Free tool
SOC 2 cost calculator
"How much does SOC 2 cost?" has no single answer, so this calculator gives you a realistic range instead of a fake exact number. Answer five questions and see an estimated first-year breakdown across the auditor fee, penetration testing, readiness tooling, and the internal staff time that rarely shows up on an invoice. Everything updates instantly, and you do not need to enter an email to see it.
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Assumes a loaded internal labor cost of about $75 to $120 per hour. Change any answer and the estimate updates instantly.
Estimated first-year cost
An estimate, not a quote. Actual costs vary by scope and provider.
- Auditor / attestation fee
- Penetration test
- Readiness tooling / platform
- Internal staff time
Ranges reflect typical 2026 US market pricing. Your real number depends on system scope, existing controls, and the specific auditor and vendors you choose.
Keel sits at the bottom of the readiness tooling line
The readiness platform line above spans lightweight tooling up to a full-price compliance platform. Keel is at the low end of it: free to start, then $99/mo or $299/mo, and you get the controls, evidence, policies, and a live readiness view for SOC 2 (crosswalked to ISO 27001:2022, HIPAA, PCI DSS 4.0.1, and more). The bigger saving is the staff-time line, which is the one nobody invoices you for. You still hire an independent auditor for the attestation itself; Keel makes getting there faster and cheaper.
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SOC 2 cost, answered
How much does SOC 2 cost?
For most small and mid-sized companies, a first-year SOC 2 lands somewhere between roughly $20,000 and $100,000 all in, once you add the auditor fee, an optional penetration test, readiness tooling, and internal staff time. A lean Type I at a boutique firm with no penetration test can start around $6,000; a broad Type II at a large brand-name firm, with a 200-plus person scope and the readiness work done by hand, can run past $200,000. The calculator on this page shows a personalized range because the honest answer is that it depends on report type, scope, and the providers you pick.
How much more does a SOC 2 Type II cost than a Type I?
A Type II attestation typically costs two to three times a Type I, because the auditor tests that your controls operated over a period (often three to twelve months) rather than at a single point in time. For a typical 11-to-50-person company using a mid-sized firm, a Type I audit fee is commonly around $5,000 to $20,000 and a Type II around $12,000 to $50,000. Firm tier and scope move both: at the lean end the calculator shows an audit fee from about $3,000 for a Type I and about $7,000 for a Type II, and at the top end a large firm auditing a 200-plus person scope reaches about $42,000 for a Type I and can exceed $100,000 for a Type II. Type II also consumes more internal staff time, since you have to keep evidence flowing across the whole observation window.
Is SOC 2 cheaper the second year?
Usually, yes. Year one carries the one-time readiness work: writing policies, standing up controls, and collecting your first full evidence set. In year two you are mostly maintaining and refreshing what already exists, so internal staff time drops and readiness tooling is a renewal rather than a build. The recurring auditor fee tends to stay in a similar band, but the total is normally lower because the heavy lift is behind you.
What drives SOC 2 cost the most?
The biggest levers are report type (Type II costs more than Type I), the scope of your systems and team, the auditor firm you choose, whether you add a penetration test, and how much of the readiness work you do by hand versus with a platform. Internal staff time is the most commonly underestimated line: doing readiness in spreadsheets can quietly consume hundreds of hours that never show up on an invoice.