Medical Alarm Cost in Australia: Prices, Monthly Fees & Free Alternatives (2026)
Across Australia's main personal and medical alarm providers, monitored plans typically run about A$31-A$59 per month, every month, on top of A$199-A$825 in upfront hardware. A daily check-in app like ImAlive starts free, with no device to buy and no monthly monitoring fee, alerting your own family rather than a call centre.
Last updated: June 2026
Overview: what does a medical alarm cost in Australia?
In Australia in 2026, a monitored personal or medical alarm typically costs about A$31 to A$59 per month in ongoing monitoring fees, charged for as long as you keep the alarm, on top of an upfront device or installation cost of roughly A$199 to A$825 (AUD figures compiled from provider price pages, AU-RESEARCH-02). For example, MePACS charges A$42 per month for a home alarm, Tunstall Healthcare lists 24/7 Connected Care at A$31.30 per month, and a MePACS Solo Connect watch runs A$795 to A$825 upfront plus A$59 per month (MePACS; Tunstall Healthcare). Even the subscription-free alarms cost hundreds upfront: a LiveLife watch is about A$567 to A$597 in year one, then A$90 per year for the SIM (LiveLife Alarms). A daily check-in app such as ImAlive sits at the other end of the price spectrum: free to start, with no device to buy, no installation, and no monthly monitoring fee. Instead of routing an alert to a stranger in a call centre, a missed check-in quietly notifies your own chosen family contacts. This page lays out the published AUD prices provider by provider, explains the device-plus-monthly model, and shows where a free check-in fits, including alongside the new government Assistive Technology funding from 1 November 2025.
Key statistics
These verified AUD figures are drawn from each provider's published Australian pricing, plus the Department of Health and Aged Care's new assistive-technology funding and the home-care access backlog that is driving families to look for an immediate stopgap. Every value below traces to a named primary source. The consistent pattern is a meaningful upfront device cost combined with an ongoing monthly fee that never ends.
Australian medical alarm price and model matrix (2026)
This flagship table compares ten Australian personal and medical alarm options on the four things that actually determine cost: the type of product, the published AUD price, the contract model (one-off device versus ongoing monthly monitoring), and crucially who receives the alert when the button is pressed, a 24/7 monitoring centre or the family directly. Prices are as published on each provider's Australian pages. The final row is ImAlive, included so device-plus-monthly costs can be compared like-for-like against a free daily check-in. Read the prices as published examples rather than guaranteed quotes; several providers quote monitoring fees only on request.
Australian personal and medical alarm costs, by provider and model (AUD, 2026)
| Provider | Type | Price (AUD) | Contract model | Who gets the alert |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MePACS | Personal alarm, 24/7 monitoring centre | Home alarm A$0 device + A$42/mo; falls pendant +A$140; Mobile A$385 + ~A$13/mo (or A$55/mo bundled); Solo Connect Watch A$795-A$825 + A$59/mo | Upfront device + ongoing monthly monitoring | MePACS 24/7 response centre |
| Tunstall Healthcare | Personal alarm, connected care | 24/7 Connected Care A$31.30/mo; 'Loved Ones Monitoring' A$10/mo + A$390 device (first 12mo free); Lifeline Digital + Vibby fall detector A$499 incl 3mo | Monitoring-centre tier OR cheaper family-alert tier | Call centre OR family (by tier) |
| INS LifeGuard | Personal alarm, nurse-monitored 24/7 centre | SmartTracker V3 pendant from A$399; SafetyWatch V3 from A$460 + monthly monitoring | Upfront device + monthly nurse-monitored centre | Nurse-monitored response centre |
| VitalCALL (Chubb) | Personal emergency response, 24/7 centre | Professional install from A$199 one-off + ongoing 24/7 monitoring fee (monthly/quarterly/yearly, no lock-in; fee quote-only) | Upfront install + ongoing monitoring subscription | 24/7 monitoring centre |
| Safety Link | Personal alarm + optional Daily Call, 24/7 centre | Install/equipment ~A$220 (A$144 with concession card; A$120 with referral) + A$31.20/mo (A$29.15 referral); Daily Call add-on A$7.50/mo | Upfront + monthly monitoring (+ optional daily call) | 24/7 call centre |
