The average management consulting project brought in $132,000 in 2024, across the 85 consultancies in SPI Research’s benchmark. At the large firms, management consulting fees on the public record run from $1.78 million for eight weeks of BCG strategy work to $3 million for a six-month Bain diagnostic. Before you place your proposal anywhere on that range, check three lines on it: the team, by grade and allocation; the number of weeks; and what the fee commits you to after the first phase. Those three lines decide the fee. The day rate is the least important number on the page.
This guide prices the four projects most proposals describe: the diagnostic, the strategy sprint, the transformation programme and the interim. It does so by firm tier, in dollars for the US and in pounds for the UK. The figures come from four public contracts, published federal and UK rate schedules, GSA’s federal rate database, SPI Research’s benchmark, and UK contract-market and interim data. Where we build a fee from a rate, the arithmetic sits next to it. If your question is how fees differ by industry rather than by project, our consulting fees by industry benchmark answers that one.
Management consulting fees, in four numbers
What management consulting projects cost by type and by firm tier, in US dollars for US data and pounds for UK data. Nothing is converted between currencies.
- Project averages
- SPI Research, 2025 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark: 403 organisations, of which 85 are management consultancies with 25,640 consultants between them. Figures are averages for 2024, not medians.
- Public contracts
- Four contracts and award notices, read at source: Bain for the University of California, Berkeley (2009), BCG for the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (2023 and 2024), and McKinsey for the UK Department of Health and Social Care (2020). Each is one engagement, not a market rate.
- US federal rates
- GSA CALC+ ceiling rates for labour categories titled management consultant, retrieved 28 September 2026: 1,292 rates from 351 contractors. Bain's weekly team prices are from its GSA price list for the 2013 to 2018 contract. Kearney's are from its GSA schedule, current to August 2023. McKinsey's hourly rates are from its 2024 GSA schedule as compiled by Slideworks. Federal rates are negotiated for a volume buyer and are not a commercial quote.
- Firm-tier comparison
- Built only from published rates: Bain's, McKinsey's and Kearney's federal schedules, the CALC+ median, Deloitte's day rate on NHS Test and Trace (City AM, 2020) and the IIM survey. Boutiques publish no rate cards, so their row has no figure.
- UK figures
- IT Jobs Watch medians of advertised contract day rates, six months to 28 September 2026, with the sample size next to each; the IIM Interim Management Survey 2026; Accenture's G-Cloud 14 rate card (May 2024); NAO, Public Accounts Committee and press disclosures on NHS Test and Trace (2020 to 2021); Tussell, as reported in May 2026.
- Our arithmetic
- Where we build a fee from a published rate, the team, the weeks and the rate are stated inline. Those figures are illustrations, not quotes and not survey results.
- Review cycle
- Reviewed quarterly against the same sources.
ConsultingDemand, “Management Consulting Fees: What Firms Charge by Project”, data as of 28 September 2026. https://consultingdemand.com/blog/management-consulting-fees/
What each type of management consulting project costs
The table puts the public record for each project type in one place. Every row except the last two is a single engagement at a single firm.
| Project type | Length | Fee on the public record | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy sprint, US | 8 weeks | $1,780,000 maximum, plus expenses (BCG, 2023) | 1 contract |
| Strategy sprint, UK | 6 weeks | £563,400 (McKinsey, 2020) | 1 contract |
| Diagnostic, US | 6 months | $3,000,000 cap, plus expenses (Bain, 2009) | 1 contract |
| Diagnostic, US | 7 months | $2,850,000 maximum, including expenses (BCG, 2024) | 1 contract |
| Implementation after the diagnostic, US | Not fixed | Up to $6,000,000, at $500,000 per team per month (Bain, 2009) | 1 contract |
| Interim manager, UK | 10 months on average | £907 a day on average; £1,004 in the private sector | About 2,000 interims a year (IIM) |
| Average management consulting project | 6.86 months, 2.95 people | $132,000 revenue per project, 2024 | 85 firms (SPI) |
Read the top five rows as prices that were agreed, not as a market median. The spread inside each type is the team, not the firm’s day rate.
A project fee is a team, a number of weeks and a rate
Large-firm fees are built from a team and a length of time. The firm prices the team for a week or a month, then multiplies. Bain’s federal price list says so outright.
