Last checked 12 November 2026

Guide11 min read

Coaching agreement template: what to include, clause by clause

A coaching agreement template you can copy, also called a coaching contract template, with a note on each clause and what changes when the client is a peer.

The short answer

A coaching agreement is the written record of what a coach and a client agree before the first session. Some coaches call it a coaching contract. It says what coaching is, what you are working on, when you meet, what it costs, what stays private, what happens to notes and recordings, and how either of you can end it. The template below has 11 clauses. Copy it, change it to fit your work, and fill it in with your client.

A starting point, not legal advice

This template is a place to start. It isn't legal advice, and no lawyer wrote or reviewed it. We don't say what legal effect it has where you live. Change it to fit your work. Where the law of your country matters, get advice from someone qualified there. Tax, consumer rights and data protection are the usual places.

This guide covers what an agreement includes, what two codes of ethics ask for, the template, what each clause is for, and how an agreement with a peer differs from one with a paying client.

What does a coaching agreement cover?

Most coaching agreements answer the same questions:

What is this? What coaching is, what it isn't, and what the coach's training is.
What for? What the client wants from the coaching.
When and how? The number of sessions, their length, and how you meet.
What does it cost? The fee, when it is due, and what happens to a missed session.
What stays private? Confidentiality, its limits, and what a sponsor hears.
What is kept? Notes, recordings and personal data.
How does it end? How either person stops, and where a concern goes.

The agreement comes before the coaching. A client who reads it first can decide what to share, and neither of you is surprised later.

What do the codes of ethics ask an agreement to cover?

A code of ethics binds the people who have signed up to it, such as the members of a professional body. It isn't the law. If you belong to a body, read its code beside this guide.

The ICF Code of Ethics. The 2025 Code asks a coach to talk to the client and any sponsor before the coaching starts. The coach explains what coaching is, and they make the agreement together. The Code names roles, responsibilities, confidentiality and money among the things that the agreement covers. It also says that any party may end the coaching at any point, within the terms of the agreement. Two more standards ask for a clear agreement about what information passes between the people involved, and about when the coach could have to tell the authorities something confidential.

The Code's own definition calls a coaching agreement a formal document. It says that one usually sets out the goals, how long and how often you meet, confidentiality, payment, cancellation, and what the coach and the client are each responsible for. For the whole Code in plain words, read the ICF Code of Ethics, explained.

The Global Code of Ethics. EMCC Global and the Association for Coaching are among the bodies that have signed this code. Version 4 asks a member to make sure, before the work starts, that the client or sponsor knows and understands the terms of the agreement. It names the money, the logistics and confidentiality. It also asks members to do these things:

Show the client the code, and tell them how the member's body handles complaints.
Say when confidentiality can't hold, and get the client's agreement to that limit where possible.
Tell the client that the member has supervision, and that the client's case could come up there without their name.
Respect the client's right to end the work at any point, within the terms of the agreement.

Neither code gives a template. The one below is ours.

A coaching agreement template you can copy

This template is a starting point and not legal advice. It doesn't state the law of any country, and we make no promise about what it does for you or your client. Copy it into a document. Change the clauses that don't fit, fill in the brackets together, and read it back before the first session. Where a bracket says "check", find out what applies in your country, or ask an adviser.

Coaching agreement

Date: [fill in]
Coach: [name and contact details]
Client: [name and contact details]
Sponsor, if someone else pays: [name and contact details, or write none]

1. What coaching is

In coaching, the coach asks questions and listens so that the client can think, decide and act. The client chooses the topics and makes the decisions.
Coaching is not therapy, counselling or medical care, and it is not legal or financial advice.
If a topic needs a different kind of help, the coach says so. The client decides what to do next.
The coach's training and credentials, as they are today: [fill in]

2. What we are working on

What the client wants from the coaching: [fill in]
How we will know that it is working: [fill in]
We look at this again on: [date or session number]

3. Sessions

Number of sessions: [fill in]
Length of each session: [fill in] minutes
How often: [fill in]
How we meet: [in person / video / phone]
Contact between sessions: [none / email / messages, and how fast the coach replies]
This agreement runs from [date] until [date / either of us ends it]

4. Fees and payment

Fee: [amount and currency] for [each session / the package / each month]
What the fee includes: [fill in]
When and how the client pays: [fill in]
Tax on the fee: [check what applies to you, then fill in]
Refunds: [check what applies to you, then fill in]
If nobody pays, write: no fee.

5. Moving or missing a session

Notice needed to move a session: [fill in] hours
A session cancelled with less notice: [is charged / is moved once / fill in]
If the client is late: [fill in]
If the coach cancels: [fill in]

6. Confidentiality

The coach keeps private what the client says, and the fact that they are a client, except: [fill in or write nothing else]
Agreed exception for a serious risk of harm to the client or to someone else: [confirm]
Anything the coach must report by law or by a professional duty: [check before you start, then fill in]
The coach may talk about the work with a supervisor or a mentor coach, without the client's name: [yes / no]
What the sponsor hears, if there is one: [fill in, for example only that the sessions took place]

7. Notes, recordings and personal data

Notes: [none / by the coach, and what they contain]
Where the notes and the client's details are stored: [fill in]
How long they are kept, and how they are deleted: [fill in]
Recording: [no / yes, agreed each time]
If yes, who holds a recording, who may hear it and when it is deleted: [fill in]
Either person can withdraw consent to recording at any time, including afterwards.
Tools that process what is said, such as an AI note-taker: [none / name the tool]
Data protection rules that apply to the coach: [check what applies to you, then fill in]

8. Other relationships

Anything that links the coach to the client, the sponsor or the client's organisation: [fill in or write none]
If a conflict of interest comes up later, the coach says so, and we decide together what to do.