| LiveLife Alarms | Personal alarm, subscription-free, family-direct | Watch A$567-A$597 (year 1); pendant from A$567; no default monthly monitoring, A$90/yr SIM from year 2; optional 24/7 monitoring +A$39/mo | One-time device, no ongoing monitoring on default plan | Family/friends (texts then calls up to 6) |
| Personal Alarms Australia | Personal alarm, subscription-free, family-direct | Device ~A$379; runs on prepaid mobile, no subscription | One-time device + user-supplied prepaid SIM | Family/friends directly |
| Kindly Call | AI daily check-in / wellbeing-call service | From ~A$1-2/week (~A$4-5/mo); no equipment | Subscription-only daily AI phone call | Family dashboard + emergency keyword detection |
| Life360 (AU) | Family location-sharing / safety app | Free tier; Silver A$9.99/mo or A$79.99/yr | Freemium app, GPS/location-tracking centric | Family (via continuous location) |
| ImAlive | Daily check-in app, family-direct, no GPS | Free to start; no device; no monthly monitoring fee (paid Lifetime A$4.99 / Family A$29.99 / Family Plus A$39.99 are one-off, optional) | App check-in; missed check-in alerts chosen contacts | Your own chosen family directly |
All prices are AUD as published on each provider's Australian pages (compiled in AU-RESEARCH-02). Several monitoring fees are quote-only; ranges shown are published examples, not guaranteed quotes. ImAlive's paid tiers are one-off, optional upgrades; the core daily check-in is free with no monthly monitoring fee and no device.
The device-plus-monthly model is the real cost
The headline sticker price of a medical alarm in Australia is rarely the whole story, because the dominant model is an upfront device cost plus a monthly monitoring fee that continues for as long as you keep the service. MePACS, for instance, lists a home alarm at A$0 for the device but A$42 per month in monitoring, while its Solo Connect watch is A$795 to A$825 upfront plus A$59 per month (MePACS). Tunstall's 24/7 Connected Care is A$31.30 per month and Safety Link's monitoring is A$31.20 per month on top of roughly A$220 in install and equipment (Tunstall Healthcare; Safety Link). VitalCALL charges professional installation from A$199 one-off plus an ongoing monitoring fee, with no lock-in but the fee quoted on request (VitalCALL). Over a few years, the recurring monthly fee usually dwarfs the original hardware. That is the central economic difference from a daily check-in app: ImAlive has no device to buy and no monthly monitoring fee at all, so the ongoing cost line that defines the alarm category simply is not there.
Subscription-free alarms still cost hundreds upfront
Some Australian alarms avoid the monthly fee, but they do so by charging a substantial one-off device cost, so 'no subscription' does not mean low cost. LiveLife Alarms sells a watch at about A$567 to A$597 in the first year and a pendant from A$567, with no monthly monitoring on its default plan but a A$90 per year SIM renewal from year two, plus optional 24/7 monitoring at an extra A$39 per month (LiveLife Alarms). Personal Alarms Australia charges roughly A$379 for a device that runs on a prepaid mobile plan with no subscription, alerting family directly (Personal Alarms Australia). Standalone fall-detection watches in Australia start around A$370, with a Falls Watch from A$370 and generic medical-alert watches near A$399.95 (Falls Watch). These family-direct, subscription-free options are closer in spirit to ImAlive's family-alert model, but they still require buying, charging and, critically, wearing a device, which is the most common reason alarms end up unused. ImAlive needs no pendant, no smartwatch and no install.
Subscription-free and family-direct alarms vs a free check-in (AUD, 2026)
| Option | Upfront (AUD) | Ongoing | Device to wear | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LiveLife watch | A$567-A$597 (yr 1) | A$90/yr SIM from yr 2 (optional +A$39/mo monitoring) | Yes | LiveLife Alarms |
| Personal Alarms Australia | ~A$379 | User prepaid mobile, no subscription | Yes | Personal Alarms Australia |
| Falls Watch / fall-detection watch | ~A$370-A$400 | Varies by device | Yes | Falls Watch |
| ImAlive daily check-in | A$0 to start | No monthly monitoring fee | No (phone check-in) | ImAlive pricing |
'Subscription-free' alarms still carry a one-off device cost of roughly A$370-A$600 in AUD and require the elderly person to wear and charge the device. ImAlive's core daily check-in is free to start with no device. Paid ImAlive tiers (Lifetime A$4.99 / Family A$29.99 / Family Plus A$39.99) are one-off and optional.
