SOC 2 cost calculator

For most small and mid-sized companies, a first-year SOC 2 lands somewhere between roughly $15,000 and $80,000 all in, once you add the auditor fee, an optional penetration test, readiness tooling, and internal staff time. A lean Type I with a boutique auditor and no penetration test can come in well under that; a broad Type II at a larger firm sits at the top. 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.

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. A Type I audit fee is commonly around $5,000 to $20,000, while a Type II is commonly around $12,000 to $50,000. Type II also consumes more internal staff time, since you have to keep evidence flowing across the whole observation window.

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.

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.