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Consulting rates and fees in 2026, from sourced data

Published medians for individual consultants in the United States fall between about $150 and $200 an hour in 2025 and 2026. AlixPartners’ court-filed rate card puts its partners at $1,200 to $1,495 an hour, and published fractional executive price bands run $8,000 to $25,000 a month for one to two days a week. The best public dataset is the federal GSA price list, where the median ceiling rate for the labor category “Management Consultant” is $151 an hour across 115 contract rates (October 2026). IEEE-USA’s survey of engineering consultants puts the median at about $200 an hour. Nonprofit consultants averaged about $159 an hour in 2025. Employee management analysts earn a median wage of $48.97 an hour, which is pay, not a billing rate. Every figure below links to the page it came from.

Summary of consulting rates

Who Rate Unit Year Source and sample
Management Consultant (federal contracts) $151 median, $161 mean per hour 2026 GSA CALC, 115 ceiling rates
Senior Consultant (federal contracts) $184 median per hour 2026 GSA CALC, 435 rates
Partner (federal contracts) $261 median per hour 2026 GSA CALC, 80 rates
Engineering consultants (IEEE members) about $200 median per hour 2024 to 2026 IEEE-USA fee surveys, 371 full-time respondents in 2026 (derivation below)
Nonprofit consultants about $159 mean per hour 2025 Nonprofit.ist survey, 307 respondents
Restructuring advisers (Alvarez & Marsal) $829 blended per hour Q1 2026 Court fee examiner report, 17,112 hours
Fractional CFO $8,000 to $20,000 per month 2026 Treetop Growth Strategy, vendor price bands
Fractional CMO $8,000 to $25,000 per month 2026 Treetop Growth Strategy
Fractional CTO $10,000 to $25,000 per month 2026 Treetop Growth Strategy
Management analysts, employees $48.97 median, $54.71 mean per hour, wage May 2025 BLS OEWS, 898,280 employed

Management consultant hourly rates by level

The GSA Contract-Awarded Labor Category tool (CALC) publishes the ceiling hourly rates that firms on the federal Multiple Award Schedule may charge government buyers. These are real negotiated contract prices, not survey answers. They are maximums for federal work, so commercial prices can be higher or lower. The table uses an exact match on each labor category title, read on 2026-10-04.

Labor category Rates 25th percentile Median 75th percentile 90th percentile Typical minimum experience
Junior Consultant 73 $86 $105 $141 $172 2 years
Management Consultant I 114 $92 $122 $147 $171 3 years
Management Consultant II 115 $118 $150 $181 $212 5 years
Consultant 584 $121 $150 $182 $234 5 years
Management Consultant III 87 $140 $167 $195 $257 8 years
Senior Consultant 435 $152 $184 $232 $293 8 years
Subject Matter Expert 968 $160 $204 $246 $295 10 years
Principal Consultant 147 $183 $222 $266 $304 10 years
Partner 80 $214 $261 $327 $383 10 years

“Typical minimum experience” is the median of the minimum years each contract requires for that category. A day rate at eight billable hours is the hourly rate times eight: the Management Consultant median of $151.42 works out to about $1,211 a day.

Consulting rates by specialty and industry

Public, sourced rate data by industry is thin. These are the specialties with a published survey or a price list that could be opened.

Specialty Rate Year Source and method
Engineering (IEEE members) about $200 median per hour 2024 to 2026 IEEE-USA Consultants Fee Survey; 371 full fee-based and 119 partial consultants answered in 2026, a 7.3% response rate (2026 release)
Engineering, by region $175 to $235 median per hour 2025 West North Central lowest, Mountain highest (2025 release)
Nonprofit strategic planning about $178 per hour 2025 Nonprofit.ist, self-reported
Nonprofit organizational development about $160 per hour 2025 Same survey
Nonprofit fundraising about $154 per hour 2025 Same survey
Nonprofit grant writing about $146 per hour 2025 Same survey
Federal program management $179 median per hour 2026 GSA CALC “Program Manager”, 2,275 rates
Federal project management $147 median per hour 2026 GSA CALC “Project Manager”, 2,882 rates
Federal business analysis $114 median per hour 2026 GSA CALC “Business Analyst”, 483 rates
Restructuring and turnaround $230 to $1,495 per hour by title 2024 AlixPartners rate card in a court retention application

The IEEE-USA median is derived from its public releases. The 2023 release states a median of $180 an hour. The 2024 release says the median rose $20, which gives $200. The 2025 and 2026 releases say it was unchanged. About one in five IEEE consultants charged $300 or more an hour in 2025.

Rates by experience

Experience raises rates in every source that measures it, though not evenly.

  • GSA ceiling rates rise from a $105 median for Junior Consultant (2 years typical minimum) to $184 for Senior Consultant (8 years) and $261 for Partner (10 years), as of October 2026 (table above).
  • Fractional CFOs with 5 to 10 years of experience charge $150 to $250 an hour, 10 to 15 years $250 to $350, and 15 or more years $350 to $500, according to The Expert CFO (February 2026, the firm’s own experience, not a survey).
  • In the 2024 Nonprofit.ist survey, consultants with 20 or more years averaged $186 an hour, against $107 for those with less than one year.
  • In the 2025 Nonprofit.ist survey, the gap nearly vanished: about $155 an hour at 0 to 5 years and about $160 at 20 or more years. The survey calls its data directional, and a one-year swing this large most likely reflects who answered.

Independent consultants compared with firms

Firms bill more per hour than solo consultants, and the gap grows with firm size and seniority.

