Penetration testing prices vary wildly, and most quotes feel like a black box. This guide breaks down what drives the cost, the market ranges by test type, and how continuous autonomous testing changes the math from cost per engagement to cost per coverage.
These are widely cited market ranges for human led engagements in 2026, not Planck Operator prices. Your quote depends on scope and depth. A typical mid sized engagement lands near 18,000 US dollars, and average prices in the United States and Canada sit in a similar band, because scope and depth move the number far more than region does.
| Test type | Typical 2026 range (USD) | Main cost driver |
|---|---|---|
| External network test | $5,000 – $20,000 | Number of live, internet facing hosts |
| Internal network test | $7,000 – $35,000 | Network size and segmentation |
| Web application test | $5,000 – $30,000 | Features, user roles, business logic |
| API penetration test | $5,000 – $25,000 | Endpoint count and auth complexity |
| Mobile application test | $6,000 – $30,000 | Platforms and backend depth |
| Cloud configuration review | $5,000 – $25,000 | Accounts and services in scope |
| Full scope engagement | $15,000 – $50,000+ | Breadth across all of the above |
| Autonomous, continuous testing | Subscription to surface size & cadence | Coverage, not per engagement |
Priced by the hour, senior testers commonly charge roughly 150 to 400 US dollars per hour, but almost no one buys a pentest by the hour: engagements are scoped and quoted as a fixed piece of work. For compliance driven tests such as SOC 2 or HIPAA, expect the upper half of each range, because the methodology, reporting, and retesting are more rigorous.
More assets, more endpoints, and more integrations mean more work. Scope is the single biggest driver of price.
A surface scan and a chained, business logic assessment are different exercises. Depth and tester seniority move the number the most after scope.
A test that has to satisfy PCI DSS or a SOC 2 auditor carries more methodology, reporting, and retesting, and costs accordingly.
Some quotes include a retest of fixed findings and some charge for it. A verified fix is worth more than a longer list.
Priced per engagement, testing twice as often costs twice as much. This is the economic reason most teams only test once a year.
A raw tool output and a report your engineers and your board can both act on are not the same deliverable.
Traditional pricing asks what a test costs. The better question is what continuous coverage costs, because attackers do not wait for your annual window. When testing is priced per engagement, looking more often is expensive, so teams look rarely and hope nothing shipped in between.
Autonomous testing changes the unit. It is priced for continuous coverage, so a significant change is tested when it lands, without a new invoice each time. The honest comparison is not test versus test, it is the cost of continuous testing against the cost of the breach it prevents.
Wildly different quotes usually describe wildly different work. Before you compare prices, make the scope identical, then compare like for like. A quote that will not name its scope, methodology, or whether a retest is included is quoting a mystery, and the low number often hides the shallow test.
Ask every provider for a fixed scope and a fixed price. A good one returns both in a page, not a sales call. Tell us the size and cadence of the surface you want covered and we return a defined scope and a fixed price you can put next to any other quote.
Manual engagements commonly run from about 5,000 to over 50,000 US dollars depending on scope, with many mid sized web application tests landing near the middle of that range. External tests tend to sit lower, internal and full scope engagements higher. Autonomous platforms are usually priced as a subscription tied to the size and cadence of the surface covered, rather than per engagement.
Cost is driven by scope, depth, tester seniority, compliance requirements, and whether retesting is included. A quick external scan and a deep, chained assessment of a complex application are very different pieces of work, so a single price does not exist.
It changes the unit of cost. A traditional engagement is priced per test, so looking more often costs more. Autonomous testing is priced for continuous coverage, so the cost does not scale with how many times you look, which is what makes testing on every change affordable.
A typical mid sized engagement lands near 18,000 US dollars, within a broad market range of roughly 5,000 to over 50,000. Averages in the United States and Canada sit in a similar band; scope and depth move the number far more than which country you are in. A quick external test sits at the low end, a full scope engagement across web, API, and network at the high end.
Priced by the hour, senior testers commonly charge roughly 150 to 400 US dollars per hour, but almost no one buys a pentest by the hour. Engagements are scoped and quoted as a fixed piece of work, so the meaningful number is the fixed price for a defined scope, not an hourly rate.
An external network test commonly runs about 5,000 to 20,000 US dollars, and an internal network test about 7,000 to 35,000, driven mostly by the number of live hosts and how segmented the network is. Web application and API tests are priced separately, so a combined engagement sits higher.
Define the scope first, then ask each provider for a fixed scope and a fixed price against it, plus the methodology, tester seniority, whether a retest is included, and a sample report. Compare like for like. Tell us your surface and cadence and we return a defined scope and a fixed price in a page.
Tell us what you want covered and how often, and we will return a defined scope and a fixed price.