Modeling agencies in Greece: 24 agencies (2026)

The model market in Greece

Fashion and advertising work in Greece is concentrated in the capital. In our catalogue most agencies are in Athens (13), and another five work in neighbouring municipalities of Attica: two in Paleo Faliro and one each in Argyroupoli, Marousi and Nea Smyrni. The second centre is Thessaloniki (5), and one agency works in Heraklion on Crete. In Piraeus, Patras, Larissa, Volos, Ioannina and on the islands we found no agency representing models that has a live website and a model board.

Agency contracts and profiles name advertising first: TV commercials, catalogues, magazines, the internet and social media, with fashion shows alongside. So Greece is above all a commercial market in which people of every age and look, children and actors find work. Local clients include the womenswear brand BSB, in business since 1980 with 108 stores of its own and sales in 21 countries, Funky Buddha, founded in 2005, and the attica department stores in Athens and Thessaloniki.

The country's fashion week is Athens Fashion Week. Its 37th edition ran from 11 to 17 November 2025, and the organiser has announced the 38th for 30 October to 4 November 2026. It is a showcase of Greek designers for the media and buyers; in our reading there are far fewer runway jobs here than in Milan or Paris. Greece refunds 40% of costs to film and television productions, but the scheme does not cover advertising. We found no data on how many foreign fashion shoots take place in Greece, so we give no figures.

A few agencies work as mother agencies themselves and place their models with agencies abroad, for example The Legion MGT in Athens and No Limits Models in Thessaloniki.

How agencies work and what contract you sign

Greece has no licence for model agencies and no register of them. The only placement regime in the law is for private employment agencies (ΙΓΕΕ in Greek, Law 4052/2012, articles 98 to 112). Such an agency notifies the Ministry of Labour that it is starting business, mediates for employment contracts and may not charge the person it places anything. Models are not named in the law, and none of the 144 offices on the Ministry's list of July 2026 is a model agency. We found no ministry guidance and no court ruling on whether the regime applies to model agencies. So we write neither that agency fees are unlawful nor that the law does not apply to them.

In practice Greek agencies work differently from job placement firms. The model gives the agency an exclusive mandate, and the agency signs contracts with the client on the model's behalf, transfers the image rights, collects the fee and pays the model. The fullest published terms we found are those of the Athens agency Matharikou Models. They show what to look for in any contract:

• the commission is 30% of gross income, and the terms call it fixed and not open to renegotiation;
• exclusivity runs for the whole contract; working around the agency costs 30% of that job's fee in damages;
• cooperation starts with a payment of €90 for the presentation file, training and onboarding; it is non-refundable and is paid again each time the contract is renewed;
• leaving early without valid notice costs 15% of the fees earned so far, and at least €400;
• the agency goes on collecting payments for usage rights for five years from the first airing;
• the model is paid only after the client has settled the invoice.

Commission

No law or association sets the commission: it is whatever the contract says. Matharikou Models takes 30% from the model. Bookers Model Agency writes in its terms that it adds a 20% service charge plus VAT to the model's fee for the client, and charges for rights renewals from the second year. These are two examples, not a market rule. Before you sign, ask which commission will apply to you, on what amount it is calculated, and whether the agency also takes a share of a buyout.

Fees for applicants and schools

Some agencies in the catalogue take money from applicants or sell training next to representation. Matharikou Models starts cooperation with a non-refundable €90 fee. Happy People Models sells modelling workshops: a one-month course for €300 plus VAT and a two-month advanced online course for €500 plus VAT. The owner of Cristi Models runs a paid modelling school, Cristi Academy, next to the agency, and the owner of Future Models runs the Models Academy school and beauty pageants. Top Class International in Thessaloniki holds paid seminars, but writes on its application form that it never asks for money for registration. No Limits Models, TEAM modelmanagement and Bodé Agency say they look at submitted photos free of charge.

When the agency pays

In Greece you wait a long time for your money. New Model Agency writes in its terms that it pays the model only once the client has paid and no sooner than 6 months after the day of the job, and on average 8 to 12 months for TV commercials, shoots, series and catwalk; the agency reserves the right to postpone payments. Matharikou Models settles with its models on the 10th and 25th of each month, but only after the client has paid the invoice. Ask about the payment term before your first job, and have it written into the contract or confirmed in writing.

Employment status and insurance

No separate law defines a model's status in Greece. The general test applies: the Supreme Court (Άρειος Πάγος, decision 1388/2022) repeated that neither the way pay is set nor the kind of insurance is decisive, and that the real relationship counts. We found no court decision on a model or a model agency.

