Annual data report · live edition
State of AI Compliance Pricing 2026
What do ISO 42001 and EU AI Act practitioners actually charge? This report answers with the price bands practitioners disclose on their ComplyIndex listings — no estimates, no vendor quotes, no rounding-up. It is recomputed every time the directory is rebuilt, so the numbers below reflect the current listing set (last verification: August 2026).
Headline numbers
- Listings
- 93
- 53 verified (57%)
- Countries
- 21
- 5 of 5 regions represented
- Disclose gap band
- 32
- 34% of listings
- Disclose retainer band
- 27
- 29% of listings
- Median gap band
- $5k–$15k
- ordinal median, disclosed only
How to read this edition
Source. Every number is computed from the typed price_band_gap_analysis and price_band_retainer fields on published listings, exactly as disclosed by the practitioner or confirmed from their public rate card during verification. We never guess a band; anything unknown is stored as undisclosed.
n. Percentages in the band tables use the number of disclosing practitioners as the denominator; undisclosed listings are counted and shown but excluded. Percentages are rounded to whole numbers. Where a segment has fewer than five disclosing listings, treat its “most common band” as an anecdote, not a benchmark.
Bands, not prices. Practitioners disclose a band, so the report stays in bands. The “median” is an ordinal median over disclosed bands — the band the middle practitioner sits in — not a dollar figure.
What v1.1 adds. This is the live, listing-derived edition. The 2026 edition proper adds a practitioner survey (implementation and certification-audit fees, day rates, and what changed year on year) and will be published alongside these live tables. Until then, nothing on this page is survey data.
Key findings
- Most common gap-analysis band: $5k–$15k (44% of the 32 practitioners disclosing a gap-analysis band).
- Most common fractional / retainer band: $5k–$15k / month (52% of the 27 practitioners disclosing a retainer band).
- 34% of listings disclose a gap-analysis band and 29% disclose a retainer band; 10% disclose both.
- EU has the most listings (39 of 93, 42%); most common gap-analysis band there is $5k–$15k.
- Firm size tracks price: solo practitioner firms most often quote Under $5k for a gap analysis, while 11–50 people firms most often quote $15k–$50k.
- Consultancy is the most common provider type (40, 43% of listings).
- 53 of 93 listings (57%) are verified — credentials confirmed against a registry or reviewed certificate. Unverified listings are included in pricing counts but flagged in the CSV.
Generated from the data on this page; they change when the listings change.
Gap-analysis price bands
A gap analysis is the usual first engagement: a scoped assessment of where an organisation stands against ISO/IEC 42001 or the EU AI Act, ending in a prioritised remediation plan. Bands are the practitioner’s typical fixed fee for that piece of work.
| Price band | Practitioners | Share of disclosing |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5k | 7 | 22% |
| $5k–$15k | 14 | 44% |
| $15k–$50k | 11 | 34% |
| $50k+ | 0 | 0% |
| Undisclosed | 61 | excluded from percentages |
Fractional and retainer bands
Monthly bands for ongoing engagements — fractional AI governance officers, standing legal advisory, and post-certification support. Not every practitioner offers retainers, which is one reason disclosure is lower here than for gap analyses.
| Monthly band | Practitioners | Share of disclosing |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5k / month | 5 | 19% |
| $5k–$15k / month | 14 | 52% |
| $15k–$30k / month | 8 | 30% |
| $30k+ / month | 0 | 0% |
| Undisclosed | 66 | excluded from percentages |
By region
Region is the practitioner’s HQ country, grouped as EU member states; UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland; the Americas; APAC (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India); and everywhere else. Where a practitioner serves clients is a separate field and is not used here.
| Region | Listings | Verified | Most common gap-analysis band | Most common retainer band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU | 39 (42%) | 23 | $5k–$15k (10 of 16) | $5k–$15k / month (5 of 11) |
| UK & non-EU Europe | 19 (20%) | 9 | Under $5k (2 of 4) | $5k–$15k / month (3 of 6) |
| Americas | 26 (28%) | 14 | Under $5k (2 of 6) | $5k–$15k / month (4 of 8) |
| APAC | 7 (8%) | 6 | $15k–$50k (2 of 4) | $5k–$15k / month (1 of 1) |
| Other | 2 (2%) | 1 | $5k–$15k (1 of 2) | $5k–$15k / month (1 of 1) |
By firm size
Headcount of the practice as declared on the listing. Solo practitioners and small boutiques dominate this market; the table shows whether their quoted bands differ from those of larger firms.
