SOC 2 Cost Breakdown (2026)
Where SOC 2 budget really goes: auditor fees, tooling, and internal effort.
Get Your Readiness Score →Free • No credit card • Business email required
SOC 2 cost components
Budget spans external auditor fees, tooling, and internal effort. Urgency and scope change the mix.
Auditor fees
- Driven by scope (systems, criteria), observation window, and evidence quality.
- Type I vs Type II and how much hand-holding you need influence pricing.
Tooling
- Helps automate evidence and logging; optional if controls are already mature.
- Costs vary by seat and integration depth; evidence quality matters more than tool count.
Internal effort
- Engineering and operations time to stabilize access controls, logging, and change records.
- Preparation time is often underestimated; ownership clarity reduces churn.
Timeline compression
- Urgent timelines increase cost; auditors charge for acceleration and gaps create rework.
- Typically, scope clarity and evidence quality drive both timeline and cost.
How to reduce cost without cutting corners
- Lock down access control and change management to avoid scope creep and rework.
- Clarify systems and data flows so auditors price accurately.
- Stabilize evidence collection before asking for Type II.
- Use tooling where it improves evidence quality, not just to add dashboards.
- Sequence policies and controls in line with what auditors actually test.
Use the readiness assessment to get a tailored cost range tied to your scope and timeline.
Get Your Readiness Score →Free • No credit card • Business email required
Trust & privacy
- No login required; business email required.
- Answers used only to calculate your score
- Estimates are planning guidance, not audit advice