What Does a Nonprofit Audit Cost?

No federal source publishes audit fees, so this page uses the closest public number: the accounting fee nonprofits report on Form 990. Across 16,036 filings with an amount above zero the median is $33,607, rising from $10,374 for organizations under $1M of revenue to $133,300 above $50M (IRS e-file data as of 2026-09-20).

Last verified: 2026-09-20 · Every figure links its source.

What does a nonprofit audit cost by organization size?

Form 990 "accounting fees" (Part IX line 11c) cover all accounting services reported by the organization and are not the price of an audit engagement.

Reported accounting fees by total revenue
Total revenue	Filings	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
Under $1M	3,562	$7,178	$10,374	$14,904
$1M to $5M	4,276	$16,382	$25,798	$45,029
$5M to $10M	2,292	$24,375	$38,288	$66,787
$10M to $50M	4,227	$38,131	$61,753	$103,014
Over $50M	1,657	$76,450	$133,300	$254,000

Read the spread, not the median. Inside every band the 75th percentile is roughly double the 25th, and that gap is mostly complexity: number of federal programs, restricted funds, locations, payroll allocations and how clean the prior year was.

Source: IRS, About Form 990 · IRS Form 990 series downloads · Last verified: 2026-09-20

How much does a single audit add?

The honest answer is that Form 990 does not separate the audit from the rest of the accounting bill, so nobody can give you a clean increment from public data. What the data does show is how the fee moves with the amount of federal money in the audit — which is what drives major program selection (2 CFR 200.518) and therefore the hours.

Reported accounting fees by federal awards expended in the same year
Federal awards expended	Filings	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
Under $1M	1,263	$12,225	$24,589	$53,328
$1M to $3M	5,165	$11,500	$24,999	$56,128
$3M to $10M	3,687	$17,133	$34,952	$75,023
Over $10M	1,660	$43,515	$83,066	$167,186

Between the smallest and largest band the median roughly triples. For scale, the median nonprofit single audit for audit year 2024 covered $2,625,160 of federal awards across 4 programs.

Source: IRS Form 990 series downloads · Federal Audit Clearinghouse · 2 CFR 200.518 · Last verified: 2026-09-20

Why is this a range, not a quote?

Form 990 reports accounting fees for the year, which can include the audit, bookkeeping, payroll support and return preparation (IRS, About Form 990).
Fees are reported for the tax year, while the audit they relate to may straddle two years.
The population here is nonprofits that filed a federal single audit, so it skews toward organizations with federal funding rather than representing every nonprofit.
Nothing here is a quote from a firm, and no firm has agreed to any of these numbers.

Source: IRS, About Form 990 · Federal Audit Clearinghouse · Last verified: 2026-09-20

What drives a nonprofit audit fee up or down?

What changes the hours
Driver	Effect	Rule
Number of major programs	More compliance testing	2 CFR 200.518
Low-risk auditee status	Coverage of 20% instead of 40% of federal awards expended	2 CFR 200.520
Subrecipients	Monitoring is tested as well as spending	2 CFR 200.332
Prior-year findings	Follow-up is required whether or not the program is major	2 CFR 200.514(e)
Quality of the schedule of expenditures of federal awards	A schedule that does not reconcile is re-worked during fieldwork	2 CFR 200.510
Readiness of the close	Fieldwork on open books is fieldwork done twice	—

Source: 2 CFR 200.518 · 2 CFR 200.520 · 2 CFR 200.332 · 2 CFR 200.514 · 2 CFR 200.510 · Last verified: 2026-09-20

Can audit costs be charged to federal awards?

A reasonably proportionate share of the cost of audits required by and performed in accordance with the Single Audit Act is allowable. Audit costs are unallowable when a required audit was not performed or was not performed in accordance with the rules, and audits of entities below the threshold that were not required are generally unallowable — although a pass-through entity may charge federal awards for agreed-upon procedures used to monitor subrecipients that are exempt (2 CFR 200.425).

Source: 2 CFR 200.425 · Last verified: 2026-09-20

What does an audit cost in your state?

43 states have enough Form 990 returns read for at least one revenue band to carry a median. The rest appear here as coverage grows.

How we computed this

Source: accounting fees as reported on Form 990, parsed from the IRS e-file data, for 18,430 organizations and 20,321 tax periods.
Filings reporting no amount or zero are excluded; every band shows its own filing count.
Revenue bands use total revenue from the same filing. Federal bands join the audit record for the same year and use total federal awards expended.
Data as of 2026-09-20. Percentiles are computed on the filings in each band, not on organizations.
The same numbers as a file: nonprofit-accounting-fees-2026-09-20.csv.

Cite this page: AuditRadar, “Nonprofit audit cost: what organizations report paying”, data as of 2026-09-20, https://getauditradar.com/nonprofit-audit-cost/

Source: IRS Form 990 series downloads · Federal Audit Clearinghouse · CC BY 4.0 · Last verified: 2026-09-20

Questions and answers

How much does a nonprofit audit cost?

Form 990 accounting fees give the closest public answer: a median of $33,607 across 16,036 filings, from $10,374 at the median for organizations under $1M of revenue to $133,300 above $50M.

How much does an audit cost for a small nonprofit?

For organizations under $1M of total revenue the reported accounting fee has a median of $10,374, with a quarter below $7,178 and a quarter above $14,904.

Does a single audit cost more than a financial statement audit?

It covers the financial statement audit and adds compliance work, so it is more work. Form 990 does not separate the two, but reported fees rise with the amount of federal money in the audit.

Going out to bid? Write the RFP so the quotes are comparable, or see firms that audit nonprofits.

This is public-record information, not accounting or legal advice.