Who gets the alert: call centre vs family
Cost is not the only axis on which these products differ. Most Australian monitored alarms route the alert to a 24/7 monitoring centre, a stranger who then decides what to do, while a smaller and growing set route the alert to the family directly. MePACS, INS LifeGuard, VitalCALL and Safety Link all use a response or call centre (MePACS; INS LifeGuard; VitalCALL; Safety Link). Notably, two incumbents have already pivoted toward the family-alert model: Tunstall sells a 'Loved Ones Monitoring' tier at A$10 per month that notifies family instead of a call centre, and LiveLife texts and then calls up to six family members or friends directly with no monthly monitoring on its default plan (Tunstall Healthcare; LiveLife Alarms). This market shift validates the family-direct approach rather than threatening it. ImAlive is built around exactly this principle: a missed daily check-in notifies your own chosen family contacts, the people who actually care, with no call centre in the loop and, deliberately, no GPS tracking of your parent's movements.
Government funding: the AT-HM scheme and where a free check-in fits
Many Australian families searching for alarm costs are really asking whether the government will pay. From 1 November 2025, under the Support at Home program that replaced Home Care Packages, the new Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) Scheme gives older Australians upfront funding for assistive technology, including personal and medical alarms, across three tiers: up to A$500, up to A$2,000, or up to A$15,000 per year, to be spent within twelve months (Department of Health and Aged Care). Support at Home itself expands support from four to eight funding levels, with annual funding of roughly A$11,000 to A$78,000, backed by a A$4.3 billion investment (Department of Health and Aged Care; Prime Minister of Australia). The catch is access. By March 2025, about 87,597 people were on the home-care waitlist, more than 88,000 were approved but not yet receiving care, and over 120,000 were still waiting to be assessed (UTS; National Seniors Australia; AIHW GEN). Medium-priority waits run nine to twelve months, and the highest level can run twelve to fifteen-plus months, with the Government aiming to cut average waits to about three months by 2027 (UTS). While a family waits out that backlog, a free daily check-in is something usable straight away, with no assessment, no referral and no monthly fee, sitting alongside any future funded alarm rather than replacing it.
AT-HM assistive-technology funding tiers (AUD, from 1 Nov 2025)
| Tier | Funding cap (AUD) | Spend window | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Up to A$500/yr | Within 12 months | Dept of Health & Aged Care (AT-HM) |
| Tier 2 | Up to A$2,000/yr | Within 12 months | Dept of Health & Aged Care (AT-HM) |
| Tier 3 | Up to A$15,000/yr | Within 12 months | Dept of Health & Aged Care (AT-HM) |
AT-HM funding can be applied to personal/medical alarms but is gated behind Support at Home assessment, which carries a 9-15 month access backlog as of 2025 (Dept of Health & Aged Care; UTS). A free daily check-in is usable immediately while families wait.
Free welfare-call options and where they stop short
Australia does have free options, but they come with eligibility gates. Red Cross Telecross provides a free daily morning safety phone call, between 8:00 and 9:30am, 365 days a year, made by trained volunteers to people who live alone or are at risk; if there is no answer, volunteers escalate (Red Cross). The limitation is access: Telecross eligibility is gated, generally requiring someone aged 65 or over (or 50-plus for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) referred via My Aged Care or a home-care provider, or under 65 via the NDIS, and volunteer availability varies by region (Red Cross). Safety Link offers a paid Daily Call add-on at A$7.50 per month for people without regular daily contact, but only as an add-on to a monitored alarm (Safety Link). Kindly Call provides paid AI daily check-in calls with a family dashboard from about A$1 to A$2 per week, but it is phone-call and AI based rather than app-native, and lacks a privacy-first, no-GPS positioning (Kindly Call). ImAlive fills the gap these leave: a no-referral, no-waitlist, family-controlled daily check-in that anyone can set up, with the free tier collecting no location data at all. Australian families typically call this a 'welfare check' or 'wellbeing check', and ImAlive turns the reactive police welfare check into a proactive, automatic one.