Comparison Lower Higher Year Source
Nonprofit solo vs partner-owned firm $151 per hour (solo) $233 per hour (firm with partners) 2025 Nonprofit.ist
Nonprofit solo vs solo with subcontractors $151 per hour $191 per hour 2025 Same survey
Federal “Consultant”, small vs other-than-small business $146 median $166 median 2026 GSA CALC
Federal “Partner”, small vs other-than-small business $250 median $304 median 2026 GSA CALC

Large restructuring and advisory firms disclose their rates when they work in Chapter 11 cases, because the court must approve their fees.

  • AlixPartners’ rate card effective July 1, 2024 lists partners at $1,200 to $1,495 an hour, directors and senior vice presidents at $825 to $1,125, vice presidents at $640 to $810, and consultants at $230 to $625 (retention application, D. Del. 24-11378).
  • Alvarez & Marsal billed $14,186,329 for 17,112 hours as debtor’s adviser in the Marelli case from January to March 2026, a blended $829.02 an hour across all staff (fee examiner report, filed June 18, 2026).
  • FTI Consulting billed a blended $857.07 an hour as creditors’ committee adviser in the same case and period.

A blended rate mixes partners with analysts, so it sits well below the partner rate. Strategy firm rates (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) are not published. Commercial benchmarks of them exist only in paid reports, such as Monadnock Research’s 2026 US Strategy Consulting Rates, which print no dollar figures on their public pages.

Fractional CFO, CMO and CTO costs

Fractional executive pricing is published by the people who sell it. These are vendor price bands, not surveys, and none states a sample size.

Role Monthly retainer Hourly Annual cost (monthly x 12) Source
Fractional CFO $8,000 to $20,000 $200 to $400 $96,000 to $240,000 Treetop, June 2026
Fractional CFO $3,000 to $15,000; most pay $5,000 to $7,500 $175 to $450 $36,000 to $180,000 The Expert CFO, February 2026
Fractional CMO $8,000 to $25,000 $200 to $400 $96,000 to $300,000 Treetop, June 2026
Fractional CMO $8,000 to $20,000 $150 to $350 (advisory only) $96,000 to $240,000 Mark Gabrielli, June 2025
Fractional CTO $10,000 to $25,000 $250 to $450 $120,000 to $300,000 Treetop, June 2026
Fractional COO $10,000 to $25,000 $250 to $450 $120,000 to $300,000 Treetop, June 2026
Fractional CRO $10,000 to $25,000 $250 to $450 $120,000 to $300,000 Treetop, June 2026
Fractional CHRO $8,000 to $20,000 $200 to $400 $96,000 to $240,000 Treetop, June 2026

Treetop’s retainers assume one to two days a week, or 8 to 20 hours, billed as a flat monthly fee. Treetop says its hourly ranges are for senior independent operators and that firms charge higher blended rates. It reports 5% to 10% discounts for six-month commitments and 10% to 15% for twelve months. It reports premiums of 15% to 30% in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare and legal.

Company size drives most of the spread. The Expert CFO prices early-stage companies ($500,000 to $2 million revenue) at $3,500 to $5,000 a month for 10 to 15 hours, and companies over $10 million at $8,000 to $15,000 or more for 20 to 40 hours. Mark Gabrielli prices a fractional CMO at $8,000 a month for 15 to 20 hours at $500,000 to $3 million in annual recurring revenue, rising to $18,000 to $20,000 for 40 to 50 hours at $10 million to $50 million. His 2026 update compares 11 market sources and finds a range of $5,000 to $22,000 a month, with typical figures of $8,000 to $15,000.

Only one source found prices the fractional CTO, so treat that row as a single vendor’s view.

How to read these numbers

The sources measure different things, and they should not be averaged together.

  • Billing rates and wages are different. The BLS figure of $54.71 an hour (mean, May 2025, BLS OEWS) is what employers pay management analysts. Within management and technical consulting firms the mean wage is $59.17 and the 90th percentile is $98.19. A billing rate must also cover benefits, unbilled time, sales, overhead and profit. The GSA Management Consultant median ($151.42) is about 3.1 times the BLS management analyst median wage ($48.97); the populations differ, so read this only as a rough scale.
  • Consultants do not bill 40 hours a week. Most nonprofit consultants bill 20 to 24 hours a week and spend another 5 to 14 hours on non-client work (Nonprofit.ist 2025). Over 48 weeks that is 960 to 1,152 billable hours. IEEE-USA reported a median of 20 billed hours a week in 2023.
  • Survey samples select themselves. The Nonprofit.ist and IEEE-USA surveys are answered by people who choose to respond, and Nonprofit.ist reported a 2024 mean of $151.19 against a median of $126, so a few high billers lift the average.
  • GSA rates are ceilings for federal buyers. They are the most complete public price list, but agencies can negotiate below them, and commercial clients are not bound by them.
  • Hourly is not the most common model. In Consulting Success’s study of nearly 1,000 consultants (62.89% in North America), 30% priced by project, 29% hourly, 16% by monthly retainer, 15% by value and 10% by day (updated September 2026). Hourly rates are still the common unit for comparison.

Several “median consultant rate” figures that appear on page one of search results cite no survey, sample or date. None of them is used here.

Sources

All pages were read on 2026-10-04.

This guide was researched with Hyperresearch: its runs gathered the sources, every figure was then checked by hand against the page it links to, and the text was edited by Jordan Gibbs.

By Jordan Gibbs · Updated 2026-10-04