SOC 2

What does a SOC 2 audit cost?

Published vendor estimates put a SOC 2 Type I audit roughly in the $5,000 to $20,000 range and a Type II from about $7,000 into six figures depending on scope, with small companies commonly at the lower end. The audit fee is only part of the total: readiness work, a penetration test, tooling, and internal time usually make the all-in first-year cost larger than the auditor invoice.

The audit fee is the small number

Published estimates from compliance vendors put a SOC 2 Type I audit roughly in the $5,000 to $20,000 range, and a Type II anywhere from about $7,000 into six figures depending on scope, with SMBs commonly at the lower end. Scope drives most of the variance, so treat these as ranges, not quotes.

The all-in cost is larger

Add a readiness assessment, a penetration test, tooling, and internal staff time, and the first-year all-in cost is typically well above the auditor fee. The expensive part of SOC 2 is usually preparation and evidence, not the audit invoice itself.

How to lower it

A readiness assessment first avoids surprises, continuous evidence avoids a last-minute scramble, and reusing controls across frameworks means later frameworks are mostly reuse. Keel is built for exactly this, and our research report breaks the numbers down with cited sources.

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