I sell code audits for a living, my prices are public, and this guide will still tell you the truth about the whole market — including when the cheap option is the right one. Prices below are what the market actually charges in 2026, what each tier really buys, and the red flags that mean you are paying senior prices for scanner output.
The price map
- $100–500: automated scans with a human wrapper. Dependency checkers, linters, and an AI pass, lightly narrated. Fine for a hobby project's peace of mind; not a basis for a business decision. If a report at this price claims to have "audited your security," treat it as marketing.
- $500–2,000: the focused one-day review. A real engineer reads your code for a day and tells you the truth about the highest-risk areas. The honest version of this tier scopes hard: one app, the riskiest surfaces first, a continue-or-fix verdict. This is the right buy for AI-built and early-stage codebases.
- $3,000–8,000: the senior fixed-scope audit. Multiple days, evidence-graded findings with file-and-line citations, severity and classification per finding, staging verification where access allows, and prioritized next steps your team (or your agency) can be held to. Most funded startups and agency-built products should buy at this tier.
- $8,000–25,000+: due-diligence grade. Architecture and security assessment, delivery-process review, remediation roadmap by quarter, readout calls with stakeholders, and a report written to hold up in front of investors or acquirers. Boutique firms charge $15,000–50,000 here; senior independents deliver equivalent depth for less because you are not paying for their office.
What actually drives the price
- Who reads the code. The spread between a checklist reviewer and an engineer who has operated revenue-critical systems is the whole market. You are buying pattern recognition that only forms in production.
- How findings are evidenced. "Authentication could be improved" is worthless. "Any logged-in customer can call the admin export endpoint — verified at file:line, reproduced on staging" is actionable. Evidence discipline is the clearest quality marker a report has.
- Codebase size and surface area — but less than you would think. A good reviewer prices by scope and risk surface, not lines of code. Beware pricing that scales purely with repo size; it rewards slow reading.
- Turnaround. Days-not-weeks delivery costs more per day and is usually worth it: a report delivered in a week informs the decision it was bought for; one delivered in six often arrives after the decision.
Red flags at any price
- No sample report before you buy. The deliverable is the product — you should see its shape first.
- Open-ended hourly billing for a bounded task.
- No named reviewer. If you cannot find out who reads your code, the answer is "whoever is free."
- Findings without evidence, severity, or a recommended action.
- A report that cannot say anything positive. Real codebases contain things worth keeping; a review that finds nothing salvageable is selling a rebuild.
Where I sit in this map, transparently: a $750 clarity call, a $1,450 one-day AI-build review, a $4,500 five-day independent audit, and a $9,500 two-week deep dive — all fixed fee, all delivered by me personally, with the sample report public so you can judge the deliverable before spending anything.
Or skip the reading: the free audit cost check matches your situation to the right tier in under a minute.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a code audit cost for a startup?
For a typical startup codebase, expect $1,000 to $2,000 for a one-day focused review, $3,000 to $8,000 for a senior multi-day audit with evidence-backed findings, and $8,000 to $25,000+ for due-diligence-grade work covering architecture, security posture, and a remediation roadmap. Below roughly $500 you are buying an automated scan with a human cover letter.
Why do code audit prices vary so much?
Three drivers: who reads the code (a checklist offshore team vs. a senior engineer who has operated production systems), how findings are evidenced (vague concerns vs. file-and-line citations you can hand to your team), and what surrounds the reading (staging verification, architecture assessment, remediation sequencing, follow-up Q&A). The reading is the cheap part; the judgment and the deliverable are what you pay for.
Is a fixed-fee audit better than hourly?
For the buyer, almost always. An audit is a bounded task with a defined deliverable — exactly what fixed pricing is for. Hourly audits have a built-in conflict: the longer the reviewer takes, the more they earn. Fixed fee with fixed scope puts the risk on the reviewer, where it belongs, and lets you compare offers directly.
Written by Andrej Dragojevic, Stripe Certified Professional Billing Architect.