Cost comparison: monitored alarm vs free daily check-in
Bringing the figures together, the difference between a monitored Australian alarm and a free daily check-in is stark, especially over time. A typical monitored plan combines an upfront device or installation in the A$199 to A$825 range with A$31 to A$59 per month in monitoring that never stops, so the recurring fee accumulates year after year (MePACS; Tunstall Healthcare; Safety Link; VitalCALL). A subscription-free alarm trades the monthly fee for a one-off device of roughly A$379 to A$597 plus, for LiveLife, A$90 per year for the SIM (LiveLife Alarms; Personal Alarms Australia). ImAlive's daily check-in starts free with no device and no monthly monitoring fee; its paid Lifetime, Family and Family Plus tiers (A$4.99, A$29.99 and A$39.99) are one-off, optional upgrades rather than recurring charges. The trade-off is honest and worth stating plainly: a monitored pendant adds a 24/7 professional response centre and, on some devices, automatic features, which a phone check-in does not provide. A daily check-in is a different model, aimed at the simpler, more common need, making sure that if something is wrong, the people who love them are the ones who get told, without a device, a contract or a monthly fee.
Cost models compared (AUD, 2026)
| Model | Upfront (AUD) | Ongoing (AUD) | Alert goes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitored alarm (typical) | A$199-A$825 | A$31-A$59/mo, ongoing | 24/7 call centre |
| Subscription-free alarm | ~A$379-A$597 | A$0-A$90/yr (SIM) | Family direct |
| Paid daily check-in call | A$0 | ~A$4-5/mo (Kindly Call) | Family dashboard |
| ImAlive daily check-in | A$0 to start | No monthly monitoring fee | Your own family |
Monitored figures from MePACS, Tunstall, Safety Link and VitalCALL; subscription-free from LiveLife and Personal Alarms Australia; paid daily call from Kindly Call. ImAlive paid tiers (A$4.99/A$29.99/A$39.99) are one-off and optional, not monthly. A monitored alarm and a daily check-in are different models, not strict substitutes.
Why a daily check-in helps
A medical alarm is the right tool for some households, particularly where a 24/7 professional response is genuinely needed and the person will reliably wear the device. But for many Australian families the more common worry is simpler: would anyone notice, soon, if mum or dad were unwell and could not reach the phone. A monitored pendant answers that with a device, a call centre and an ongoing fee. A daily check-in answers it differently. With ImAlive, one tap each day confirms everything is fine, and if a check-in is missed, a chosen family contact is quietly notified, turning a potential days-long discovery gap into same-day notice. It costs nothing to start, needs no pendant to charge or wear, and deliberately does not track anyone's location, which matches the dignity and Statement-of-Rights framing of Australia's new Aged Care Act. For families spread across Australia's distances, or simply waiting out a nine-to-fifteen-month home-care backlog, that quiet reassurance, with no device and no monthly monitoring fee, is often exactly what they were looking for when they searched for an alarm's price.
Sources
- MePACS - Personal Alarms Overview (AUD pricing, 2026)
- Tunstall Healthcare - Personal Alarms for Seniors (AUD pricing, 2026)
- INS LifeGuard - SmartTracker and SafetyWatch (AUD pricing, 2026)
- VitalCALL (Chubb) - How Much Does VitalCALL Cost (AUD, 2026)
- Safety Link - Personal Alarms and Daily Call (AUD pricing, 2026)
- LiveLife Alarms - 4G Mobile Watch Alarm (AUD pricing, 2026)
- Personal Alarms Australia (SafeLife) - Personal Alarms (AUD pricing, 2026)
- Kindly Call - Daily Check-in Calls for Seniors (AUD pricing)
- Life360 (AU) - App Store listing (AUD pricing)
- Falls Watch Australia - Fall-Detection Watches (AUD pricing)
- Australian Department of Health and Aged Care - Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) Scheme
- Australian Department of Health and Aged Care - Support at Home
- Prime Minister of Australia - Once in a Generation Aged Care Reforms
- UTS - Ageing Australians Are Waiting Too Long for Home Care Packages (home-care waitlist, 2025)
- Australian Red Cross - Telecross daily safety call service
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a medical alarm cost in Australia?
Monitored personal and medical alarms in Australia typically cost about A$31 to A$59 per month in ongoing monitoring fees, on top of an upfront device or installation cost of roughly A$199 to A$825 (AUD figures from MePACS, Tunstall, Safety Link and VitalCALL provider pages, 2026).
What is the monthly fee for a personal alarm in Australia?
Published monthly monitoring fees include A$42/mo for a MePACS home alarm, A$31.30/mo for Tunstall 24/7 Connected Care, A$31.20/mo for Safety Link, and A$59/mo for a MePACS Solo Connect watch (MePACS; Tunstall Healthcare; Safety Link, 2026). VitalCALL charges an ongoing monitoring fee quoted on request, with no lock-in.
Is there a medical alarm in Australia with no monthly fee?
