How Much Does a Financial Statement Audit Cost in 2026? Fees From 12 SEC Filings

A small US public company paid a median of $517,554 in audit fees for fiscal 2025, across 12 companies with revenue from about $1 million to $200 million whose 2026 proxy statements we read, as of October 2026. The range ran from $89,750 to $894,278. A private startup's first audit costs far less, because it skips quarterly reviews and SEC filings, but the same drivers set the bill.

Audit firms rarely publish price lists, so the most reliable public data on what audits cost is the fee table every SEC-registered company must print in its proxy statement. CFOpresso data: our data set pairs the fiscal 2025 audit fee from 12 proxy statements filed between March and September 2026 with each company's reported revenue from its own XBRL filings. Revenue explained surprisingly little of the fee: a company with $1.1 million of revenue paid more than one with $84 million.

Audit fees at 12 small public companies

Audit fees are the "Audit fees" line of each proxy's principal accountant fee table, which covers the annual audit, quarterly reviews and SEC filing work. Revenue comes from each company's XBRL company facts on SEC EDGAR, read October 21, 2026. Audit-related, tax and other fees are excluded.

The table is a sample, not a census. We took companies whose 2026 proxy filings mention smaller reporting company status and kept those with a clean fee table and reported revenue, so treat the median as a reference point rather than a market average.

What the numbers say

By revenue band, the median fee was $160,000 under $10 million of revenue and $553,054 between $10 million and $100 million, our arithmetic on the table. The two companies above $100 million paid $644,000 and $837,000. Those medians rest on four and six companies, so one outlier moves them a lot.

Three patterns stand out in the sample:

• Revenue is a weak predictor. IRADIMED, with $83.8 million of revenue, paid $303,664, while Momentus, with $1.1 million, paid $659,779. Complexity, history and filing activity count more than size.
• The firm matters. The two Big Four clients in the sample, Zenas (EY) and Black Diamond (PwC), sit in the top four fees. Regional and mid-tier firms account for every fee under $400,000.
• Fees as a share of revenue shrink with scale. IRADIMED, Harte Hanks and Virco each paid well under 1% of revenue for their audit. At Energy Focus the fee was about 5% of revenue, our arithmetic.

For a company planning its first audit, the takeaway is that the scope of the engagement sets the price more than the size of the business. The next section shows which parts of scope moved these fees most.

What drives an audit fee up or down

The year-over-year columns in the same proxy tables show what changes a bill. Every example below compares a company's fiscal 2025 fee with its fiscal 2024 fee in the same filing.

Registration work costs more. Zenas BioPharma's audit fee fell from $1,725,000 in 2024 to $894,278 in 2025, and its fee note lists services tied to SEC registration statements among the audit work. Momentus went the other way: its audit fee rose from $465,150 to $659,779, and it added $351,225 of audit-related fees tied to registration statements on Form S-1.

Changing auditors can cut or raise the fee. Virco paid Moss Adams $995,000 for fiscal 2025 and Baker Tilly $837,000 for fiscal 2026. Harte Hanks paid Baker Tilly $250,466 for 2024 alone, while Wolf & Company billed $539,000 for 2024 and $644,000 for 2025, as Harte Hanks reports in the same table.

Stable companies see small moves. IRADIMED's fee rose from $281,085 to $303,664, and Energy Focus paid the same fee in both years. For budgeting, a company that keeps its auditor and its scope steady can forecast next year's fee from this year's within a few percent, as these two did.

Quarterly reviews are part of the public price. Each fee above includes reviews of quarterly 10-Q filings, which a private company does not need. That work is one reason a private audit of the same company costs less.

What a private startup pays for its first audit

Private companies do not disclose audit fees, so there is no filing-based figure for them. The closest published reference is a CPA firm's own fee guide: Citrus Audit Group estimates $4,000 to $12,000 for startups and early-stage companies, and $3,000 to $10,000 for small businesses under $5 million of revenue, read October 21, 2026. That is one firm's estimate, not a market survey, so get a quote from your own auditor before you budget.