Team A, half a manager and three consultants, is $110,554.16 a week. Team B, a full manager and three consultants, is $130,654.91. Team C, a manager and four, is $160,806.05. Each price includes guidance from an operating partner, who divides their time between two or three engagements. Those prices come from Bain’s GSA schedule for its 2013 to 2018 contract, which is still downloadable from GSA Advantage.
McKinsey and BCG publish hourly rates by grade on their federal schedules instead. In 2024 McKinsey listed $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. Built into one engagement manager, three associates and four hours of a senior partner, that is $77,439 to $97,938 a week. Our Big Four vs MBB fees guide sets out the full grade tables for both firms.
Below those firms, the federal market is larger and cheaper. GSA’s CALC+ database holds 1,292 ceiling rates for labour categories titled management consultant, from 351 contractors. The median is $166.89 an hour, and half the rates sit between $130.22 and $211.33. Kearney’s public-sector schedule, current to August 2023, prices an executive strategy project leader at $624 an hour and a strategy consultant at $421.
The pricing model decides who carries the overrun. Among SPI Research’s 85 management consultancies, 42.3% of work in 2024 was sold as a fixed fee and 37.8% as time and materials. Shared-risk and performance-based pricing was 3.3%. The same firms overran their projects by 8.0% on average, up from 7.2% the year before. Under T&M, that 8% is yours. Under a fixed fee, it is priced into the quote.
Ask for the staffing plan as a table: name, grade, allocation and weeks. Without it you cannot divide the fee by anything.
Across 85 management consultancies, revenue per project fell 35%, from $204,000 to $132,000. The average team shrank from 3.54 to 2.95 people, and the average project ran 6.86 months, up from 5.63. Average contract value fell 23%, from $161,000 to $124,000. Source: SPI Research, 2025 benchmark.
What a management consulting diagnostic costs
How much does a management consulting diagnostic cost? At a large firm, the public record puts a six- to seven-month diagnostic at $2.85 million to $3 million. Boutiques publish no rate cards. At the federal median for a management consultant, $166.89 an hour, two people for four weeks come to $53,405. The first figure is two contracts. The second is our arithmetic.
The University of California hired Bain on 1 October 2009 for a six-month “diagnostic and option development” phase at Berkeley. The target was $75 million to $100 million of savings against 2008-09 costs. The staffing plan named a manager and five full-time-equivalent consultants, with three partners at 30% to 50% of their time. The fee was $500,000 a month, capped at $3 million, with expenses capped at $450,000 on top. Half of each monthly fee was deferred until 1 July 2010.
One line in Bain’s statement of work deserves a second reading. It told the university to expect to realise 50% to 70% of the potential savings from the options it chose to pursue. The contract that set a $75 million to $100 million target also told the client that 30% to 50% of the savings would not arrive.
BCG’s 2024 assignment for Puerto Rico’s oversight board is the other large-firm example. It covered “diagnostic sector deep dives” in up to five sectors, project management and ad hoc advice, from 1 March to 30 September 2024. The maximum was $2.85 million including expenses, invoiced monthly.
Bain's Berkeley contract priced phases II and III before phase I had started: up to $6 million and $2 million, at the same $500,000 a month per team. A pre-agreed rate for later phases protects you. A pre-agreed budget commits you. Keep the rate and strike the budget.
A generalist’s diagnostic is smaller and should end sooner. Our guide to the business management consultant covers what a generalist’s diagnostic should find, and the one question that tests whether it can recommend stopping.
Price the diagnostic as its own phase, with its own acceptance criteria and an exit that costs you nothing.
What a strategy sprint costs
How much does enterprise strategy consulting typically cost? From McKinsey, BCG or Bain, the one public contract we found is BCG’s eight weeks of sector strategy for Puerto Rico’s oversight board, capped at $1,780,000 plus expenses. Bain’s smallest federal team costs $884,433 for the same eight weeks. Boutiques publish no rate cards. Two management consultants at the federal median of $166.89 an hour cost $80,107 for six weeks, on our arithmetic.
The BCG assignment ran from 18 September to 10 November 2023. It refreshed Puerto Rico’s biopharma sector strategy, planned a response to expected plant vacancies and set out a workforce roadmap. The contract states the “maximum amount chargeable” for the eight weeks. That is $222,500 a week. It also required BCG to invoice monthly with time records showing the portions of days worked. That clause is worth copying into any fixed-fee sprint, because it tells you what the fee bought.
