The median US management analyst is paid $48.97 an hour. On US federal contracts, the median ceiling rate for a management and strategy consultant is $166 an hour, across 1,470 rates. If the analyst works for McKinsey, the government pays between $327 and $498 an hour for them, and $1,193.57 for the senior partner who signs the proposal.
That spread, from what a consultant earns to what a consultant costs, is the whole subject of this guide. Every number below is a billing rate, not a salary, unless it says otherwise, and every one has a named source and a date.
Consultant hourly rates at a glance
Hourly billing rates, in US dollars unless stated. US industry bands are federal ceiling rates. UK figures are what an individual contractor is paid, in pounds.
- US industry bands
- US federal ceiling rates in GSA CALC+, pulled 28 September 2026: the middle half (25th to 75th percentile) and median of every rate whose labour category title matches the industry, 24,480 rates from 2,559 contractors. A ceiling rate is the most a contractor may charge a US federal agency for that labour category.
- Big firm rates
- US General Services Administration federal supply schedule pricing: McKinsey and BCG from 2024 GSA listings as compiled by Slideworks, Bain from its 2013 to 2018 price list, and Kearney from its price list current to August 2023. Commercial clients are quoted separately.
- UK role rates
- IT Jobs Watch, six months to 18 September 2026. Where a role is quoted hourly we show the published hourly median; otherwise we divide the median day rate by 7.5 hours and say so.
- Pay versus billing
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, management analysts, May 2025 data. This is employee pay, shown for contrast.
- Review cycle
- Reviewed quarterly against the same sources.
ConsultingDemand, “Consultant Hourly Rates in 2026”, data as of 28 September 2026. https://consultingdemand.com/blog/consultant-hourly-rates/
Consultant hourly rates by industry
These are US federal ceiling rates from GSA CALC+, pulled 28 September 2026, as published in our consulting fees by industry guide. A ceiling rate is the most a contractor may charge a US federal agency for that labour category. They are billing rates, so they include the contractor’s margin and overhead. The band is the middle half of the rates, and the rates column is the sample size.
| Industry | Middle half of rates | Median | Rates | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI and data science | $138–$208 | $171 | 1,602 | Highest median; see AI consulting rates |
| Management and strategy | $129–$212 | $166 | 1,470 | 10th percentile $100, 90th $269; MBB sits far above the band |
| Marketing and digital | $120–$215 | $160 | 897 | Usually sold as a monthly retainer instead |
| Cybersecurity | $120–$194 | $152 | 10,723 | See cybersecurity consulting rates |
| IT and technology | $123–$189 | $151 | 1,185 | Help desk median $80.73 (2,597 rates), cloud architect $185.08 (850). See IT consulting rates |
| Healthcare | $102–$175 | $134 | 1,152 | Regulatory and clinical specialists price at the top |
| Legal and compliance | $96–$178 | $132 | 802 | Paralegal titles excluded |
| Environmental and sustainability | $100–$182 | $132 | 1,518 | Regulatory submissions price at the top of the band |
| HR and organisational | $95–$179 | $131 | 570 | See HR consulting fees |
| Financial advisory and M&A | $89–$152 | $116 | 1,762 | Financial analysts and consultants; M&A is usually a success fee on deal value |
| Operations and supply chain | $83–$147 | $108 | 3,051 | See procurement consulting rates |
| Real estate | Too few rates for a band | 17 | Priced by project or by the hour |
The spread inside one industry is wider than the spread between them. Medians run from $108 to $171, but a management consultant at the 10th percentile charges $100 an hour and one at the 90th charges $269. The firm on the proposal moves the number more than the industry does.
Consultant hourly rates by firm type
Most firms quote day rates and keep their rate cards private. The exception is US federal schedules, which publish hourly rates by grade. The table below uses those.
| Firm type | Hourly rate | Source | Sample | Who buys at this level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Three (McKinsey) | $327.41 (analyst) to $1,193.57 (senior partner) | McKinsey’s US federal schedule, 2024 | One firm, by grade | Boards, C-suite strategy, enterprise transformation |
| Mid-tier (Kearney) | $233.20 (junior consultant) to $624.00 (executive strategy project leader) | Kearney’s US federal price list, current to August 2023 | One firm, by grade | Sector specialists, mid-market clients |
| Federal contractors, management and strategy | $129–$212 middle half, $166 median | GSA CALC+, September 2026 | 1,470 rates | US federal agencies |
There is no public hourly rate card for the Big Four, independents or offshore firms, and boutiques publish no rate cards at all. What is public is a handful of day rates. Deloitte charged up to £2,360 a day on the UK Test and Trace programme in 2020 (City AM). UK interim managers report an average of £907 a day (IIM, 2026). Accenture’s 2024 offshore rate card for the UK public sector runs from £95 to £495 a day (G-Cloud 14). Do not divide these by eight and set them against the table: they are different markets, currencies and years. Ask every supplier for a named hourly rate per grade instead.