9. Ending the coaching

Either person can end the coaching at any time.
Notice, if we agree any: [fill in or write none]
Sessions that are paid for and not used: [fill in]
The coach says so if they think that the coaching has stopped helping, or that another kind of help would serve the client better.

10. Concerns and complaints

If something isn't working, we talk to each other first.
The code of ethics that the coach follows: [name it and add a link, or write none]
Where a complaint can go: [the complaints process of the coach's body, or fill in]

11. Changes and the law

We change this agreement only in writing, and both of us confirm the change.
The country whose law applies to this agreement: [get advice, then fill in]

Signatures

Both people have read this agreement and agree to it.

Coach: [name and date]
Client: [name and date]
Sponsor, if there is one: [name and date]

What is each clause for?

Clause	What it is for
1. What coaching is	The client knows what they are buying and what they aren't. It marks the line with therapy and advice before a session reaches it. It also puts your real training in writing.
2. What we are working on	It gives the coaching a direction and a date to look at it again. Goals change, so keep this clause short.
3. Sessions	It sets the amount of work, so neither of you assumes more or less. Contact between sessions is the detail that most often goes unsaid.
4. Fees and payment	It answers the money questions once. The tax and refund lines are blank because the rules depend on where you and the client live.
5. Moving or missing a session	It is easier to agree a rule for a missed session before anyone misses one.
6. Confidentiality	The client decides what to share with the limits in view. No coach can promise total secrecy, so the clause names the exceptions.
7. Notes, recordings and personal data	The client knows what exists about them, where it is and when it goes. Recording and AI tools get their own lines, so the client can say yes or no to each.
8. Other relationships	The client can't weigh a link that they don't know about. Naming it at the start is simpler than explaining it later.
9. Ending the coaching	Both of you can leave without a dispute about notice or unused sessions.
10. Concerns and complaints	The client knows which code you work to and where to go if talking to you doesn't settle it.
11. Changes and the law	Changes stay in writing. Which country's law applies is a question for an adviser, most of all when you and the client live in different countries.

For more on clause 6, read the limits of confidentiality in coaching. For the line in clause 1, read coaching or therapy: when to refer.

How is an agreement with a peer different from one with a paying client?

In peer coaching, two coaches coach each other. Nobody pays, and each person is the coach in one session and the client in the next. The agreement gets shorter, but most of it stays.

Clause	With a paying client	With a peer
Roles	One coach, one client, sometimes a sponsor	Each person takes both roles, so the agreement applies in both directions
What we are working on	The client's goals	Each person's topic, and what each coach wants to work on in their own coaching
Sessions	A package or an open-ended series	Often one exchange at a time, or a short set
Fees	The fee, tax and refunds	No fee. Write that down
Confidentiality	As agreed	The same. A peer's topic is as private as a paying client's
Recordings	Only with consent	Only with consent. Say so if you plan to take a recording to a mentor coach or an assessor
Feedback	Not usually part of the agreement	Agree whether you give each other feedback on the coaching, and when
Hours	Not part of the agreement	Say whether either of you plans to log the session as coaching experience

Three points on the peer column:

A code can still apply. ICF's 2025 Code counts a coach who is being coached as a client. If you are an ICF member or credential holder, the agreement standard covers your peer coaching too.
Feedback is separate from the coaching. End the session first, then talk about how it went, if you both want that.
Hours depend on your body's rules. An agreement doesn't make a session count. For ICF, read when peer coaching counts as paid experience.

If you haven't trained as a coach yet, use the shorter agreement in our guide for beginners. It is the base of this template, and it adds lines for your status and for keeping the topic low-stakes.

Where this stops

This guide describes two codes of ethics in Robin's words, from the sources below. It doesn't replace their text, and it isn't legal advice. The template is a starting point for you to change. It doesn't settle duties that you already have through your work, your training, your professional body or the law. Robin is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Robin has no link to the bodies that signed the Global Code of Ethics either.

Meet other coaches

Robin is free. Coaches use it to coach each other and to talk in communities. Take your draft there and ask other coaches how they handle the clauses that you are unsure about.

See the communities

Sources

ICF Code of Ethics, the 2025 Code, in the copy marked "Revised May 2026": standards 1.1, 1.2, 2.2 and 2.3, and the definitions of "Client" and "Coaching Agreement". Read on 12 November 2026.
Global Code of Ethics, version 4, updated December 2025: the sections on contracting, confidentiality and ending a professional relationship, pages 4 to 6. The website lists the bodies that have signed it. Read on 12 November 2026.