Bain’s figure is its Team A, the smallest on its federal price list for the 2013 to 2018 contract, at $110,554.16 a week. BCG’s cap is about twice that. Ask which team the fee buys.
The six-week figure is our arithmetic. Two people for 40 hours a week over six weeks is 480 hours, at $166.89, the median of 1,292 federal ceiling rates for management consultants. That is a market median, not a boutique quote, so ask for each person’s named rate. The UK equivalent from the public record, McKinsey’s six weeks for the Department of Health and Social Care, is in the UK section below. What a strategic plan, a board offsite or a market entry study costs, from boutique to MBB, is in our guide to strategy consulting fees.
Ask for the weekly figure. A sprint quoted as a lump sum hides whether you are buying Team A or Team C.
Diagnostic first, or straight to a scoped project? Five questions
Question 1 of 5
Can you state the problem in one sentence your leadership team agrees with?
Is the data to size the problem in one place?
What do you want at the end?
Could you write acceptance criteria for the deliverable today?
What is the budget approved for?
What a transformation programme costs
How much does enterprise transformation consulting typically cost? The public record prices it by the team-month: Bain’s implementation phase at Berkeley was capped at $6 million, at $500,000 per team per month. Bain’s five-person Team C for six months comes to $4,180,957 at federal rates.
That figure is our arithmetic: Team C’s published $160,806.05 a week for 26 weeks, on Bain’s price list for the 2013 to 2018 contract.
Transformation is usually bought by the month, because the scope of the later phases depends on what the first one finds. Bain’s Berkeley contract shows how it sized the work. It said procurement and IT typically needed “one-half of a standard consulting team” for three to six months, and organisational redesign a full team for three to six months. The final phase was advisory: a single partner for 12 to 18 months, or a half-team running programme management for six to 12 months.
A monthly transformation fee behaves like a retainer. It needs the same clauses: what the month buys, what happens in a month the team is under-used, and the notice period. Our consulting retainers guide lists them.
Before you sign a monthly fee for a transformation, write three numbers into the scope and the week each one gets measured. If the proposal cannot name them, the monthly fee is paying for activity.
What a post-merger integration costs
What does it cost to hire a post-merger integration expert? As an individual in the UK, a contract integration manager’s median was £600 a day on 39 quoted rates in the six months to 28 September 2026. As a firm-run integration programme, it is priced like a transformation, by the team-month. We found no public contract for integration work that we would cite.
An integration has a date the deal sets: completion. Price the work up to completion and the work after it as two phases, so that you can change the team for the second.
What an interim manager costs
How much does an interim manager cost? In the UK, an average of £907 a day in 2026: £1,004 in the private sector and £700 in the public sector. That comes from the Institute of Interim Management’s survey, which about 2,000 interims complete each year. The average assignment lasted 10 months.
An interim is a person in a seat, not a team, so the fee is the day rate times the days. Roles outside IR35 averaged £949 a day and roles inside it £830. The survey is of interims, so these are what the interim is paid. If a provider placed them, the client’s rate also carries the provider’s margin.
A 10-month assignment at the survey’s average of 148 billed days a year is about 123 days. At the private-sector average that is roughly £123,800, and at the public-sector average about £86,300. Those two figures are our arithmetic, not the survey’s.
The contract market prices the programme roles an interim often fills. In the six months to 28 September 2026, IT Jobs Watch recorded medians of £900 a day for a programme director (38 quoted rates), £675 for a programme manager (270) and £615 for a transformation manager (109).
We have no US interim survey we would cite. For part-time senior leaders in the US, the rates in our fractional CFO, CIO and CTO cost guide are the nearest comparison.
Ask for the status determination statement before day one. In the IIM’s 2026 survey, 53% of respondents were not receiving one.
