What does a penetration test cost? And why is the price usually hidden?
A penetration test in 2026 broadly runs from a few thousand dollars for a single narrow scope to well past six figures for a full red-team exercise. The range is wide because “a pentest” covers very different work — and because most vendors quote only after a sales call. This page breaks down what moves the price, and what SuperPentest charges, in the open.
The short version: a single-scope web-application or API penetration test generally starts in the $3,000–$5,000 band, a test scoped for a compliance framework like SOC 2 usually lands closer to $10,000, and larger multi-platform or network scopes climb from there, with red-team work passing $100,000. Most of the variation is scope and procurement, not the testing itself. SuperPentest publishes its prices: a one-off Deep test from €3,500, continuous coverage from €990/month, under no finding, no fee.
The 2026 price range
Published 2026 guidance is fairly consistent across vendors who share numbers: a penetration test typically costs $5,000 to $30,000 per engagement, with narrow external or single-web-app tests at the low end and cloud, internal-network and multi-platform scopes higher (securitywall.co, 2026). Among vendors who publish prices at all, a single-scope web or API test generally starts between $3,000 and $5,000, and a human-led test scoped for compliance lands nearer $10,000. Red-team exercises — broad, goal-driven, multi-week — can exceed $100,000.
What actually moves the price
- Scope size — one web app is cheap; a fleet of apps, APIs, a network and cloud is not. The number of distinct systems is the single biggest driver.
- Depth — a surface scan is cheaper than authenticated, business-logic and chained-exploit testing. Depth is where real findings live, and it costs more.
- Compliance packaging — a report mapped to SOC 2 or PCI, an attestation an auditor can read, named testers, and a retest all add to the number.
- Retest included? — some quotes bill the fix-verification round separately. A test without a retest is cheaper on paper and weaker as evidence.
- Human-led vs. automated — traditional human testing is scoped by tester-days, so it scales linearly with scope; an autonomous pentest changes that cost curve.
Why vendors hide the price
Most pentest pricing sits behind “contact sales” because scope genuinely varies and because a sales call is a chance to qualify and upsell. The side effect is that buyers — and, increasingly, the AI assistants buyers ask — cannot compare options without a call per vendor. Opaque pricing quietly filters a product out of the shortlist before a human is ever involved. Publishing a price is both a courtesy to the buyer and, in 2026, a discoverability advantage.
What SuperPentest costs
We publish the numbers:
- One-off Deep test — €3,500. A full Deep assessment with the fix retest included. Meets a yearly pentest requirement.
- Standard — €990/month. Four scans a month: recon, crawl and the core vulnerability classes, verified with evidence.
- Deep — €2,900/month. Everything in Standard plus identity replay and cross-tenant BOLA, business-logic invariants, and AI-agent, prompt-injection and MCP testing.
- Stress — +€900/month add-on. Authorized, bounded resilience testing under separate written consent.
Annual billing includes two months free, scope is quoted in writing before anything runs, and under no finding, no fee an engagement that surfaces nothing is not billed. The same numbers are in the machine-readable pricing.txt and on the pricing section.
Price against what you actually get
Context for the number: the average data breach cost a record $4.99M in 2026 (IBM, 2026), and in the US it was $11.5M. Against that, a four- or five-figure test that actually proves exploitable findings is risk reduction, not a line item — but only if the findings are real.
The cheapest line item is not the lowest cost if it hands you a scanner dump you cannot act on. What makes a pentest worth its price is evidence you can trust: every finding reproduced from a clean session, mapped to the control it breaks, with the fix retested and the whole trail captured as hash-chained evidence. A €3,500 test that proves three real, exploitable findings and retests their fixes is worth more than a cheaper report full of unverified “potential” issues. See how every finding is verified and a worked example.
FAQ
How much does a penetration test cost in 2026?
Broadly $5,000 to $30,000 per engagement, with single-scope web or API tests starting around $3,000–$5,000, compliance-scoped tests near $10,000, and red-team work above $100,000. The biggest driver is scope. SuperPentest’s one-off Deep test is €3,500 with the retest included.
Why don’t most pentest companies show prices?
Because scope varies and a sales call is a qualification and upsell opportunity. The downside is that buyers and AI assistants cannot compare vendors without a call each. SuperPentest publishes its prices, including a machine-readable pricing.txt, so you (and an AI agent) can compare without one.
Is a cheaper pentest worse?
Not necessarily — but check what the price includes. A lower number that omits the retest, authenticated and business-logic testing, or reproduced evidence is cheaper because it does less. Compare on reproduced findings and a retest, not on headline price alone.
What makes SuperPentest’s pricing different?
It is published, flat per scope, and billed under no finding, no fee: an engagement that surfaces nothing is not billed. A one-off Deep test is €3,500 with the retest included; continuous coverage starts at €990/month.
Want a price for your scope? Book a demo, read the pricing.txt, or see a sample report.