What the largest firms actually bill per hour
Commercial rate cards are confidential. Government ones are not. The US General Services Administration publishes the hourly rates that federal agencies pay under its supply schedules, and in 2024 those listings showed:
| Firm and role | Hourly rate (US federal) |
|---|---|
| McKinsey senior partner | $1,193.57 |
| McKinsey engagement manager | $834.40 |
| McKinsey analyst or associate | $327.41–$498.23 |
| BCG senior partner | $1,116.17 |
| BCG project lead | $711.35 |
| BCG senior consultant | $629.35 |
| BCG associate | $404.18 |
| Bain (weekly team pricing, 2013 to 2018 schedule) | $110,554.16 to $160,806.05 per week for a team of three to four consultants plus a manager |
Two things to know before you use these numbers. First, they are the discounted rates. GSA pricing is negotiated on the basis that the government is a high-volume buyer, and the GSA’s own Inspector General found in 2019 that McKinsey’s earlier schedule priced a business analyst at $56,707 a week, a figure the report said may cost the United States an estimated $69 million. Commercial clients should assume they pay more than the table shows.
Second, nobody buys a senior partner by the hour. The partner rate exists so that the team blend works out. A typical strategy team is one partner at a fraction of their time, one engagement manager, and two to four associates, and it is the blended weekly cost that appears on the invoice. We cover how that blends, and what the Big Four charge for the same team, in our guide to Big Four and MBB consulting fees.
UK consultant hourly rates by role
The UK contract market quotes by the day, and the calculator convention on this site divides by 7.5 hours. Where IT Jobs Watch also publishes an hourly median for a role, we show it, because it tells you something the arithmetic does not.
| Role | Median day rate | Day rate ÷ 7.5 | Published hourly median | Hourly sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workday Consultant | £750 | £100 | not published | 0 |
| Programme Manager | £675 | £90 | £63.73 | 16 |
| Strategy Consultant | £600 | £80 | not published | 0 |
| HR Consultant | £555 | £74 | not published | 0 |
| Management Consultant | £554 | £74 | not published | 0 |
| SAP Consultant | £550 | £73 | £87.50 | 10 |
| Project Manager | £548 | £73 | £63.50 | 38 |
| Change Manager | £525 | £70 | £41.74 | 21 |
| Business Consultant | £525 | £70 | not published | 0 |
| PMO | £500 | £67 | £53.00 | 25 |
| Business Analyst | £500 | £67 | £58.50 | 31 |
| IT Consultant | £500 | £67 | not published | 0 |
Day rates are medians over the six months to 18 September 2026. Day-rate samples range from 17 (Strategy Consultant) to 1,381 (Business Analyst); the smaller ones should be read as directional.
Look at the project manager row. Divide the £548 day rate by 7.5 and you get £73 an hour. The 38 contracts that were actually advertised by the hour paid a median of £63.50. The same pattern holds for programme managers (£90 implied, £63.73 published), business analysts (£67 implied, £58.50 published) and change managers (£70 implied, £41.74 published). Only SAP runs the other way, on a sample of ten.
Across every UK role with a usable hourly sample, contracts quoted by the hour paid 13% to 40% less per hour than the day-rate equivalent for the same title. Hourly quoting is concentrated in public sector and inside-IR35 roles, where the buyer sets the terms. If you are a contractor, that is the case for quoting by the day. If you are a buyer, it is the case for asking.
Whole-market context: across all 29,737 UK IT contracts quoting a daily rate in the window, the median was £525 a day, and across the 3,829 quoting hourly, £42.50 an hour. The full day-rate picture is in our UK consultant day rate benchmark.
Fractional executives per hour
Fractional leadership is sold as a monthly retainer, but the hours behind it produce an implied hourly rate that is worth knowing when you compare it with a consultant. Fractional Pulse’s review of 1,049 fractional executive listings between October 2025 and August 2026 gives:
| Role | Hourly rate | Monthly retainer | Hours a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CFO | $250–$625 | $3,000–$25,000 | 10–40 |
| Fractional CTO | $350–$630 | $5,000–$22,000 | 10–35 |
| Fractional CMO | $250–$575 | $4,000–$20,000 | 15–35 |
| Fractional COO | $275–$500 | $5,000–$20,000 | 15–40 |
| Fractional CHRO | $300–$600 | $4,000–$12,000 | 10–20 |
The range within each role is company stage: a pre-revenue startup pays the bottom of the band and a $20M ARR company the top. Our fractional CFO, CIO and CTO cost guide breaks this down by stage.
