An AWS security audit costs anywhere from about $2,000 to about $40,000, depending on scope. Here are the published price ranges we checked on 11 October 2026, what drives the price, and how to compare quotes.
AWS security audit cost ranges from about $2,000 to about $40,000, and the number depends almost entirely on scope. Below are the published figures we found, with links and the date we checked them, followed by what drives the price and what to ask before you buy.
What does an AWS security audit cost in 2026?
Published figures for an AWS security audit range from roughly $2,000 to $40,000 for small and mid-sized companies, with simple single-account reviews at the low end and multi-account reviews against a named benchmark at the high end. These numbers come from vendors that sell the service, so treat them as market signals, not quotes.
Here is what we found when we checked on 11 October 2026. Every figure is a third-party estimate from the linked page and may have changed since.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Purple Shield Security | Most cloud assessments for small and mid-market businesses cost roughly $2,000 to $40,000. A “complete” assessment quoted well under $3,000 is often just an automated scan. |
| Atlant Security (AWS page) | A single-account AWS audit is typically a fixed-price engagement of $3,000 to $7,000. Its hourly rate for work outside packages is listed as $460. The page is old, so the figure may be dated. |
| Atlant Security (cost guide) | Small businesses $3,000 to $10,000, mid-size $10,000 to $50,000, enterprise $50,000 to $150,000 or more. An example of a roughly 100-person company with a complex stack on AWS is put at about $15,000. |
| Bugstrix | A cloud configuration review about $3,000 to $8,000, a vulnerability assessment about $4,000 to $10,000, a cloud penetration test about $8,000 to $25,000. |
We do not publish a price list. We quote our AWS security audit as one fixed price after a free 20-minute scoping call, because scope decides the number, and you approve the written quote before anything starts. A senior-led team working remotely from Islamabad, without an account-management layer, lets us keep that price competitive without cutting the method. See how our fixed-price cloud security consulting quotes work.
What drives AWS security audit cost?
Scope drives AWS security audit cost far more than company size. The number of AWS accounts, regions in use, and workloads such as Kubernetes or serverless matter most, followed by whether findings must map to a framework like SOC 2, ISO 27001 or NIST 800-53, and whether staff interviews are included.
- Number of accounts. One account is a bounded job. Ten accounts under AWS Organizations add service control policies, centralised logging and account separation to the review.
- Workload complexity. EKS clusters, many Lambda functions and multi-region deployments take longer to review than a handful of EC2 instances.
- Compliance mapping. Mapping every finding to a framework for an auditor takes more time than a straightforward gap list.
- Depth. A configuration review is cheaper than a penetration test, which attempts exploitation. Do not buy one expecting the other.
- Remediation. Some vendors include fixing the findings, others do not. Check which it is.
Is a very cheap AWS security audit a red flag?
Often, yes. If the AWS security audit cost is far below the market range, ask what you are buying. Purple Shield Security notes that a cloud assessment quoted well under $3,000 is often an automated scan with a template report. Automated scanners are a useful first pass, but they cannot tell you which findings are exploitable in your setup.
The AWS Audit Manager and Security Hub tools themselves are priced per assessed resource or per finding, not per audit, so they are a software cost, not a replacement for a human review. AWS publishes their pricing on its Audit Manager pricing page. A useful test: ask the vendor what a human reads and decides. If the answer is nothing, you are buying a scan.
What does an Azure security assessment cost, for comparison?
Published fixed-price Azure security assessments we found range from about $4,000 to $17,500 for one to two weeks of work, with larger or multi-tenant engagements costing more. Listings differ in currency and scope, so compare what is included, not only the headline number.
- Zitec, one-week cloud security assessment: $5,399 (Microsoft Marketplace listing).
- Zure, one-week Azure security audit: €4,206.
- Logicalis, two-week assessment: $17,500.
- FRSecure: generally $9,000 to $15,000 for a single tenant, depending on tenants and controls.
Our Azure security assessment is quoted the same way as the AWS audit.
What should the AWS security audit cost include?
For a fair AWS security audit cost you should receive a written report with findings ranked by severity, a specific fix for each finding, a mapping to the benchmark used, and a call where an engineer explains the results. If the deliverable is a PDF of scanner output, the price should be a fraction of what the human-led version costs.
Also ask what happens after the report. The best outcome of an audit is not a document, it is a short list of fixes your team can finish in a sprint. Look for a vendor that tells you which five issues to fix first, and that is willing to say which findings can safely wait. A vendor that lists four hundred findings of equal weight has given you a to-do list, not a risk assessment.
Does a security audit have to be repeated?
Yes, though not as often as people fear. Cloud environments drift as people join, leave and ship changes, so a review once a year, or after a major change such as a migration or a new compliance target, is a sensible rhythm. Between audits, automated checks such as AWS Config rules and Security Hub keep the obvious problems from creeping back, and a quarterly look at who holds administrator access catches most of the rest.
How do you compare AWS security audit quotes?
Compare scope before price. Two quotes for an AWS security audit are only comparable when they cover the same number of accounts, the same benchmark, the same deliverables and the same timeline. Ask each vendor the questions below and put the answers side by side.
- How many accounts and regions are in scope?
- Which benchmark or framework is the review against, for example the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark?
- Is access read-only, and which AWS policies do you need?
- Who does the work, and what certifications do they hold?
- What is in the report: ranked findings, exact fixes, a walkthrough call?
- Is the price fixed, and what happens if the scope changes?
- Is remediation included or quoted separately?
Should you audit first or pay for a penetration test?
For most companies, audit first. An AWS security audit finds configuration weaknesses cheaply from the inside. A penetration test, which published guides put at roughly $8,000 to $25,000 for cloud environments, tries to exploit them. Fix the audit findings first, then test, so the test budget is not spent rediscovering known misconfigurations.
If you do need the offensive step, see our AWS and Azure penetration testing, which we quote at a fixed price too.
The bottom line
Expect AWS security audit cost to land somewhere between a few thousand and a few tens of thousands of dollars, and expect scope to explain the difference. Be sceptical of anything far under the range, and compare quotes on scope, not price. If you would like a fixed price for your own accounts, book a free 20-minute assessment and you will get a written quote before anything starts.
Related reading: 5 AWS IAM security mistakes to fix now and why cloud breaches happen and how to prevent them.
Last updated: 11 October 2026 · Written by AegisElligent. Third-party prices checked 11 October 2026.