An escort is a companion who is paid for their time. A client books an escort to spend an hour, an evening or a night together, whether that means dinner, drinks, an event or private time. In the UK, escorts work for themselves or through an escort agency, and they set their own rates, hours and boundaries.
In short
- An escort is paid for time and companionship, agreed in advance.
- Escorts work independently or through an agency that handles bookings.
- Escorting between consenting adults is legal in England, though some related activities are not.
- The word has everyday meanings too, such as a police escort or an escort vehicle.
The meaning of escort
The word comes from the idea of going along with someone, and it still has that everyday meaning. A police escort travels with a vehicle to protect it, an escort vehicle drives with an oversized load on the motorway, and a ship can be escorted into harbour. Used about someone you can book, an escort is a paid companion, and an escort agency is a business that introduces clients to them.
A female escort is a woman who works as a companion, and a male escort is a man who does the same. London Escorts Hub is a directory of female escorts in London, listed by area with their rates and verification badges.
What escort means in slang
In everyday slang, and in most of the searches that bring people here, escort means someone paid for their company, with the understanding that the time together can include sex. That is why the word needs care: a news story about a police escort and a profile on an escort directory use the same word for quite different things.
An escort service is the business side of it, usually an agency that answers the phone, introduces clients to its escorts and arranges each booking. An escort girlfriend or girlfriend experience is a style of booking rather than a different job: warm, unhurried and date-like. Our GFE guide explains what people mean by it.
What does an escort do?
An escort’s job is to be good company. What that looks like depends on the booking:
- Private time. The most common booking: an hour or two together at her place (an incall) or yours (an outcall).
- Dinner dates. A meal and conversation at a restaurant, often followed by time together in private.
- Events and social occasions. A companion for a party, a work function or a night out.
- Overnights and travel. Longer bookings that take in an evening, a night or a trip away.
Whatever the booking, the rate pays for her time and companionship. Anything else that happens is a private matter between consenting adults, and every escort decides her own boundaries.
Escort or prostitute: what is the difference?
People ask this more than almost anything else about the word, and the honest answer is that the difference lies in how the booking works, not in what the law says.
An escort is booked privately and in advance, by phone or through an agency, for a set length of time at her place or yours. She has a profile with her rates and her areas, she chooses who she sees, and the fee is for her time and companionship. What two consenting adults do in private during that time is their own business. Prostitute is the older and blunter word for someone who is paid for sex, and it is the word most UK laws use.
In England and Wales the law doesn’t treat the two differently. Paying a consenting adult in private is legal whatever you call it, and the offences are the same for everyone: soliciting in public, kerb crawling, brothel keeping and exploitation. Our guide to whether prostitution is legal in the UK covers the detail. Most people who work this way in London call themselves escorts, and it is the word this hub uses.
Escort, call girl, courtesan or sugar baby
Several other words circle the same idea, and they are not quite interchangeable.
- Call girl is the older word, from the days when clients booked by calling a number rather than meeting someone in the street. In practice it describes much the same work as escort, and it is the phrase many Americans still search for.
- Courtesan is the historic word for a companion to the wealthy and powerful, and a few high-class escorts use it for the long, social bookings they prefer. Our guide to high-class escorts in London covers that end of the market.
- Sugar baby describes an ongoing arrangement with one person, usually with gifts or an allowance rather than a rate for each meeting. It is a relationship with terms, not a booking.
- Companion is the polite word agencies and escorts often use in their own descriptions, and it means the same as escort.
When someone says they are an escort
They mean they work as a paid companion, and for most of them it is a business they run: their own rates, their own diary, their own rules about who they see and what a booking includes. Some answer their own phone. Others work with an agency that handles calls and checks clients. Either way, the person you book is an adult who has chosen the work, and the best bookings are the ones where both people treat it that way.
How escorts work in London
Most London escorts have a profile with photos, a short description, the areas they cover and their rates. Clients find them through directories like this one, then contact them directly by phone or WhatsApp.
- Independent escorts run their own diary, answer their own phone and keep the whole fee.
- Agency escorts are booked through an agency, which answers the calls, checks the details and arranges the booking.
Our guide to choosing an independent escort or an agency compares the two. You can also browse London escort agencies and see every escort each one lists.
What does an escort cost?
Rates depend on the escort, the area and the length of the booking. Outcalls usually cost more than incalls, and longer bookings such as overnights have rates of their own. Every profile on the hub shows her own prices, and the London escort rates page shows what is typical across London.
Is it legal to see an escort?
In England, Wales and Scotland, paying an adult for their time and companionship is legal, and so is what two consenting adults choose to do in private. Some related activities are offences, such as kerb crawling, keeping a brothel, and paying for sex with someone who is being exploited. Northern Ireland has stricter laws. Our guide is it legal to see an escort in the UK explains the details.
The US works the other way round. Paying for sex is a crime almost everywhere there, apart from licensed brothels in a few rural Nevada counties, and US law treats an escort booking that includes sex as prostitution. Visitors from the US are often surprised by how differently London works, which is why we wrote a guide for American visitors.
Words you will see on escort profiles
Escort profiles use a lot of shorthand. GFE stands for girlfriend experience, a relaxed and affectionate booking that feels like a date. Incall and outcall say whether you visit her or she visits you. A duo is a booking with two escorts together. Our guide to escort terms explains the rest, and the GFE guide covers the girlfriend experience in more detail.
