement is not spending outturn.
Verified against primary sources: 2026-10-11.