| Firm size | Listings | Verified | Most common gap-analysis band | Most common retainer band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo practitioner | 15 (16%) | 12 | Under $5k (5 of 6) | $5k–$15k / month (4 of 9) |
| 2–10 people | 23 (25%) | 9 | $5k–$15k (10 of 13) | Under $5k / month (2 of 3) |
| 11–50 people | 29 (31%) | 18 | $15k–$50k (10 of 13) | $5k–$15k / month (6 of 8) |
| 51–250 people | 13 (14%) | 11 | — | $5k–$15k / month (3 of 6) |
| 250+ people | 13 (14%) | 3 | — | $15k–$30k / month (1 of 1) |
By provider type
Consultancies, law firms, certification bodies, fractional officers, training providers and independent auditors price differently because they sell different things. Certification bodies, for instance, rarely quote a gap-analysis band because the audit itself is scoped per applicant.
| Provider type | Listings | Verified | Most common gap-analysis band | Most common retainer band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consultancy | 40 (43%) | 21 | $5k–$15k (14 of 28) | $5k–$15k / month (5 of 10) |
| Law firm | 17 (18%) | 9 | — | $5k–$15k / month (5 of 9) |
| Certification body | 15 (16%) | 7 | — | — |
| Fractional AI governance officer | 9 (10%) | 8 | — | $5k–$15k / month (4 of 8) |
| Training provider | 8 (9%) | 4 | — | — |
| Independent auditor | 4 (4%) | 4 | Under $5k (4 of 4) | — |
Disclosure rate
How many practitioners publish a band at all. Disclosure is itself a market signal — a listing with public bands tends to be a fixed-scope, productised practice — and it sets the n for every table above.
| Listings that… | Count | Share of all listings |
|---|---|---|
| Disclose a gap-analysis band | 32 | 34% |
| Disclose a retainer band | 27 | 29% |
| Disclose at least one band | 50 | 54% |
| Disclose both bands | 9 | 10% |
Framework coverage
Context for the pricing tables: which frameworks the listed practitioners cover. One listing can cover several, so shares add to more than 100%.
| Framework | Listings | Verified | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 42001 | 67 | 43 | 72% |
| EU AI Act | 61 | 34 | 66% |
| ISO/IEC 27001 | 27 | 12 | 29% |
| NIST AI RMF | 26 | 18 | 28% |
| GDPR | 23 | 7 | 25% |
| NYC Local Law 144 | 11 | 5 | 12% |
| SOC 2 | 10 | 4 | 11% |
| Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205) | 9 | 7 | 10% |
| Illinois HB 3773 | 6 | 5 | 6% |
| Texas TRAIGA | 3 | 3 | 3% |
Get the data
Every table on this page plus anonymised per-listing rows (provider type, HQ region, firm size, both bands, verified flag). No names, URLs or contact details. CC BY 4.0 — cite ComplyIndex and link to this page.
Practitioners: contribute to the 2026 survey
The survey opens with the v1.1 edition and covers the fees this page cannot see yet: implementation, certification audit, day rates, and year-on-year change. The fastest way to be invited is to have a listing — submit or claim yours and disclose your bands.
Want the edition when it lands? The newsletter form in the footer sends one email per release, nothing else.
Sponsored by — available
Report sponsorship is sold to software vendors — GRC, AI governance and assurance platforms — never to listed practitioners. A sponsor gets a logo and a section credit; they get no say over the data, the method, or which practitioners appear.
Inclusion in this dataset is not an endorsement, and a disclosed band is not a quote. Verification covers credentials and business existence (see how verification works); it does not audit prices. Payment never influences verification, and neither featured placement nor sponsorship changes anything on this page.