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31,677 filed audit fees · 144,578 Norwegian auditor appointments · refreshed 10 September 2026

What does an audit actually cost?

Every UK company that files audited accounts discloses what it paid its auditor. We read 31,677 of them and put them side by side. Type your company and see where your fee sits among companies its size.

Where does your audit fee sit?Pick your company above and see in seconds how your fee compares with companies your size: the spread is wide, and knowing where you sit in it is the starting point for any conversation with your auditor.

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Every UK audit fee on file, side by side. All 253 firms with twenty or more mandates, benchmarked so you can see where yours sits.

£15,000median UK audit fee
£15,750median at £10–25m revenue
3.1×Big 4 premium at £10–25m
+5.0%fee change year on year
Deloitte LLP£17k medianKPMG LLP£15k medianKPMG Audit Limited£5k medianSaffery LLP£19k medianXeinadin Audit Limited£15k medianForvis Mazars LLP£27k medianHazlewoods LLP£16k medianDJH Audit Limited£18k medianBarnes Roffe Audit Limited£17k medianBHP LLP£18k medianBlick Rothenberg Audit LLP£25k medianArmstrong Watson Audit Limited£19k medianJames Cowper Kreston Audit£17k medianMercer & Hole LLP£19k median
Ernst & Young LLP£26k medianPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP£37k medianAzets Audit Services£18k medianSumer Auditco Limited£16k medianMoore Kingston Smith LLP£27k medianMenzies LLP£19k medianJohnston Carmichael LLP£19k medianCooper Parry Group Limited£17k medianHurst Accountants Limited£14k medianBK Plus Audit Limited£13k medianGravita Audit II Limited£21k medianShaw Gibbs (Audit) Limited£15k medianBDO LLP£17k medianBishop Fleming Audit Limited£17k median
Source: audited accounts filed with Companies House, read 10 September 2026. auditor.ltd analysis.1 / 6

Fees rise slowly with size

A UK company with £10–25m of revenue pays a median audit fee of £15,750; at £100m and above the median is £28,730. Half of all fees in any band sit within a range about twice as wide as the median.

Median UK audit fee by revenue band

Median with interquartile range, 24,834 companies with a fee and revenue on file

0£10k£20k£30k£40k£50k£12,500Under £1mn=6,622£11,350£1–5mn=2,495£14,500£5–10mn=2,580£15,750£10–25mn=8,129£19,500£25–50mn=3,183£22,308£50–100mn=1,274£28,730£100m+n=551
The sub-£1m band is mostly holding companies and dormant subsidiaries whose audit is of a group, not of their own trade. Treat it separately.
Source: audited accounts filed with Companies House, read 10 September 2026. auditor.ltd analysis.Fees by band and sector2 / 6

The Big 4 premium is the whole story of "alternative to"

At £10–25m of revenue, a Big 4 audit costs a median £45,000 against £18,900 at a challenger firm and £14,725 at an independent one: 2.4× and 3.1× respectively.

Median UK audit fee by auditor tier and revenue band

Big 4 samples in the mid-market are small; the gap is not.

Big 4Challenger firmsIndependent firms
0£15k£30k£45k£60k£13k£14k£10k£1–5m revenue£17k£13k£5–10m revenue£45k£19k£15k£10–25m revenue£53k£23k£18k£25–50m revenue£25k£21k£50–100m revenue
Big 4 means Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. Challenger firms are the forty or so national and regional firms; independent firms are everyone else.

Fees moved +5.0% last year

Across 14,618 UK companies with two years of fees on file, the median rise was 5.0%. 20.3% saw a rise above 20%; 15.2% saw a cut, which means renegotiating works.

Who raised fees most, year on year

Median change across each firm's clients with two years of fees on file; firms with a hundred or more

Menzies LLP+6.6%Azets Audit Services+6.1%DJH Audit Limited+5.9%Xeinadin Audit Limited+5.3%UHY Hacker Young+5.3%Johnston Carmichael LLP+5.1%Sumer Auditco Limited+5.0%Moore Kingston Smith LLP+5.0%Cooper Parry Group Limited+5.0%BHP LLP+5.0%Hazlewoods LLP+4.9%TC Group+4.8%Saffery LLP+4.7%Hurst Accountants Limited+4.7%Forvis Mazars LLP+4.1%BK Plus Audit Limited+4.1%Gravita Audit II Limited+3.2%Barnes Roffe Audit Limited+1.1%
Above market medianBelowmarket median

Who audits Britain's companies

Azets Audit Services holds the most mandates on file, 1,530. The Big 4 together hold 545 of the 20,346 mandates at firms with twenty or more: the mid-market is audited by the challengers and the independents.

UK audit firms by mandates on file

253 firms with twenty or more mandates on file

Azets Audit Services1,530Saffery LLP704Sumer Auditco Limited697Xeinadin Audit Limited655Moore Kingston Smith LLP491TC Group460Forvis Mazars LLP427Menzies LLP420UHY Hacker Young369Hazlewoods LLP334Johnston Carmichael LLP322DJH Audit Limited282Cooper Parry Group Limited279Barnes Roffe Audit Limited260Hurst Accountants Limited240BHP LLP230BK Plus Audit Limited228Blick Rothenberg Audit LLP224Gravita Audit II Limited197Deloitte LLP191Armstrong Watson Audit Limited185Shaw Gibbs (Audit) Limited167James Cowper Kreston Audit164BDO LLP163BKL Audit LLP163Mercer & Hole LLP158Bishop Fleming Audit Limited157Buzzacott Audit LLP153Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited151Duncan & Toplis Audit Limited150
Big 4Challenger firmsIndependent firms
Mandates are companies naming the firm in accounts on file, so a firm's true client count is higher; the largest groups file once for many subsidiaries.
Source: audited accounts filed with Companies House, read 10 September 2026. auditor.ltd analysis.All 253 audit firms5 / 6

Audit in your city

Pick a city for the firms that audit there, what they charge, and how that compares with the UK median.

LondonManchesterBirminghamEdinburghBelfastNottinghamMilton KeynesAberdeenCardiffNewcastle Upon Tyne

All 105 UK citiesfirms and median fee by city

Source: audited accounts filed with Companies House, read 10 September 2026. auditor.ltd analysis.6 / 6

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Figures are indicative. They are computed from a sample of accounts filed with Companies House and the Norwegian register, read by machine, and are only as good as those filings; they can contain mistakes, and the dataset is not exhaustive. Found a mistake? Report it through the contact form.