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UX Audit

How Much Does a UX Audit Cost? Real 2026 Price Bands

Pavle Lucic
Pavle LucicJuly 14, 2026 · 5 min read
Key takeaways
  • A UX audit typically runs $3,000 to $25,000, per Orbix Studio, Krux, and Let's Groto, with AI tools as low as $9 a month and enterprise agencies exceeding $75,000.

  • Flows covered, live research, seniority, and accessibility scope move the price more than provider brand does.

  • Published price floors often reflect what a provider prefers to sell, not the true cost of the work.

  • The real test is payback. An audit that cannot pay for itself within a quarter is priced wrong or aimed at the wrong problem.

On this page

A UX audit costs anywhere from $9 a month for an AI tool to $75,000 or more for an enterprise engagement. Most single product companies land between $3,000 and $25,000, depending on scope and who does the work.

Price only makes sense once you know what you are buying, which the complete UX audit guide lays out. There is no universal price. There is a set of variables that different providers bundle differently. The table below normalizes six published pricing pages into one structure, so you can see where your project sits before a sales call reframes the number for you.

What a UX audit costs, by provider

| Provider | Typical price | What you get | Turnaround | |---|---|---|---| | AI review tool | $9 to $30 a month (Orbix Studio) | Automated heuristic scan, no human review | Instant | | Freelancer, junior | $500 to $1,500 (Orbix Studio) | Single flow, quick checklist review | 3 to 7 days | | Freelancer, senior | $3,000 to $8,000 (Orbix Studio). Sarah Doody quotes $6,000 to $10,000+ | Full written report, 30 to 50 pages, plus a one hour walkthrough | 2 to 4 weeks | | Boutique studio | $3,000 to $20,000 (Let's Groto, Orbix Studio) | Several flows audited, research optional | 2 to 4 weeks | | Full service agency | $12,000 to $40,000 (Let's Groto, Orbix Studio) | Full audit, dedicated team, stakeholder workshops | 4 to 8 weeks | | Enterprise agency | $30,000 to $75,000+ (Krux, Orbix Studio, ArtVersion) | Enterprise scope, compliance, cross team alignment | 6 to 12 weeks |

What actually moves the price

  • Flows covered. One flow runs $3,000 to $6,000. A full product runs $8,000 to $18,000, per Design Studio UI/UX.
  • Live research. Moderated user sessions add $3,000 to $8,000 on top of a report only audit, per Let's Groto.
  • Seniority. A junior freelancer runs $500 to $1,500. A senior one runs $3,000 to $8,000 or more, per Orbix Studio.
  • Accessibility scope. An accessibility only audit runs $1,000 to $1,800, per Krux, well below a full UX audit.
  • Overhead. The layers between you and the person doing the work. More on this below.
Tip

Ask every bidder for their day rate, not just the project total. It is the fastest way to see whether you are paying for seniority or for overhead.

Why the published ranges disagree so much

Some of the spread is real. Scope and seniority genuinely cost different amounts.

Some of it is positioning. ArtVersion says openly that its $10,000 to $15,000 floor reflects the engagement size it sells, not the cost of the work. An agency selling $40,000 retainers rarely quotes a $2,000 option, even when $2,000 would solve your problem.

Convergine's own pricing page headlines $1,440, then states in its FAQ that audits start at $10,000. Read every published range with that kind of self interest in mind. The number on the homepage is a sales anchor first.

What you are actually paying for

Every figure above assumes a US or UK provider, and most of the spread between the bands has nothing to do with the audit itself.

An agency price carries an account manager, a sales process, a studio lease, and a margin. Somewhere underneath all of that, one senior person spends about a week looking at your product. That week is the deliverable. Everything else is the cost of the structure that sold it to you.

That is why an independent senior auditor can produce work equal to a boutique engagement at a fraction of the price. Same person doing the same week of work, minus the layers between you and them. When you compare bids, the question worth asking is how many of those layers you are funding, and what each one adds.

It is also why the senior independent band, roughly $5,000 to $8,000, is the honest middle of this market. Below it you are usually buying junior time. Above it you are usually buying overhead.

When a UX audit is not worth buying

Below roughly 200 to 500 monthly active users, per Orbix Studio and Let's Groto, you lack the usage data to prioritize fixes with confidence.

If your product still changes weekly and has not found fit, the findings go stale before you can act on them.

And if nobody has capacity to build the fixes, you are paying for a report that sits in a drive. In all three cases, spend the budget elsewhere first.

The payback test

Run this before you buy: will the fixes pay for themselves within a quarter?

Let's Groto documented a $6,000 audit that recovered roughly $12,000 a year.

Leaving a flow broken has its own cost. Design Studio UI/UX prices a single flow fix at $3,000 to $12,000, and a multi interface redesign at $15,000 to $50,000 once it compounds.

An audit that cannot clear that bar is either priced wrong for your stage, or aimed at the wrong problem.

Picking the right option

See a real UX audit example for what the deliverable should contain, or our review of the best product design agencies if you are comparing who to hire.

If you want a senior audit at senior independent pricing, that is what the UX audit service is.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a UX audit cost for a startup?

For a startup with one product and a small team, a solid audit usually costs $3,000 to $12,000, per Orbix Studio and Let's Groto. That typically covers one to three core flows, not the whole product.

Why does UX audit pricing vary so much?

Providers bundle different variables, like seniority, flow count, and research, into different packages. Some published floors, like ArtVersion's $10,000 to $15,000, reflect the size of engagement a provider prefers to sell rather than the true cost of the work.

Is a UX audit worth the cost?

It is worth it when the fixes it finds can pay for themselves within a quarter. Let's Groto documented a $6,000 audit that recovered roughly $12,000 a year. Below a few hundred monthly active users, or before a product has found fit, spend the budget elsewhere.

How much do freelancers charge versus agencies?

Freelancers typically charge $30 to $200 an hour, or $500 to $8,000 per project, depending on seniority, per Krux and Orbix Studio. Agencies charge $100 to $150 an hour, and their project fees run from about $8,000 up to $75,000 or more for enterprise scope.