In practice there are two routes:

• A model who works occasionally. The payer issues a so-called title of acquisition (τίτλος κτήσης). It is allowed when income from such jobs is no more than €10,000 a year and the person has no duty to register a business. Contributions are withheld from the amount: 13.33% for pension and 6.95% for health care, all borne by the person paid.
• A model who works regularly. The model registers a business with the tax office; the official list of activity codes has one for photo model services (82.99.19.13). Freelancers pay flat monthly contributions: in 2026 from €185.09 a month for the main pension, or €111.06 in the first five years of business; health and other contributions come on top.

The artists' insurance rule (Law 1296/1982, article 4) does not name models. We did not check which country's social insurance covers a Lithuanian model who comes for short jobs: ask Sodra about an A1 certificate before you travel.

Boards and requirements

Greek agencies divide their models into boards. In our catalogue 18 agencies each have a women's and a men's board, 8 a talent board, 6 a new faces board, 4 each a kids and a commercial board, 2 a curve board and 1 a sport board. Three agencies have no boards assigned in the catalogue yet. The mix matches the market: next to fashion models, agencies represent actors, children, families and commercial models for advertising. Bodé Agency in Thessaloniki, founded in 2022, calls itself the first Greek agency to represent curve models only.

Fashion agencies state height requirements. Cristi Models asks for at least 1.72 m for women and 1.80 m for men, No Limits Models for more than 1.74 m and 1.84 m, and TEAM modelmanagement for 173–⁠181 cm for women and 184–⁠190 cm for men. Runway requirements are covered in the guide runway model, and the types of modelling work are compared in types of modeling. You can filter the catalogue by board: women, men, talent, new faces, kids, commercial, curve, sport.

How to choose an agency

We do not rank agencies and we do not vouch for them. The catalogue lists every Greek business that represents models and runs a model board. That includes agencies that charge applicants for a presentation file, sell photo shoots or training, run a school, organise beauty pageants, and agencies on whose websites we found almost no company details. We left out only hostess, promotion and event staffing firms without models, databases where anyone can upload a profile, actor-only agencies, schools that represent nobody, and dead websites.

Each agency profile shows what we found, good and bad: the address, boards, founding year and history, the company name and tax number when we know them, and also fees charged to applicants with their prices, payment terms, schools and courses, and press reports. We show no licence and no association membership, because Greece has neither. Bookers Model Agency calls itself a member of the Greek Model Agencies Union (S.A.M.E.), but we found no website and no member list of that union.

You can check a company yourself. Law 4919/2022 requires companies to show their name, legal form, seat and General Commercial Registry (G.E.MI.) number on their website. The register search at publicity.businessportal.gr is free and needs no account. A tax number can be checked in the EU's VIES system with the prefix EL. On the websites of some small agencies we found none of these details; in that case ask for them before you sign. Check:

• that the agency has a board that suits you and a live model board;
• that the contract states in figures the commission, duration, scope of exclusivity and the exit terms, with any penalties;
• whether the agency charges for a presentation file, photos or training, how much, whether the charge is compulsory and whether it recurs at renewal;
• how long after a job you will be paid, and how you will see deductions on your statement;
• to whom, and for how long, you hand over the rights to your image;
• that you can take the contract home and show it to a lawyer.

A longer checklist is in the guide how to choose a modeling agency, and risky contract clauses are covered in modeling contract.

Under-age models

In Greece everyone under 18 is a minor. Work under 15 is banned, but article 52 of Law 3850/2010 makes an exception and names advertising, fashion shows and modelling directly: with a Labour Inspectorate permit, children from the age of 3 may work in them, provided their health and morals are not harmed.

• The permit is granted to the client on application. It states the child's name and age, the work, the daily programme and the duration.
• The permit lasts at most three months and is extended only in exceptional cases. It is free.
• The client adds a declaration of protective measures, the consent of the person with custody and a medical certificate from the public health service.
• Daily limits: 2 hours from 3 to 6, 3 hours from 6 to 11, 4 hours from 11 to 13 and 5 hours from 13 to 15. No work during school hours in term time.
• Fifteen-year-olds, and anyone still at school, may work up to 6 hours a day and 30 a week; from 16, up to 8 hours a day and 40 a week.
• Minors do no overtime and no work between 22:00 and 6:00. They are entitled to at least 12 hours of unbroken rest a day and two consecutive rest days a week.

We found no Greek rule on a minimum age or body mass index for runway models.

Taxes

You become tax-resident in Greece if you have your permanent or main home here, live here habitually, have your centre of vital interests here, or spend more than 183 days in the country within any twelve months. Most Lithuanian models who fly in for jobs remain non-residents.