What each firm tier charges for the same project
Take one project, four people for eight weeks, and price it at each tier’s published rates. The weekly and eight-week columns are our arithmetic, at 40 hours or five days a week.
| Firm tier | Published rate | Four people, one week | Four people, eight weeks | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Three: Bain Team B, US | $130,654.91 a week, manager and three consultants (2013–2018 contract) | $130,655 | $1,045,239 | 1 price list |
| Big Three: McKinsey, US | Engagement manager, three associates, 4 partner hours (2024) | $77,439–$97,938 | $619,516–$783,503 | 1 schedule |
| Big Four: Deloitte, UK | Up to £2,360 a day (NHS Test and Trace, 2020) | Up to £47,200 | Up to £377,600 | 1 programme |
| Mid-tier: Kearney, US | Project leader $624 and three strategy consultants $421 an hour (2023) | $75,480 | $603,840 | 1 schedule |
| Federal market median, US | Four management consultants at $166.89 an hour (2026) | $26,703 | $213,619 | 1,292 rates |
| Boutique specialists | No published rate cards | Not published | Not published | None |
| Independent, one person, UK | Interim average £907 a day (2026) | £4,535 | £36,280 | About 2,000 interims a year |
On US federal rates, the same eight weeks costs $213,619 at the market median and $1,045,239 for Bain’s Team B. That is nearly five times as much for the same headcount.
The tier sets the day rate. The team and the weeks set the fee. Hourly equivalents for each tier are in our consultant hourly rates guide.
Decide the team you need before you decide the tier.
Management consultancy fees in the UK
What are typical management consultancy fees in the UK? Two public contracts anchor the top. McKinsey’s six weeks for the Department of Health and Social Care in 2020 cost £563,400. BCG charged £10 million for 40 people over four months on NHS Test and Trace. The Public Accounts Committee put the daily rate for consultants on Test and Trace at £1,100. An individual contractor costs less: a £558 median for a management consultant on 67 quoted rates.
The McKinsey contract is on Contracts Finder. It ran from 18 May to 26 June 2020. It asked for options on the vision, organisation, governance and roadmap of a permanent body to run Test and Trace. That is £93,900 a week for six weeks.
| UK engagement or rate card | Figure | What it covers | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| McKinsey, Department of Health and Social Care, 2020 | £563,400 | Six weeks of strategy work | 1 contract |
| BCG, NHS Test and Trace, 2020 | £10 million | 40 people for four months | 1 contract |
| BCG, same programme | £2,400–£7,360 a day | Individual consultants to the most senior | 1 contract |
| Consultants on NHS Test and Trace | £1,100 a day | Daily rate found by the Public Accounts Committee | Programme-wide |
| Deloitte, NHS Test and Trace | £1 million a day | Combined daily fees, Consultancy.uk reporting the NAO | 1 firm |
| Accenture rate card, strategy and architecture | £190–£2,240 a day | Seven skill levels, 8-hour day, travel inside the M25 included | 1 published card |
Accenture’s G-Cloud 14 card is a large firm’s published price list for UK public buyers. Level 5 is £1,580 a day, level 6 is £1,880 and level 7 is £2,240. Offshore staff on the same card run from £95 to £495. A team of one level 6, two level 5 and two level 4 staff costs £7,120 a day, or £213,600 for six weeks. That is our arithmetic, and it is less than half the McKinsey fee for the same length. The gap comes from three things: whose rate card, which grades and how many people. A proposal that shows none of them cannot be compared. Ask for all three.
The contract market is where an individual contractor is paid, without a consultancy’s margin on top. These are the medians for the roles a management consulting project uses:
| Role, UK contract | Median day rate | Year on year | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programme Director | £900 | +22.87% | 38 |
| Programme Manager | £675 | −2.17% | 270 |
| Transformation Manager | £615 | +2.50% | 109 |
| Strategy Consultant | £600 | +3.23% | 17 |
| Integration Manager | £600 | −7.69% | 39 |
| Management Consultant | £558 | −10.80% | 67 |
| Change Manager | £525 | +5.00% | 156 |
| Business Consultant | £525 | not published | 35 |
IT Jobs Watch, six months to 28 September 2026. The smaller samples are directional. Where the source prints no change, the table says so.
The management consultant median fell 10.80% on a sample of 67. Our management consulting day rates page tracks that median each quarter.
The public sector keeps buying. Tussell put UK government consulting spend at a record £3.7 billion in 2024/25, up 6%. Central government’s management consulting contracts reached £1.9 billion, up from £1.1 billion in 2019/20.
For consultancy rate cards by grade, rather than contract medians, see our UK consultant day rates guide. Before you compare a firm’s quote with a contract median, check which market each number comes from.
