How to become an NDIS provider: registration step by step

Becoming an NDIS provider means deciding whether you need to register with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (the NDIS Commission), and if you do, applying, passing an independent audit and meeting ongoing conditions. This guide walks through each step and links to the official source for every rule.

1. Decide whether you need to register

Not every NDIS provider has to register. Unregistered providers can deliver supports to participants who self-manage or plan-manage their funding, but you must be registered to support NDIA-managed participants or to deliver certain supports, such as SIL, SDA, plan management or specialist behaviour support. See the full list in registered vs unregistered providers.

Not sure which applies to you? Take the registration check. It shows the official rule behind every answer. If you provide SIL or run a platform, also read about the registration changes.

Unregistered providers still have obligations. Registered and unregistered providers, their key personnel and their workers must all follow the NDIS Code of Conduct. Unregistered providers aren't legally required to have workers screened, but the NDIS Commission recommends it, and self-managed and plan-managed participants can decide whether the workers supporting them must have a clearance.

2. Check you're eligible

To apply for registration you must:

• have an Australian Business Number (ABN), and
• be able to show you can deliver the supports and services you're applying for, with evidence.

3. Choose your registration groups

Registration groups (also called classes of support) describe the supports you'll be registered to provide. There are 38 of them. The groups you choose decide:

• your audit type: a verification audit for lower-risk, lower-complexity supports, or a certification audit for higher-risk or more complex supports. If you apply for groups of both types, you need a certification audit.
• the NDIS Practice Standards you're assessed against: the Verification module, or the Core module plus any supplementary module for your groups.

Compare every registration group to see its audit type and modules.

4. Get key personnel and workers screened

When you apply, the NDIS Commission checks that:

• all key personnel (for example the CEO, executives, managers and board members) have a valid NDIS worker screening clearance and are suitable for their role, and
• all workers in risk-assessed roles have a valid NDIS worker screening clearance.

Getting clearances in place before you apply avoids delays. You'll use the NDIS Worker Screening Database to check and link your workers. A clearance is valid for 5 years, and workers pay a fee to apply.

5. Prepare your application

You'll need:

• a myID account
• your organisation's details, including corporate structure, governance arrangements and locations
• your key personnel's names, dates of birth and contact details
• the NDIS supports and services you plan to provide
• supporting evidence, where required.

The application includes a self-assessment against the NDIS Practice Standards that apply to you, with evidence. Before you start, the NDIS Commission suggests you get familiar with the NDIS Practice Standards, review your policies and procedures against them, and make an action plan for any gaps.

If a consultant helps you, or you buy policy templates, you're still responsible for the application. Your answers and policies must be specific to your organisation and reflect how you actually deliver supports. If they aren't, the NDIS Commission can refuse your application, or impose a condition requiring a new certification audit (stage 1 and stage 2) with a new self-assessment. Providing false or misleading information in an application is a contravention of section 73D of the NDIS Act, punishable by civil penalty, and a criminal offence under section 137.1 of the Criminal Code.

6. Apply online to the NDIS Commission

From 12 October 2026, new applications are made in the new NDIS Commission Portal. Applications already underway in the existing portal are finished there.

You complete Part 1, receive the outcome of an initial assessment, and then complete Part 2. You must finish your application within 60 days of starting it, or it's deleted and you have to start again. The Commission's guide to the new portal also says draft applications that aren't submitted are deleted automatically after 30 days, so save your progress and submit in good time.

7. Engage an approved quality auditor

When you submit, you receive an Initial scope of audit. It sets out your audit type, registration groups, types of service delivery, the relevant Practice Standards and what to share with your auditor.

You choose and pay an auditor from the NDIS Commission's list of approved quality auditors. There's no fee to register, but the audit has a cost, which depends on the size and scale of your organisation and the number of participants you support. Get more than one quote.

• A verification audit is a desktop review of your documents.
• A certification audit has two stages: a desktop audit, then an onsite audit that can include site visits, records and interviews with staff and participants.

If the auditor finds issues, they may ask you to fix them. They then send a recommendation to the NDIS Commission.

8. The NDIS Commission reviews your application

The NDIS Commission considers the auditor's recommendation and assesses whether you and your key personnel are suitable. It looks at matters such as past registrations, banning orders, convictions, insolvency, adverse findings by regulators, and fraud or dishonesty. It may ask you for more information.

9. Get your decision and certificate

If you're approved, you receive a certificate of registration showing your registration groups, your registration period and any conditions. Your details are published on the NDIS Provider Register. Providers are generally registered for three years.

If you disagree with a decision, you can ask the NDIS Commission for a review within three months. If your application is still unsuccessful after that review, you can ask the Administrative Review Tribunal for a further review.

10. Connect to the NDIA

Once you're registered, you can connect to the NDIA's systems, including the provider portals and its application programming interfaces (APIs).

From 1 July 2027 most providers will also need to enrol with the NDIA so they can be paid, giving basic identifying information and a validated bank account. The Government has announced this but it isn't law yet, and it's a separate process from registration with the NDIS Commission.

After you're registered

Registration comes with conditions you must keep meeting, including:

• complying with the NDIS Practice Standards and the NDIS Code of Conduct
• having effective systems for managing complaints and incidents
• keeping worker screening clearances current for key personnel and risk-assessed roles
• telling the NDIS Commission about certain changes and events
• meeting audit requirements: providers registered for certification groups generally need a mid-term audit, starting no later than 18 months into the registration period
• making sure staff complete the mandatory NDIS Worker Orientation Module
• any additional conditions the NDIS Commission imposes, which appear on your certificate and the Provider Register. For example, if you deliver personal supports under group 0107 to a participant who lives alone and gets them from one worker only, you must assess the risks to the participant and monitor the quality of, and their satisfaction with, the supports. New providers may also have to complete parts of a quality audit involving participant engagement within a set time of starting to deliver services.

Two changes from the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 affect your records and claims:

• Keep records for 7 years. Since 27 August 2026 providers must keep records relating to payment and receipt of NDIS funds for 7 years. Not doing so attracts a civil penalty.
• Claim within 90 days. From 1 December 2026 the time to make a claim for supports under a participant's plan drops from 2 years to 90 days.

You need to apply to renew your registration before it expires.

Next steps

• Check whether you need to register
• Compare registration groups and their audits
• Read about NDIS registration changes, 2026 to 2030