Yes, but they cost more upfront. LiveLife Alarms sells a watch at about A$567 to A$597 in year one with no default monthly monitoring, then A$90/yr for the SIM, and Personal Alarms Australia charges roughly A$379 for a no-subscription device (LiveLife Alarms; Personal Alarms Australia, 2026). Both still require buying and wearing a device.
What is the cheapest medical alarm option in Australia?
Among alarms, the lowest ongoing cost is a subscription-free, family-direct device such as Personal Alarms Australia at about A$379 one-off (Personal Alarms Australia). For a no-device, no-monthly-fee option, a daily check-in app like ImAlive is free to start, though it is a different model than a monitored alarm.
How much does MePACS cost?
MePACS lists a home alarm at A$0 for the device plus A$42/mo monitoring, a falls-detection pendant at an extra A$140, a Mobile Alarm at A$385 plus about A$13/mo (or A$55/mo bundled), and a Solo Connect Watch at A$795 to A$825 plus A$59/mo (MePACS, 2026).
How much does Tunstall cost in Australia?
Tunstall Healthcare lists 24/7 Connected Care at A$31.30/mo, a 'Loved Ones Monitoring' family-alert tier at A$10/mo plus a one-time A$390 device with the first 12 months of monitoring free, and a Lifeline Digital plus Vibby fall detector at A$499 including three months of monitoring (Tunstall Healthcare, 2026).
Does an alarm alert my family or a call centre?
It depends on the provider. MePACS, INS LifeGuard, VitalCALL and Safety Link route alerts to a 24/7 monitoring or call centre, while Tunstall's 'Loved Ones Monitoring' (A$10/mo) and LiveLife alert family directly (provider pages, 2026). ImAlive notifies your own chosen family contacts, with no call centre.
Will the Australian government pay for a personal alarm?
It can. From 1 November 2025, the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) Scheme provides upfront funding for assistive technology including personal alarms, across three tiers of up to A$500, A$2,000, or A$15,000 per year (Department of Health and Aged Care). Funding is gated behind Support at Home assessment.
How long is the wait for funded home care in Australia?
As of March 2025, about 87,597 people were on the home-care waitlist, with 88,000-plus approved but not yet receiving care and 120,000-plus awaiting assessment; medium-priority waits run 9 to 12 months and the highest level 12 to 15-plus months, with a target of about 3 months by 2027 (UTS).
Is there a free daily check-in service for seniors in Australia?
Red Cross Telecross offers a free daily safety call between 8:00 and 9:30am, 365 days a year, but eligibility is gated, generally requiring someone aged 65-plus referred via My Aged Care or a provider, or under 65 via the NDIS, and volunteer availability varies by region (Red Cross). ImAlive needs no referral or waitlist.
How much does a fall-detection watch cost in Australia?
Standalone fall-detection watches in Australia start around A$370, with a Falls Watch from A$370 and generic medical-alert watches near A$399.95 (Falls Watch, 2026). These are device-only and require the elderly person to wear and charge the watch.
How does ImAlive compare on cost to an Australian medical alarm?
ImAlive's daily check-in is free to start with no device and no monthly monitoring fee, versus a typical monitored alarm's A$199-A$825 upfront plus A$31-A$59/mo ongoing (provider pages, 2026). ImAlive's paid Lifetime, Family and Family Plus tiers are one-off, optional upgrades, not monthly charges.
What is the difference between a monitored alarm and a daily check-in?
A monitored pendant adds a 24/7 professional response centre and, on some devices, automatic features, charged via an upfront device plus an ongoing monthly fee. A daily check-in is a different model: a free, no-device tap that alerts your own family if it is missed, with no call centre and no GPS tracking.
Do I have to wear a device to use ImAlive?
No. Unlike pendants and smartwatches, ImAlive uses a simple phone check-in, so there is no pendant to charge, no smartwatch to wear and no installation, removing the most common reason personal alarms end up unused.
Does ImAlive track my parent's location?
No. ImAlive is privacy-first and does not track location; the free tier collects no location data at all. It confirms wellbeing through a daily check-in and alerts a chosen family contact if a check-in is missed, which suits families uncomfortable with the GPS tracking used by apps like Life360 (A$9.99/mo, 2026).
Take Action
Related Topics
Get Started in 2 Minutes
Download I'm Alive today and give yourself and your loved ones peace of mind. It's completely free.
Free forever • No credit card required • iOS & Android