Dext Review 2026 for UK Practices: Pricing, AI Assist, MTD and 15% Off

Dext is still the receipt and invoice capture tool most UK practices compare everything else against, and in 2026 its practice pricing is finally public: Solo from £2.50 per client a month, Essentials from £12 and Advanced from £13, each on an annual subscription billed monthly. This spotlight covers what you get, what it really costs, where it falls short and when a cheaper tool makes more sense. Prices were checked on Dext's UK pricing pages on 26 October 2026.

TL;DR:

• Dext's UK practice plans are Solo (from £2.50 per client a month, 5-client minimum), Essentials (from £12, 10-client minimum) and Advanced (from £13, 10-client minimum), excluding VAT.
• AI Assist core guidance is included on every practice plan; custom guidance costs £5 per client a month on Essentials and Advanced.
• MTD for Income Tax clients cost £2.50 per client a month on Essentials and Advanced, and Solo is built for sole traders and landlords under MTD.
• Business plans start at £24.17 a month billed annually (£290 a year) for 250 documents a month and 5 users.
• New customers who sign up through our link get 15% off any Dext plan for 12 months, under Dext's published offer terms.
• Dext scores 4.7 out of 5 in our directory; AutoEntry (4.4) is usually cheaper for practices with many quiet clients.

Table of Contents

• What is Dext and who is it for?
• How much does Dext cost a UK practice in 2026?
• What does AI Assist actually do?
• How does Dext handle MTD for Income Tax?
• Where does Dext fall short?
• Dext vs AutoEntry, Datamolino and Briefcase
• How to get 15% off Dext for 12 months
• Our verdict
• Find more capture tools through The AI Ledger
• Frequently asked questions
• Sources

What is Dext and who is it for?

Dext, formerly Receipt Bank, is bookkeeping automation for accounting firms and the businesses they serve. Clients send receipts, invoices and statements by mobile app, email, WhatsApp or desktop upload, Dext can also fetch supplier invoices automatically, and it reads each document to pull out the supplier, the amounts, the line items and the due date. The coded item is then published to the client's ledger, and the original image is kept for at least ten years, according to Dext.

Dext says it is used by over 700,000 businesses and 12,000 accounting and bookkeeping firms worldwide, and it integrates with more than 36 accounting products, including Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and FreeAgent. Since IRIS Software Group announced its acquisition of Dext in December 2024, it has sat alongside IRIS Elements, IRIS's practice management and compliance software.

It suits three kinds of buyer best:

• Practices with a meaningful volume of client paperwork across several ledgers, where review speed and supplier rules save real hours.
• Bookkeepers who want one capture workflow for every client, whatever ledger the client uses.
• Businesses that want dependable capture with approvals and supplier payments in the same place.

Read our full Dext listing for the scoring detail and the features we checked.

How much does Dext cost a UK practice in 2026?

Dext publishes three practice plans on its UK pricing page. All prices below exclude VAT and assume an annual subscription billed monthly, which Dext says is 13% cheaper than paying monthly.

Add-ons on Essentials and Advanced, per Dext's pricing table:

• AI Assist custom guidance: £5 per client a month.
• MTD for Income Tax clients: £2.50 per client a month.
• Data health and insights: £5 per client a month.
• Payments: £10 per client a month.
• Commerce Lite (Shopify, Etsy and other marketplaces): £5 per client a month.

A worked example. A practice running 30 business clients on Essentials pays from £360 a month before VAT. Add custom AI Assist guidance for all 30 and the bill rises by £150 to £510. With 15% off for the first 12 months through an affiliate offer, £510 becomes about £433.50. Dext's own calculator shows 20 clients on Essentials at £240 a month, which matches the £12 rate.

Businesses buying direct pay from £24.17 a month billed annually (£290 a year) for 250 documents a month and 5 users, with annual billing up to 19% cheaper. For businesses, AI Assist is an add-on at £7.50 a month until 31 January 2027, and Payments starts at 25p per payment.

The point most practices miss: the per-client rate is only the start. Model the whole client book with the add-ons you will actually switch on, then compare that total with the alternatives below.

What does AI Assist actually do?

AI Assist is Dext's layer of suggested automations. It watches the corrections your team makes, such as recoding a supplier or splitting a document, and proposes rules so the same item does not need touching next time. Staff approve each suggestion, which is the right design for AI in bookkeeping: the software does the repetitive judgement, and a person keeps the final word.

On practice plans, Dext lists two tiers:

• Core guidance, included on Solo, Essentials and Advanced.
• Custom guidance, an extra £5 per client a month on Essentials and Advanced, for guidance shaped around your own practice rules.

How much it saves depends on how repetitive your clients are. A café with the same fifty suppliers every month will see most items handled by rules. A property developer with one-off invoices will see far less. Use the 14-day trial on your three busiest clients and count how many items still needed a human.

How does Dext handle MTD for Income Tax?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, then from April 2027 for income over £30,000 and from April 2028 for income over £20,000, according to HMRC. Those clients need software that keeps digital records and sends quarterly updates.

