The Australian Scholarships Group's annual Planning for Education Index shows the forecast cost of private education in Brisbane for a child born in 2017 is $372,037, a whopping 24 per cent below the national average of $487,093.

The ASG based the figures on responses from more than 12,500 parents, and takes into account uniforms, transport and supplies as well as tuition fees to come up with an estimated cost of sending a child all the way from kindergarten to year 12.

ASG chief executive John Velegrinis said Brisbane's private schooling is not cheap, but it's better priced than other capital cities.

"In relative terms it's obviously a lot more affordable than say NSW or Victoria."

At some of Brisbane's most prestigious private schools, tuition fees for 2017 surpassed the $20,000 mark - comparatively, Sydney's top schools charge more than $30,000 per year.

Brisbane Boy's College, Brisbane Girl's Grammar and Anglican Church Grammar all cost more than $23,000 in tuition fees and levies. While Brisbane Grammar School's 2017 fees are not publicly available, their fees for 2016 were more than $25,000.

While private school fees may be lower in Brisbane than other capitals, Brisbane is the third most expensive city in Australia for public and systemic schooling.

The average cost of a public education is $60,135 - 12 per cent below the national average, but third most expensive only to Melbourne ($77,371) and Sydney ($75,000).

The cost of a systemic education in Brisbane is $243,964, just behind Adelaide at $246,786 and Sydney at $250,862.

"These figures all came from parents, and what parents are giving us a sense of is what they see as the true cost of education," Mr Velegrinis said.

"So the sorts of things included in here are not only the school fees but things like uniforms, text books, laptops or computers where they're appropriate, things like transport costs, so it's really the total cost of getting the child that education."

He said the point of the index is to give parents a "heads up" about the cost of schooling, and give them time to plan for the future.

"It's like retirement: you don't suddenly decide to retire and then work out how you're going to fund it, you do need to start to prepare and plan for that eventuality," Mr Velegrinis said.

"All we advocate is that parents do take some early action and start to plan, and a little bit away each week or each month certainly makes it easy 10 or 15 years into the future when you're faced with the highest cost burden."