Average Cost of a Penetration Test in 2026
The average cost of a penetration test in 2026 is $4,000 to $25,000 for most focused engagements, with a typical web application test landing around $10,000 to $30,000. Enterprise red-team engagements run $20,000 to $100,000 or more.
No major vendor publishes a list price; all are contact-sales. The figures above are triangulated estimates from published 2026 buyer guides, not vendor list prices.
Average Cost by Test Type
| Test type | Published range | Typical | What drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web application | $5,000 - $30,000 | $10k - $20k | Single app, OWASP Top 10, auth and business-logic testing |
| External network | $4,000 - $20,000 | $6k - $12k | Internet-facing infrastructure, perimeter, exposed services |
| Internal network | $6,000 - $35,000 | $10k - $20k | Assumed-breach, lateral movement, privilege escalation |
| API | $5,000 - $18,000 | $7k - $14k | REST/GraphQL endpoints, auth flows, rate-limit and access control |
| Mobile app | $8,000 - $25,000 | $10k - $18k | iOS/Android, platform-specific, plus the backing API |
| Cloud configuration | $8,000 - $30,000 | $12k - $22k | AWS/Azure/GCP config review, IAM, exposed storage |
| Red team | $20,000 - $100,000+ | $40k - $80k | Objective-based, multi-vector, social engineering and physical |
Ranges triangulated from BSG (most full-scope tests $4,000-$25,000) and Bright Defense (average $5,000-$40,000+; web app $5,000-$30,000), cross-checked against Astra and Deepstrike. “Typical” is the band most buyers land in, not a guaranteed quote. See sources.
Has the average changed since 2023?
Not by much. The commonly cited range for a focused web application test was roughly $5,000 to $30,000 in 2023 and 2024 buyer guides, and 2026 guides cite broadly the same band. Day-rate inflation has pushed the floor up modestly, but the headline range has stayed stable across all three years.
What has not changed: anything labelled a pentest under $3,000 is almost certainly automated vulnerability scanning presented as manual testing. A real pentest needs human testers reasoning about your specific architecture, and that floor has held since 2023.
Average cost in the United States
US penetration testing rates run $150 to $500 per tester hour and $1,200 to $7,000 per day depending on seniority, which works out to $4,000 to $25,000 for most full-scope engagements. US rates sit at the higher end of the global market.
Comparable UK and EMEA work is typically 20 to 35 percent lower for equivalent tester seniority, and APAC lower still. See the day-rate reference for the full hourly and daily breakdown by tester tier.
Get a band for your specific scope
An average is a starting point, not a quote. Map your application profile to a realistic cost band with the scope estimator, then compare the eight major vendors before the sales call.
By Oliver Wakefield-Smith. Last reviewed June 2026.