Upload the quote: the reader marks it line by line
Find out in 20 seconds whether your solar quote is fair. Take a photo of it or drop in the PDF and in about 20 seconds you get every line marked: whether the price is inside the October 2026 index band for your city, whether the STC discount is what the zone and size give, what the inverter and any battery cost at list, whether each add-on is in its usual range, and the questions to put to the installer. If the price is high you can ask two local installers to beat it. The file is read once and is not stored; names, addresses, phone numbers and emails are never returned or kept, and nobody calls you unless you ask for competing quotes.
Two optional steps make the verdict yours rather than the city average: your address, so the payback is for your actual roof and the size is checked against it, and your power bill, so the saving is at the rate you really pay.
Step 1 of 3, optional: your roof
Why add your address: the payback on the quote is then for your house, not a city average, and we check that the quoted system fits on your roof. A north-facing roof and a south-facing one differ by a quarter to a third in output, which moves a 10-year payback to 13 or more. Street number, street, suburb, state and postcode; the postcode fills in the state and suggests suburbs. The address is used once to find the roof and is not kept.
Step 2 of 3, optional: your bill
Step 3 of 3: the quote
Or type the numbers
How the verdict is made
The index figure for your city and size is the Solar Choice standard or premium installer offer for October 2026, scaled to your exact kW at the same dollars per watt. Fair is within 5 per cent of that band after allowing $1,000 to $3,500 for two-storey edge protection where you selected two storeys. Low is under the band; below $0.49 per watt the quote is under the sourced component floor for a Zone 3 6.6 kW system and something named on it cannot be what will be fitted. High is over the premium band plus 5 per cent. The STC audit uses certificates = kW x zone rating x 5 years, rounded down, at $39. Cities Solar Choice does not index use the nearest indexed capital, named in the result.
Every quote checked here since 28 October 2026 is kept in the Solar Scorecard quotes dataset: postcode, nearest indexed city, system size, panel and inverter brand, tier, price after STCs, storeys, the STC line if you gave it, and the month. No name, email, phone number or IP address is kept, and the dataset is not shared with installers. Once a city and size holds ten or more checked quotes, the city page publishes the median and quartiles with the count alongside the Solar Choice offers. Submissions are limited to twenty an hour per connection. See the privacy policy.
The bands behind the check, October 2026
| City | Zone | 6.6 kW standard | 6.6 kW premium | 10 kW standard | 10 kW premium | Index city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | Zone 3 | $6,170 | $7,284 | $8,780 | $10,490 | Sydney |
| Melbourne | Zone 4 | $6,218 | $7,234 | $8,920 | $10,410 | Melbourne |
| Brisbane | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Perth | Zone 3 | $5,294 | $6,522 | $8,240 | $9,880 | Perth |
| Adelaide | Zone 3 | $5,812 | $7,126 | $8,360 | $10,010 | Adelaide |
| Canberra | Zone 3 | $6,144 | $7,310 | $8,340 | $10,100 | Canberra |
| Hobart | Zone 4 | $7,544 | $8,886 | $11,460 | $13,240 | Hobart |
| Darwin | Zone 2 | $10,250 | $12,260 | $14,930 | $18,250 | Darwin |
| Gold Coast | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Sunshine Coast | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Newcastle | Zone 3 | $6,170 | $7,284 | $8,780 | $10,490 | Sydney |
| Wollongong | Zone 3 | $6,170 | $7,284 | $8,780 | $10,490 | Sydney |
| Geelong | Zone 4 | $6,218 | $7,234 | $8,920 | $10,410 | Melbourne |
| Central Coast | Zone 3 | $6,170 | $7,284 | $8,780 | $10,490 | Sydney |
| Townsville | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Cairns | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Toowoomba | Zone 3 | $6,756 | $8,020 | $9,460 | $11,210 | Brisbane |
| Launceston | Zone 4 | $7,544 | $8,886 | $11,460 | $13,240 | Hobart |
| Ballarat | Zone 3 | $6,218 | $7,234 | $8,920 | $10,410 | Melbourne |
| Bendigo | Zone 3 | $6,218 | $7,234 | $8,920 | $10,410 | Melbourne |
Source: Solar Choice Price Index, October 2026, standard and premium installer offers after STCs. Basis of each figure: 3, 5 and 10 kW cells are published by Solar Choice; 6.6 kW and 8 kW are interpolated and 13 kW and 20 kW scaled by Solar Scorecard at the same dollars per watt (derived); cities Solar Choice does not index use the nearest indexed capital. Where our own quotes series holds ten or more checks for a city and size, that cell is replaced by the quotes median and marked with its count.
Quote check questions
What is a fair price for a 6.6kW solar quote?
$6,170 to $7,284 in Sydney, $6,218 to $7,234 in Melbourne and $5,294 to $6,522 in Perth in October 2026, after STCs at $39: the standard to premium installer offers in the Solar Choice index.
What should the STC line on my quote say?
45 certificates worth $1,755 for 6.6 kW in Zone 3 (Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide) and 39 worth $1,521 in Zone 4 (Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra) at $39 each with 5-year deeming. A line more than 10 per cent under that is a question to ask.
What happens to the file I upload?
It is sent once to an AI model that returns the numbers on it, is not written to any store, and is gone when the response comes back. The model is told to return no names, addresses, phone numbers or emails, and the function strips anything that looks like one before the result reaches your browser. Only if you then choose to add the quote to the quotes index are the postcode, size, brands, tier, price, storeys and STC line kept.
Why add my address to a quote check?
A north-facing 22-degree roof and a south-facing one differ by about a quarter to a third in annual output, which moves a 10-year payback to 13 or more; with the address the reader takes the pitch, direction and shade of your roof from aerial imagery instead of the city average, and it checks that the quoted size fits the roof. The address is used once to find the roof and is not kept.
What can the reader get wrong?
A faint photo, a quote that bundles everything into one line, or an unusual layout. It shows every line it read and how it classified it, so a wrong line is visible; the manual form is there for anything it misses. Treat it as a fast first read, not a ruling.
Does this check store my quote?
Only if you choose to add it, or when you use the typed form. Since 28 October 2026 each check stores the postcode, city, size, brands, tier, price after STCs, storeys, the STC line if given, and the month. No name, email, phone number or IP address is stored. The stored quotes feed the Solar Scorecard Price Index once a city and size holds ten or more.