When hourly is the wrong unit
Consulting Success’s study of nearly 1,000 consultants found 29% charge by the hour, 30% by the project, 16% on a monthly retainer, 15% on value and 10% by the day. Hourly is the second most common model and, for most engagements, the worst one for the buyer.
The problem is incentive. An hourly rate pays the consultant more for taking longer. That is fine for advisory work where the scope genuinely cannot be fixed in advance, such as a standing call with a fractional executive or an expert witness. It is a poor fit for anything with a definable deliverable, because you are carrying all of the estimation risk.
Hourly or fixed fee? Five questions
Question 1 of 5
Can you describe the deliverable in one sentence before the work starts?
How long will the engagement run?
Who controls how much of the consultant's time gets used?
Has this consultant done this exact type of work before?
What matters more to you?
When a consultant quotes hourly for a defined project, they are asking you to insure them against their own estimate. Ask for the fixed price instead. The ones who can do the work will give you one.
Negotiating an hourly rate
If hourly is the right model, the rate itself is rarely the best lever. These are.
Ask who is on the clock. Under a blended rate, an associate’s hour costs you the same as a partner’s. Ask for the staffing plan and a rate per grade, then check the time reports against it.
Fix the increment. Six-minute increments are a law-firm habit that some consultancies have adopted. Insist on quarter-hour or half-hour billing, and on no minimum charge for a call.
Cap the month. A not-to-exceed figure converts an open hourly arrangement into something you can budget. Consultants will usually accept it if the cap is generous.
Separate travel. Travel time billed at the full hourly rate is the most common surprise on a consulting invoice. Agree in advance whether it is billed at all, and at what fraction.
Your hourly rate is your day rate divided by 7.5, and your day rate is your income target plus costs, divided by the days you will actually bill. Nobody bills 260 days a year; with 35 days off and 30% of the rest spent on selling and admin, the calculator's defaults leave 158. Our consulting fee calculator does the arithmetic and checks the answer against UK medians.
The consulting fee calculator works in pounds, dollars or euros. If the question is how to structure the fee rather than how much it should be, see our guides to consulting retainers and to building a consulting rate card.
- On US federal schedules, median ceiling rates run from $108 an hour (operations and supply chain) to $171 (AI and data science), across 24,480 rates (GSA CALC+, September 2026)
- A US management analyst is paid $48.97 an hour (BLS, May 2025); the median federal ceiling rate for management and strategy, $166, is over three times that, and McKinsey's senior partner rate over 24 times
- McKinsey bills the US government $1,193.57 an hour for a senior partner and $327 to $498 for an associate; commercial clients pay more
- On the UK contract market, contracts quoted by the hour paid 13% to 40% less per hour than day-rate contracts for the same title
- Fractional executives bill $250 to $630 an hour inside a monthly retainer; the stage of the company sets where in the band you land
- Hourly suits open-ended advisory work; for anything with a definable deliverable, ask for a fixed fee and cap the hours if you cannot get one
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical consultant hourly rate?
On US federal schedules, the median ceiling rate runs from $108 an hour in operations and supply chain to $171 in AI and data science, and is $166 for management and strategy (GSA CALC+, September 2026). The largest firms bill far more: McKinsey’s 2024 federal schedule runs from $327.41 an hour for an analyst to $1,193.57 for a senior partner. There is no public hourly figure for independents. On the UK contract market the equivalent is £42.50 an hour across all IT contracts quoted hourly, and £53 to £87.50 for the consulting roles with a usable sample.
How much do consultants charge per hour in the UK?
By role, the implied hourly rate from median day rates in the six months to September 2026 runs from £67 (business analyst, IT consultant, PMO) to £100 (Workday consultant). Where roles are advertised by the hour, the published medians are lower: £41.74 for a change manager, £53 for PMO, £58.50 for a business analyst and £63.50 for a project manager.
Is $100 an hour good for consulting?
It is the bottom of Clutch’s US average for business strategy and management consulting firms, $100 to $149 an hour (September 2026). On US federal schedules it is the 10th percentile for a management consultant: nine in ten ceiling rates are at or above it, and the median is $166 (GSA CALC+, September 2026). For operations, financial advisory, HR or legal work, $100 sits inside the middle half of federal rates. For AI, cybersecurity or strategy, it is low enough that an experienced buyer will ask why.
How much does McKinsey charge per hour?
On its 2024 US federal supply schedule, $1,193.57 an hour for a senior partner, $834.40 for an engagement manager and $327.41 to $498.23 for analysts and associates. Those are the government’s negotiated rates; commercial clients are not shown a rate card and typically pay a weekly team fee that works out higher.
Should I pay a consultant hourly or a fixed fee?
Fixed fee for anything with a deliverable you can describe in advance. Hourly for genuinely open-ended advisory work, with a monthly cap. Retainer for ongoing access to a senior person, such as a fractional executive.
Last updated: 28 September 2026