The same guide says most firms bill audits at $150 to $400 an hour, with boutique and regional firms at the lower end. At those rates, every 20 hours of extra fieldwork adds $3,000 to $8,000 to the bill, our arithmetic, which is why preparation matters more than negotiation.

The gap between that estimate and the public-company median is largely the cost of being public: the public fees in our table include quarterly reviews and SEC filing support on top of the year-end audit. A company planning a listing should budget against the public-company range rather than the startup estimate, and ask its auditor early what the first public year will add.

If you need the books ready before fieldwork, our bookkeeping cost for startups guide prices that step, and the month-end close checklist covers the reconciliations auditors test first.

How to lower your audit fee

Most of the levers sit with the company, not the auditor:

• Close the books monthly. Reconciled accounts and a tied-out trial balance cut fieldwork hours. Close software helps teams with many entities; our best close management software list compares the options.
• Prepare a request list early. Ask the auditor for its "provided by client" list before fieldwork and deliver it complete. Delays become billable hours.
• Sort out equity before the audit. The cap table, 409A valuations and stock compensation all end up in the audited statements, so reconcile them before fieldwork starts. Our 409A valuation cost page covers that piece.
• Keep the same auditor. The Virco and Harte Hanks examples show a switch can save or cost money, but a first-year engagement always adds work for the new firm.
• Plan controls work separately. Companies approaching SOX scope should price it on its own; our best SOX compliance software guide and the AuditBoard review cover the tools.

Multi-entity groups should also read our best financial consolidation tools guide, which covers the tools for groups that consolidate several entities before the audit, and teams still choosing a ledger can start with the best accounting software list. For a full picture of what a growing finance team spends, see our finance stack for a Series A company and tools for a first finance hire.

How we built this data set

We searched SEC EDGAR full-text search for 2026 proxy statements (Form DEF 14A) that mention both "audit fees" and "smaller reporting company", read the principal accountant fee table in each, and kept 12 companies with a clean fiscal 2025 audit fee and revenue reported in XBRL. All figures were read on October 21, 2026. We excluded companies without reported revenue, quoted the "Audit fees" line only, and computed medians and percentages ourselves. We did not survey audit firms or private companies.

FAQ

How much does a financial statement audit cost in 2026?

For small US public companies, the fiscal 2025 audit fees in our sample of 12 proxy statements ran from $89,750 to $894,278, with a median of $517,554. For private startups, Citrus Audit Group's published estimate is $4,000 to $12,000, because private audits skip quarterly reviews and SEC filing work.

Why do public companies pay so much more for an audit?

Their fee covers quarterly 10-Q reviews and SEC filing support, not only the year-end audit. Registration work raises fees further: in our sample Momentus added $351,225 of audit-related fees tied to Form S-1 registration statements on top of its audit fee.

Does company revenue determine the audit fee?

Only loosely. In our sample, Momentus had $1.1 million of revenue and paid $659,779, while IRADIMED had $83.8 million of revenue and paid $303,664. Complexity, capital raises, auditor changes and the audit firm's tier moved fees more than revenue did.

Do Big Four auditors charge more?

In this sample, yes. The two companies audited by EY and PwC both paid over $700,000 in audit fees, while every fee under $400,000 came from a regional or mid-tier firm. A sample of 12 cannot prove a rule, so compare quotes from both tiers.

How can a startup reduce its first audit fee?

Close the books monthly, deliver the auditor's request list complete and early, and clean up equity records and 409A valuations before fieldwork. At $150 to $400 an hour, the rate range in Citrus Audit Group's guide, every hour of fieldwork you avoid saves real money.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "How Much Does a Financial Statement Audit Cost in 2026? Fees From 12 SEC Filings", November 2026.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice or an audit quote. Fees depend on your company's scope and history, so request a written engagement letter and fee estimate from the audit firm before you sign.

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