Dext's Solo plan is built for exactly that group: sole traders and landlords who are not VAT registered. Its pricing table lists an MTD dashboard, quarterly updates to HMRC, multi-income support on a single licence, cash and accruals basis, standard and calendar quarters, jointly let properties and CIS extraction. On Essentials and Advanced, MTD for Income Tax clients cost £2.50 per client a month on top of the plan.

For a practice already using Dext for capture, that keeps MTD clients in the same workflow. For a practice that only needs to file quarterly updates from spreadsheets, a bridging tool can be cheaper; our guide to MTD for Income Tax software costs per client compares the options.

Where does Dext fall short?

• Cost scales with clients. Per-client pricing is fair for busy clients and heavy for quiet ones. A long tail of clients with five receipts a quarter is where Dext is hardest to justify.
• Add-ons add up. Custom AI Assist, data health, payments and MTD each charge per client, so the quoted plan rate is rarely the final bill.
• Ledgers are catching up. Xero and QuickBooks keep improving their own capture, which is often enough for simple clients.
• Ownership changes bring renewal risk. Under IRIS, watch for bundling and price changes at renewal, and check what your contract says about rate rises.
• Plan differences matter. Auto-publish and the Dextension Chrome extension are not on Solo, so check that the plan you are quoted includes the automations you saw in the demo.

None of these is a reason to avoid Dext. They are reasons to price the whole book before you commit.

Dext vs AutoEntry, Datamolino and Briefcase

AutoEntry, owned by Sage, sells a pot of credits you spend across any clients, which often works out cheaper when most clients are quiet. Dext's review workflow and supplier rules are faster at volume, which matters when a team clears documents every day. Our earlier Dext vs AutoEntry comparison goes into the workflow differences, and you can put any two tools side by side on the compare page.

A sensible pattern for many practices: Dext for the busy clients, the ledger's own capture for the simplest ones.

How to get 15% off Dext for 12 months

Dext runs an affiliate offer for new customers: 15% off any Dext plan for the first 12 months when you subscribe through an eligible affiliate link. The AI Ledger is a Dext affiliate, so signing up through our link qualifies, and we may earn a commission. It does not change Dext's score or this review.

The terms Dext publishes:

• The offer is for new Dext customers only.
• It applies to all Dext plans bought through the affiliate link, and you must complete the subscription through the offer page. No promo code is needed.
• It cannot be combined with any other Dext promotion.
• After 12 months the subscription renews at Dext's standard rates, so budget for the full price from month 13.

If you are moving a whole practice, confirm with Dext that the discount shows on your quote before you sign.

Our verdict

Dext remains the default capture tool for UK practices and the benchmark the rest of the category is judged against, which is why it scores 4.7 in our directory. The 2026 changes help: practice pricing is now published, AI Assist turns your team's own corrections into rules, and Solo gives MTD clients a cheap home in the same workflow.

The case against is cost. If most of your clients are quiet, a credit or per-document model such as AutoEntry or Datamolino will usually cost less. If your clients are busy and your team reviews documents daily, Dext's speed pays for itself.

Our suggestion: price your actual book, run the 14-day trial on your three busiest clients, and start your Dext trial through our link if you want the 15% first-year discount.

Find more capture tools through The AI Ledger

• Browse every tool in data entry and receipts, each with an editor score and last verified date.
• Read our guide to the best receipt capture software in the UK.
• See the wider picture in the best AI tools for UK accountants.
• Answer three questions in the tool finder to get a shortlist for your practice.

Our scores are editorial and never for sale.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Dext cost per client in the UK?

On Dext's UK pricing page, Solo starts at £2.50 per client a month with a 5-client minimum, Essentials at £12 and Advanced at £13, both with a 10-client minimum. Prices exclude VAT and assume an annual subscription billed monthly. Add-ons such as custom AI Assist (£5) and MTD for Income Tax clients (£2.50) are extra on Essentials and Advanced.

Is there a Dext free trial?

Yes. Dext offers a 14-day free trial on its practice and business plans. Use it on your busiest clients, because that is where the time saving shows.

Does Dext work with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent?

Yes. Dext says it integrates with more than 36 accounting products, including Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and FreeAgent, and publishes coded items straight into the client's ledger.

Is Dext suitable for MTD for Income Tax?

Dext's Solo plan is designed for sole traders and landlords under MTD for Income Tax who are not VAT registered, with quarterly updates to HMRC, multi-income support and CIS extraction. On Essentials and Advanced, MTD clients cost £2.50 per client a month extra.

Who owns Dext?

IRIS Software Group announced its acquisition of Dext in December 2024. Dext now sits alongside IRIS's practice management and compliance software.

How do I get the Dext 15% discount?

New customers get 15% off any Dext plan for 12 months by subscribing through an eligible affiliate link, such as ours. No promo code is needed, the offer cannot be combined with other promotions, and the plan renews at standard rates after 12 months.

Sources

• Dext, UK pricing for accounting and bookkeeping firms (checked 26 October 2026)
• Dext, UK business pricing (checked 26 October 2026)
• Dext, 15% off for 12 months affiliate offer and terms (checked 26 October 2026)
• IRIS, IRIS announces intent to acquire Dext
• CPA Practice Advisor, IRIS Software Group acquires Dext, 3 December 2024
• AutoEntry, pricing
• HMRC, find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax