Most penetration tests cost between $5,000 and $50,000 or more. A vulnerability scan starts around $1,500, a small external network test around $2,500, and a full adversary simulation around $45,000. Where you land depends on how many assets you hand the testers and how deep you want them to go. Compliance requirements and remediation testing push the number further.
If you’re looking for a startpoint on pentest pricing, or have received three different prices for the same work then this guide is for you.
Instead of leaving you trying to figure out whether the cheapest offer cuts corners and the expensive one is price skimming because of brand name, we’ll explain exactly where the cost of your test comes from. A lot of the time it can come down to how a provider reads your scope.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have clarity on a few things, being:
- What each assessment type costs
- What companies at various stages typically spend across a year
- How to bring the price down without losing coverage
- What to look for in a proposal
If you’re short on time and want the figures up front though, just check out the table we’ve left immediately below.
| Assessment type | Starts at | Typical range | Main cost drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability assessment (scanning) | $1,500 | $1,500 to $5,000 | Asset count, automated tooling only |
| External network | $2,500 | $2,500 to $20,000+ | IP count, locations, network segments |
| Internal network | $5,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 | Depth of access, environment size |
| Web application | $5,000 | $5,000 to $20,000+ | User roles, environments, multi-tenancy |
| API | $3,750 | $3,750 to $15,000+ | Endpoints, auth, documentation quality |
| Mobile application | $7,500 | $7,500 to $20,000+ | Native vs hybrid, platforms, backend |
| Cloud configuration review | $3,750 | $3,000 to $7,500+ | Provider, services in use, complexity |
| Compliance engagement | $5,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 | Framework, assets in scope, attestation |
| AI and LLM assessment | $5,000 | $5,000 to $15,000+ | Models, integrations, agent capability |
| Secure code review | $7,500 | $7,500 to $30,000+ | Codebase size, repositories, languages |
| Red team | $25,000 | 4 week minimum | Detection and response objectives |
| Adversary emulation | $30,000 | 2 week minimum | Threat actor TTP replication, purple team |
| Adversary simulation | $45,000 | 4 week minimum | Full attack chain, Blue Team active |
Now that you know the ranges, continue reading to gain a mi complete understanding of how pricing is formed.
What Determines the Cost of a Penetration Test?
Every quote you receive comes down to tester time. A certified tester’s week costs what it costs, so the real question is how many weeks your environment demands and what has to happen inside them. Four variables account for most of the gap between a $5,000 engagement and a $50,000 one, and you control more of them than you might expect.
Scope and asset count
The scope of your test is the primary factor driving costs, followed by the number of assets that need to be tested. That means that the number of live systems, mix of asset types, and number of testing days will all influence price. So will the type of asset you’re testing, as they all require different expertise and tooling. So, expect networks, apps, APIs, cloud environments etc., to be priced differently.
Testing depth and methodology
More in-depth tests take more time to do and thus cost more. For example, a black box test gives testers nothing to start with, which mirrors an external attacker but burns hours on discovery. White box testing hands over source code and documentation instead, producing deeper findings but taking longer to work through. Red team work adds another layer because staying undetected runs slower than moving efficiently. In addition, if there’s sensitive data, regulated or high-value information that needs to be tested then it’ll usually come at an additional cost.
Who does the testing
Most often, you’ll be looking for a pentest to be performed by an accredited individual or team. Certifications, years of experience and specialisation will increase the cost of your pentest just like those factors would in any other field e.g., a doctor. There’s also the size of the team to consider. The larger the team carrying out your testing, the more you can expect to pay.
Reporting, remediation, and compliance
In terms of reporting, a summary of findings takes far less effort to produce than an audit-ready document with evidence, methodology, and severity justification, and what goes into the report varies by who’s going to read it.
Remediation support works the same way. Verifying that your fixes actually closed the gaps takes tester hours, and validating those fixes efficiently is one of the clearer places to save money without giving up assurance. Compliance adds more to the cost since testing against one framework costs less than testing against three at once.
Now that we’ve covered the factors that impact price most, we can move onto how much different types of penetration tests typically cost.
Penetration Testing Cost by Assessment Type
The ranges that follow reflect what US organizations typically pay in 2026. Treat them as scoping guidance rather than quotes, because the number of assets, the environments involved, and the required testing depth will shift any of them in either direction.
Vulnerability assessment
Vulnerability assessment, often called vulnerability scanning, relies on automated tooling to identify known issues. It generally ranges from $1,500 to $5,000.
A manual penetration test does something different. It includes hands-on validation, business logic testing, controlled exploitation, and detailed remediation guidance, and these engagements typically start at $5,000 per asset, increasing with complexity and scope. It’s important that you understand the distinction between scanning and testing.
Network penetration testing
Network penetration testing engagements typically range from $2,500 for a small black box external attack surface assessment to $20,000 or more for large and complex environments. Time drives the pricing here. The number of IP addresses, physical locations, network segments, connected devices, and overall complexity all determine how long a thorough assessment takes.
For internal network testing, most organizations spend between $5,000 and $15,000 per engagement. Smaller startup environments and compliance-driven assessments often come in below that when scope and testing depth stay limited. Working from inside the perimeter surfaces a different class of finding than an external test does.
Web application penetration testing
Authenticated web application penetration tests typically start at $5,000 and can exceed $20,000 for complex applications. Pricing adjusts based on the number of user roles, environments, and applications, along with dynamic functionality, file upload and download capabilities, multi-tenant architecture, customer-facing AI features, and the amount of remediation testing required.
Modern applications keep getting more complex, and the price generally reflects how much manual testing the business logic demands. Our guide on the methodology behind a web application assessment explains where those hours go.
API penetration testing
A manual-first API penetration testing engagement typically starts at $3,750 for a simple API and can range to $15,000 or more. Endpoint count, authentication mechanisms, and business logic complexity drive pricing most, but documentation quality matters more than people expect. Well-documented APIs take less time to assess, and that shows up directly in the quote.
Mobile application penetration testing
Native mobile application penetration testing typically starts at $7,500 and can exceed $20,000 depending on complexity and scope. Whether your applications run native or hybrid, how many platforms you support, and what happens in the backend integrations all factor in, alongside local data storage, authentication mechanisms, and the volume of functionality that needs testing.
If you ship both iOS and Android, expect the cost to rise.
Cloud security configuration review
Cloud security configuration reviews generally range from $3,000 to $7,500 or more depending on the cloud provider, the services in use, and overall environment complexity.
These aren’t traditional penetration tests, but they work well as an alternative to network testing if you operate primarily in the cloud with limited on-premise infrastructure. Organizations running workloads across more than one cloud provider should expect the higher end of the range.
Red team engagement
Red team engagements test whether your organization can detect and respond to a realistic cyber attack. They evaluate security monitoring, defensive controls, and incident response processes by letting a red team pursue predefined objectives while staying undetected wherever possible. Most engagements require a minimum of 4 weeks and typically start at $25,000.
Adversary emulation
Adversary emulation engagements replicate the tactics, techniques, and procedures of a specific threat actor relevant to your industry or business. Run as collaborative purple team exercises, they let your Red and Blue Teams work together to validate detections, improve defensive capabilities, and strengthen security controls against realistic attack scenarios. Most engagements require a minimum of 2 weeks and typically start at $30,000.
The higher starting price reflects the research involved. Mapping your exposure to a named threat actor takes work before any testing begins.
Adversary simulation
Adversary simulation engagements replicate a full real-world cyber attack from initial access through objective completion. They mirror how a genuine threat actor would operate while your monitoring systems and Blue Team stay fully active, which produces the most realistic assessment of your detection, response, and resilience against advanced attacks. Most engagements require a minimum of 4 weeks and typically start at $45,000.
Compliance penetration testing
Compliance-driven penetration testing engagements, including those performed for SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and similar frameworks, typically range from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the assets in scope.
Most compliance engagements cover a web application, API, or cloud environment, and often include remediation testing and an attestation letter. Additional assets, such as mobile applications or multiple environments, raise the total. When you’re testing against several frameworks, aligning the engagement with your audit calendar usually costs less than commissioning separate tests.
AI security assessment
Security assessments of customer-facing AI applications and AI agents typically start at $5,000 and can exceed $15,000 depending on the number of models, integrations, and use cases being tested.
Prompt injection testing, data leakage scenarios, authorization controls, model integrations, agent capabilities, and the complexity of AI-powered business workflows all shape the price. Testing systems built on large language models requires a different methodology than traditional application testing.
Secure code review
Manual secure code reviews generally start at $7,500 and can exceed $30,000 depending on the size of the codebase, the number of repositories, supported languages, and application complexity.
These reviews look for security weaknesses directly in the source code and often run alongside penetration testing to give deeper coverage of application risk. Teams that build security into the development lifecycle usually enter a review with fewer issues to work through.
Most organizations combine two or three of these rather than buying one in isolation, which is where the company size ranges below come from.
Penetration Testing Cost by Company Size
Above, we took you through what a single test typically costs based on asset type. Now, we get into company size. We want to give you an idea of what a realistic annual program costs. Larger organizations don’t simply buy bigger tests. They buy more of them.