From 2026 residents pay tax on salaries and business income on this scale (lower rates apply to younger people and to people with children):

Our sources do not settle how much tax is withheld from a visiting Lithuanian model, so we do not print a single percentage. This is what is known:

• The Income Tax Code (Law 4172/2013, articles 62 and 64) provides for 20% withholding on fees for technical, management, consultancy and similar services paid to an individual; the amount withheld is credited against the final tax. Whether a model's fee counts as a "similar service" is not confirmed in a primary source.
• The Matharikou Models terms say that "the statutory taxes of 20% and the 3.6% stamp duty" are withheld from the model's share. We could not confirm whether the stamp duty still applies in 2026.
• The Greece–Lithuania double tax treaty was signed on 15 May 2002, ratified by Law 3356/2005 and has applied since 1 January 2006. Under its article 14, income from independent work is taxed only in your country of residence unless you have a fixed base in the other country; a stay of more than 183 days within twelve months is treated as such a base.
• Article 17 of the treaty lets the income of entertainers and athletes be taxed where they perform. Whether a model counts as an entertainer, and whether a fee for image rights counts as a royalty, is not confirmed.
• The tax administration AADE publishes forms for applying the treaty, but its page does not say which documents to attach or where to file them.

So before your first job, ask the agency in writing what tax and which contributions it will withhold from a non-resident, whether it will apply the treaty and which documents that takes, and talk to a tax adviser in Lithuania. The standard VAT rate in Greece is 24%; we did not check how VAT works when a model living in Lithuania invoices a Greek company. Model taxes in general are covered in the guide model taxes.

Papers and registration

EU citizens may stay in Greece for up to three months with nothing but a valid ID card or passport, and there is no work permit for EU citizens. If you only fly in for jobs and keep living in Lithuania, you need no registration certificate.

1. Tax number (ΑΦΜ). Any individual can apply, wherever they pay tax: online through myAADE, with identity confirmed by video call or at a tax office. For people living abroad AADE asks for a tax representative in Greece; its page does not say whether this is always required of an EU resident.
2. Social security number (ΑΜΚΑ). An adult EU citizen gets it at a citizens' service centre (KEP) or an e-EFKA office with an ID document and the ΑΦΜ. It is free and takes 15 to 30 minutes.
3. Registration certificate. If you stay longer than three months, go in person, once they have passed, to the police office for aliens' matters where you live. You need a copy of your ID and a confirmation from your employer or other proof that you work under a contract or self-employed. The certificate is issued on the spot.
4. Payment on a title of acquisition. This takes registration in the e-EFKA register: online with Taxisnet codes, or at an office with the contract.

We could not confirm whether agencies ask a foreign model on a short visit for an ΑΦΜ and ΑΜΚΑ before paying, so ask the agency before you travel.

Scams and warning signs

We found no warnings from Greek authorities about paid model castings, but the agencies themselves see the danger. The Legion MGT warns on its website that fake scouts, agents and photographers approach people using its name. In 2013 police in Thessaloniki arrested a man who posed on social media as a model agency owner and lured under-age girls; he had no agency at all.

A fee on its own does not mean a scam: some agencies in the catalogue openly charge for a presentation file or sell training, and we say so on their profiles. What matters is whether the price is clear in advance, whether you can take your time to decide and whether anyone is pressing you. Warning signs:

• someone writes in an agency's name from a personal account, and the agency's website shows no such employee or contact;
• a fee whose amount nobody states in advance, or one you must pay at once;
• a contract you may not take home, or one without the commission and the payment term;
• the website gives neither a company name nor an address, and you cannot find the company in the G.E.MI. register;
• you are invited to a "casting" in a private apartment or hotel, or asked to come without your parents;
• you are asked for nude or underwear photos, especially of minors, or for a copy of your ID before any contract.

If someone contacts you in the name of a Greek agency, check the contact on the agency's official website or ask your mother agency. No agency should ask for money for a comp card in a social media message. More signs are listed in the glossary entry modeling scams.

How to apply

The safest route to Greece is through a mother agency: it sends Greek agencies digitals, measurements and a video, and once there is an offer it negotiates the terms. If you apply directly:

1. Choose agencies by city and board: the catalogue above can be filtered.
2. Read on the agency's profile what we found about fees for applicants and payment terms.
3. Take photos in daylight without make-up: face from the front and in profile, and full length. Measure your height, bust, waist and hips accurately.
4. If you are under 18, include your parents' contact details: some agencies accept applications from minors only with a guardian.
5. When invited, ask in writing for the contract, the commission, the payment term, every fee you would pay and who will cover travel and housing.
6. Prepare for castings with the guide model castings: how to prepare.