The short version
- The cited sample records starting prices of $9,500–16,000 for AI or LLM assessments. These figures have not been refreshed here. Scope, duration and deliverables differ; the range establishes neither a market median nor an equivalent-service comparison.
- Below that sits a productised offshore band at €990–4,000 and a "readiness roadmap" band at $2,000–8,000. Both deliver a scan and a PDF, not reproducible evidence.
- Independent security retainers cluster at $3,000–12,000 per month; AI-specific continuous testing at $5,000–20,000.
- 0 of 7 AI red-team services, 1 of 10 AI pentest providers and 4 of 25 AI security vendors publish a price at all.
Fixed-scope assessments
| Vendor | Type | Published price | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schellman (US) | Assessment firm | from $16,000 [V] | ~2 weeks | AI/LLM assessment floor. Highest starting price in this cited sample. |
| Software Secured (CA) | Pentest firm | from $10,800 [V] | 1–2 weeks | AI penetration test. Retest tiers: one, three or unlimited. |
| Pentest Testing Corp (US) | Pentest firm | from $9,500 [V] | 1–2 weeks | AI/LLM application pentest. |
| Repello | Platform + services | "$16K–100K" [T] | — | A competitor's framing of services-firm minimums, not a survey. |
| InfoSec Group (BG) | Productised pentest | €4,000 [V] | days | Free retest within 60 days. Not AI-specific evidence. |
| CyberPOPE (CZ) | Productised pentest | €2,900 [V] | days | — |
| Optimum Web (MD) | Productised pentest | €990 [V] | days | — |
| Cybersecify (IN) | Productised pentest | ~$790–1,890 [V] | days | — |
| McKelvey (US, solo) | Advisory | $2,500 flat [V] | — | "AI readiness roadmap". Document, not testing. |
| Aries | Advisory | $2,000–8,000 [V] | — | Readiness assessment. |
| Praxikon (EU) | Compliance advisory | from €9,900; €5–25k / system [T] | — | EU AI Act evidence file; external advice €200–400/h. July 2026. |
| AIUC-1 audit | Certification | not published [V/T] | 4–8 weeks | Seven accredited auditors; none publishes a price. |
| NCC Group · Trail of Bits · Bishop Fox · HiddenLayer · Adversa · Mindgard · Straiker · Holistic AI · QuantPi · Monitaur · Lakera Red | Firms & vendors | not published | — | "Contact sales" on every AI assessment page examined. |
Prices as displayed on each vendor's public page on 12 September 2026. Currencies as published.
Retainers and continuous testing
| Vendor | Model | Monthly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SideChannel | vCISO, 1–50 staff | $1,500–4,000 | Vendor guide, 22 April 2026, 200+ engagements [V] |
| SideChannel | vCISO, 50–200 staff | $3,000–7,000 | same [V] |
| Pivot Point Security | vCISO | $4,000–30,000+ "most towards the lower end" | Vendor page, 31 August 2026 [V] |
| Zip Security | vCISO, 10–20 h/month | $3,500–7,500 | Vendor, July 2026 [V] |
| AI Vyuh | Continuous AI red teaming | $5,000–20,000 | Vendor [V] |
| Repello | Platform licence | ≈ $3,300–16,700 | Vendor, annualised [V] |
What a senior day actually costs
| Source | Role | Day rate | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malt (FR), 2026 | Cybersecurity expert, 8–15 yrs | €720 median | n = 2,485 [V] |
| IT Jobs Watch (UK), to 11 Sep 2026 | AI Consultant | £575 median | n = 66 [T] |
| IT Jobs Watch (UK), to 6 Sep 2026 | Red Team | £550 median, p90 £800 | n = 56 [T] |
| Synack, June 2026 | Boutique senior tester | $1,200–3,000 | Average pentest engagement $18,300 [T] |
| Upwork, 2026 | "LLM security" profiles | $25 / hour | LK, PK-based profiles [V] |
Day rates, currencies and engagement scopes must be compared separately. The Snapshot's published three-day scope covers one question in one test domain.
Where our prices sit
| evidencebundle | Price | Days | Implied day rate | Versus market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evidence Snapshot | $3,500 | 3 | ≈ $1,170 | Three-day, single-question scope. Credited against a Bundle. |
| Evidence Bundle | $9,500 | 8–10 | ≈ $950–1,190 | Compare the agreed scope and verification materials before comparing headline prices. |
| Agentic Bundle | from $18,000 | 15–20 | ≈ $900–1,200 | AI Vyuh prices tool-using agent red-teaming at $25,000–60,000 [V]. |
| Retainers | $4,000 / 7,500 / 12,000 | 4 / 8 / 14 | ≈ $860–1,000 | Inside the SideChannel and Pivot Point bands; defined in days so a CTO can compare with a contractor. |
Why we publish prices when nobody else does
Mend.io's September 2026 comparison of AI red-teaming services found none of the seven published pricing. A Software Secured roundup found one of ten AI pentest providers did. The Transparency Benchmark (May 2026) put the figure at 16% across 25 AI security vendors, and AccuroAI concluded on 2 September 2026 that "not one dedicated AI-security startup publishes pricing." Nobody publishes a sample deliverable, a day count, a test inventory, a scope-exclusion list or an incident-response rate card either.
We think that is a market failure, not a strategy. A CTO comparing quotes should not need three discovery calls to learn whether an "AI audit" is two days or two weeks. So: the day count is on the pricing table, the test inventory is in the methodology, the deliverable structure is a free download.
What we could not verify. Eticas (closest EU scope match) — pricing page indexed but returns 404. Saidot plan prices. Any AI-specific figure from the eleven "contact sales" vendors above. AI-specific rates on Toptal, Contra or Malt. The Pivot Point figure sometimes quoted as "$4.5–12.5k" is Zip Security's wording re-attributed by a third party; Pivot Point's own page says $4K–$30K+.
- Schellman, Software Secured, Pentest Testing Corp, InfoSec Group, CyberPOPE, Optimum Web, Cybersecify, McKelvey, Aries, AI Vyuh, Repello, Zip Security, Pivot Point Security, SideChannel — public pricing or services pages, accessed 12 September 2026.
- Mend.io, "AI red teaming services", 1 September 2026. Software Secured, AI pentest provider roundup, 2026. Transparency Benchmark, May 2026. AccuroAI, "What AI security actually costs", 2 September 2026.
- Malt, Tarifs freelances 2026. IT Jobs Watch, UK contractor rates, September 2026. Synack, State of pentesting, June 2026.
- Praxikon, EU AI Act evidence file pricing, July 2026. Compyl and Axipro, ISO/IEC 42001 readiness pricing, August 2026.