The table below sets out what each tier typically spends, what that budget usually covers, and what tends to prompt the engagement in the first place.
| Company size | Typical spend | What that usually covers | Common trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startups and early stage | $5,000 to $15,000 | The primary application, focused on critical vulnerabilities and whatever a compliance requirement demands | An enterprise customer or an auditor asking for a report |
| Small and mid-sized businesses | $10,000 to $30,000 | Web application test across multiple user roles, cloud configuration review, network test, remediation testing | Annual compliance cycles and customer security reviews |
| Mid-market organizations | $15,000 to $40,000 | Multiple applications, APIs, and network infrastructure | Product complexity and multiple environments rather than headcount |
| Enterprise organizations | $50,000 to $150,000+ | Multiple web and mobile applications, APIs, cloud environments, internal and external networks, Active Directory, red team simulations, remediation testing | Continuous risk management and regulatory obligations |
Now let’s go into more detail.
Startups and early-stage companies
Typical spend: $5,000 to $10,000. Testing at this stage stays deliberately limited, usually covering the primary application and focusing on critical vulnerabilities plus whatever a compliance requirement demands.
Most startups don’t commission a test because they want one. They commission it because an enterprise customer or an auditor asked, and early-stage companies tend to face that request sooner than they plan for.
Small and mid-sized businesses
Typical spend: $10,000 to $25,000. A typical SMB engagement covers a web application penetration test across multiple user roles, a cloud configuration review, a network penetration test, and remediation testing.
That combination gives reasonable coverage of the assets most SMBs actually expose to the internet, without stretching into the specialist work that larger programs require.
Mid-market organizations
Typical spend: $15,000 to $40,000. At this size the scope usually spans multiple applications, APIs, and network infrastructure.
Cost tracks environment complexity far more closely than headcount. A company running a single mature product will cost less to test than a smaller one running four, regardless of which has more employees.
Enterprise organizations
Typical spend: $50,000 to $150,000 or more. Enterprise programs cover multiple web and mobile applications, APIs, cloud environments, internal and external networks, Active Directory, red team simulations, and remediation testing.
Scope, complexity, and duration drive the number here far more than any individual asset does. Continuous penetration testing engagements are also available at this tier for organizations that release too frequently for an annual cycle to keep up.
These bands overlap on purpose. A well-funded startup with a complex product can land squarely in the SMB range, and a large company testing one application will land well below its tier.
How to Reduce Penetration Testing Costs Without Losing Coverage
Cutting the budget and cutting the coverage aren’t the same thing. Several adjustments reduce what you pay without meaningfully reducing what you learn, and most of them happen before the engagement starts.
Test a representative sample rather than everything. If you can’t test every system or application, choose the ones that best represent your environment or hold the most sensitive data. A carefully chosen sample of twenty systems tells you more than a rushed pass over a hundred.
Bring your documentation. This pays off most obviously on API work, where Postman collections and OpenAPI specifications directly shorten the engagement, but it applies everywhere. Architecture diagrams, user role matrices, and credentials that work on the first try all save hours you’d otherwise be paying for.
Get the environment ready before the testers start. A staging environment that goes down on day two, accounts that lock out, or a WAF nobody remembered to allowlist can burn a quarter of a two-week engagement. Preparing your team properly costs a few hours internally and saves considerably more in billable time.
Spread the scope across the year. Four separate two-week tests cost roughly what one eight-week test costs, but the invoices land in different quarters and each round gives your developers time to remediate before the next one begins.
Start smaller than you think you need to. A limited-scope test on your highest-risk asset still produces real findings and a real report. Widen the scope next cycle once you know what the first one turned up.
None of these lower the quality of the testing. They stop you paying for hours that don’t produce findings.
How to Compare Quotes
Three proposals with three different numbers rarely describe the same work. Before you compare prices, compare what sits inside them.
- Retesting. Check whether verification is included or billed separately. A quote that looks $3,000 cheaper stops looking cheaper once you add a retest to it.
- Manual versus automated effort. Some providers price an automated scan close to what others charge for hands-on testing. The reports look similar until you read the findings.
- Deliverables. An audit-ready report, an attestation letter, and evidence formatted for your specific framework are not standard across vendors, and discovering that afterward gets expensive.
- The testers themselves. Certifications, whether the team is US-based, and whether the people who found the issues will also verify the fixes all change what you’re buying.
- Fixed price or estimate. Hourly and credit-based arrangements behave very differently once scope shifts mid-engagement, and the way a provider structures its billing tells you a lot about whose interests the model serves.
Work through those five points and the cheapest proposal on the table often stops being the cheapest one overall.
Getting an Accurate Number for Your Environment
We’ve intended for every price range on this page to serve as guidance. The real number you’ll get quoted will be built around your actual asset inventory, your compliance obligations, and the depth of testing your environment needs.
CYBRI runs manual-first penetration testing through a US-based Red Team, with pricing agreed before the engagement starts rather than after. If you want to work out where your environment lands, tell us what you’re running and we’ll scope it with you.
