The Big Mac Index has burgers; live music has beer. The Pint Index divides each city’s median advertised gig fee — from the GigXchange Index, refreshed every 24 hours — by the UK average pint price (£4.83, ONS). The result is the only UK gig-pay league that updates itself, in a unit that needs no explaining. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.

Source: GigXchange Index published cells × ONS pint price

Every city the Index publishes, ranked by what its median gig buys at the bar. Advertised rates across all gig types and band sizes — every city is scored on the same grid, so the ranking reflects pay rather than how much data a city happens to have.

How to read it: the bar is the pints, against the top city. Own data is how many of a city’s cells rest on its own observations; the rest are derived and flagged. The arrows show places moved against the board a month earlier (NEW = wasn’t on it; a dash = no change, or no earlier board yet). Tap a city to see what’s on there. Source: GigXchange Index published city cells × ONS CZMS.

A gig in Cardiff buys 111 pints at the median advertised fee; one in London buys 104. All 13 published cities side by side, each priced at the same UK average pint, so the gap is pay alone.

Sheffield has topped the Pint Index in all 14 weeks, while Birmingham climbed from #12 to #8. Every city’s league position since 16 Aug, re-ranked each week by its median advertised gig fee.

Source: weekly snapshots of the GigXchange Index × ONS pint price

Type what your last gig paid and see it at the bar — total pints, pints for each person on stage, and how it compares with the median gig in your city.

Formula: city median advertised gig fee (GigXchange Index published cells, all gig types and band sizes pooled) ÷ UK average draught lager price (£4.83 — the final published value of ONS series CZMS, reviewed annually). The gig-fee side refreshes with the Index every 24 hours; this page always shows the current cells.

Honest limits: fees are advertised rates (market rate cards and asking prices), not invoiced fees; the mix pools all gig types, so wedding-heavy cities rank higher; the pint price is the national average — city-level pint prices have no free published series, so city variation comes from gig fees only. Every city is scored on the same 22-cell grid; cells without enough of a city’s own observations are derived and flagged. Full methodology: GX Index methodology.

Beyond the bar tab. A pint is one way to price a gig; Gig Pay Anatomy takes the same fees apart by booking type and line-up, and shows how thin a five-piece’s fee gets once it is split. To check one city, line-up and booking at a time, use the GX Index rate calculator; how every league cell is built, and which are derived rather than measured, is in the methodology. Pay is only half the picture: UK Musician Earnings 2026 puts gig fees into a whole year’s income, State of the Circuit counts the rooms these cities actually have, gig calendar statistics shows when they are busy, and open mic statistics maps the unpaid stage underneath. For the industry backdrop — GVA, venue closures, audiences — see UK market statistics, the UK Live Music Yearbook 2026 and State of UK Live Music; every past month of the Index is in the report library.