How to benchmark a management consulting fee
Three divisions tell you most of what a proposal hides.
Divide the fee by the weeks. That gives the weekly team cost. Compare it with the public record: Bain’s federal teams at $110,554 to $160,806 a week, BCG’s eight-week sprint at $222,500 a week, McKinsey’s UK work at £93,900 a week.
Divide the fee by the person-days in the staffing plan. That gives the effective day rate per consultant. Compare it with the published rates in the tier table above. A figure above the published rate for that grade needs a reason on the page.
Divide the person-days by the weeks. That gives the team size actually being sold. SPI’s average management consulting project ran with 2.95 people in 2024. A proposal with four names and the person-days of two has told you who will not be there.
Then name the lever. SPI’s management consultancies gave an average discount of 6.6% in 2024. Taking one consultant off a four-person team for the last three of eight weeks removes just over 9% of the person-weeks. The team is the bigger lever. Change the team, not the rate. To compare several firms on the same basis, ask each for a consulting rate card with a day rate per grade.
Seven questions to ask before you sign
- Which people are on the team, at what grade, and at what allocation in each week?
- How many weeks, and what is the maximum amount chargeable, with and without expenses?
- Is the diagnostic a separate phase, with its own fee, acceptance criteria and an exit?
- Does the contract commit you to a budget for later phases, or only to a rate?
- Will each invoice come with time records by person, even under a fixed fee?
- What does a change request cost, and who signs it off before the work starts?
- For an interim, where is the status determination statement, and inside or outside IR35?
If the proposal cannot answer the first question, do not sign it. The acceptance criteria in question 3 are easier to write with our five tests for auditing consulting deliverables to hand. For the whole process from brief to contract, start with our guide to hiring a consultant.
- The average management consulting project brought in $132,000 in 2024, with 2.95 people over 6.86 months (SPI Research, 85 firms)
- Large-firm contracts on the public record: $1.78 million for an eight-week BCG sprint, $3 million for a six-month Bain diagnostic, £563,400 for six weeks of McKinsey work in the UK
- A large-firm fee is a team times a number of weeks: Bain's federal teams cost $110,554 to $160,806 a week
- The median federal ceiling rate for a management consultant is $166.89 an hour, across 1,292 rates (GSA CALC+, September 2026)
- Transformation is usually bought by the team-month: Bain's Berkeley implementation phase was capped at $6 million, at $500,000 per team per month. Strike any pre-agreed budget for later phases and keep only the rate
- UK interims averaged £907 a day in 2026, and a UK contract management consultant's median was £558 on 67 quoted rates
- Benchmark a proposal with three divisions: fee by weeks, fee by person-days, person-days by weeks
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to hire a management consultant?
For one person in the US, the federal ceiling-rate median for a management consultant is $166.89 an hour across 1,292 rates. In the UK, a contract management consultant’s median is £558 a day on 67 quoted rates, and interim managers averaged £907 a day in the IIM’s 2026 survey. For a project from a firm, the 2024 average across 85 management consultancies was $132,000. At the largest firms, the US contracts in this guide run to seven figures.
How do you benchmark management consulting fees?
Divide the fee by the weeks to get the weekly team cost, and compare it with published team prices such as Bain’s $110,554 to $160,806 a week. Divide the fee by the person-days to get the effective day rate, and compare it with the published rates for that tier. Divide the person-days by the weeks to see the team size actually being sold.
Are management consulting fees fixed or hourly?
More often fixed than hourly. Among 85 management consultancies in SPI Research’s 2025 benchmark, 42.3% of work was sold as a fixed fee, 37.8% as time and materials and 3.3% on shared risk. The large firms quote fixed fees for a scope, but BCG’s public contracts still set a maximum amount chargeable, and one required time records with each invoice.
How much does a change management consultant cost?
On the UK contract market, a change manager’s median was £525 a day on 156 quoted rates in the six months to 28 September 2026. If a firm-run transformation includes change management, ask for it as a separate line so that you can see what it costs.
Why do fees for the same project vary so much?
Because the fee is the team times the weeks, and firms staff the same project differently. At published US federal rates, four people for eight weeks costs $213,619 at the median management consultant rate and $1,045,239 as Bain’s Team B, on our arithmetic.
Last updated: 28 September 2026