Strategy consulting fees on the public record run from a $4,400 quote for a half-day council retreat to more than $14 million for two McKinsey strategic plans. A strategic planning consultant for a small organisation sits near the bottom of that range. A Michigan library agreed up to $34,000 for a three- to five-year plan in April 2026. A Washington city agreed up to $100,000 for its first strategic plan in 2025. Before you place your proposal on the range, check three lines on it. The first is the hours, and whose they are. The second is the number of interviews and workshops outside the boardroom. The third is the name of the finished deliverable. Those three lines decide the fee. The rate moves it far less.
This guide prices the four strategy engagements most proposals describe: the board offsite, the strategic plan, market entry and growth strategy. It then sets boutique against MBB, pins down what the deliverable should be, and covers the UK. The figures come from council and board papers, UK contract notices, published federal rate schedules, GSA’s rate database, the US government’s export services price list and UK contract-market data. Where we build a fee from a rate, the arithmetic sits next to it. For diagnostics, transformation and interim work, our guide to management consulting fees by project type covers the rest of the market.
Strategy consulting fees, in four numbers
What strategy engagements cost by type and by firm tier, in US dollars for US data and pounds for UK data. Nothing is converted between currencies.
- Public contracts and quotes
- Read at source: the City of Snoqualmie's contract with BERK Consulting (council packet, 24 March 2025); the Ypsilanti District Library's award and request for proposals (2026); two facilitation quotes in the City of Sebastopol's agenda report (17 February 2026); a facilitation proposal to the City of Victoria, Minnesota (January 2019); and five UK Contracts Finder notices (2024 to 2026). Each is one buyer, not a market rate.
- Press reports of public records
- Huron's University of Maine System contract (Bangor Daily News, 7 October 2022) and McKinsey's University of Arizona fees (Arizona Daily Star, 9 November 2019).
- Large-firm contracts reused
- BCG for Puerto Rico's oversight board (2023), McKinsey for the Department of Health and Social Care (2020), and Bain's and Kearney's federal price lists, as verified in our management consulting fees guide on 28 September 2026.
- US federal rates
- GSA CALC+ ceiling rates for labour categories titled strategy consultant, strategic planner or strategic planning, retrieved 28 September 2026: 310 rates from 146 contractors. One software category (MicroStrategy) was excluded. Federal rates are negotiated for a volume buyer and are not a commercial quote.
- Market figures
- Clutch's average hourly rate for business strategy consultants (page updated 21 September 2026; Clutch does not publish the sample size); SPI Research's 2025 benchmark of 85 management consultancies (2024 averages).
- Government services
- US Commercial Service fee schedule in force since 22 July 2026; SCORE and America's SBDC service terms; the Help to Grow: Management course price for the 2026 cohort.
- UK contract market
- IT Jobs Watch medians of advertised contract day rates, six months to 28 September 2026, with the sample size next to each.
- Our arithmetic
- Where we build a fee from a published rate or published hours, the inputs are stated inline. Those figures are illustrations, not quotes and not survey results.
- Review cycle
- Reviewed quarterly against the same sources.
ConsultingDemand, “Strategy Consulting Fees: What a Strategic Plan Costs”, data as of 28 September 2026. https://consultingdemand.com/blog/strategy-consulting-fees/
Strategy consulting fees by type of engagement
The table puts the public record for each kind of strategy work in one place. Clutch sorts consulting projects into four size brackets: under $10,000, $10,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $199,999, and $200,000 and over. Strategy work fills all four.
| Engagement | Length | Fee on the public record | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council goal-setting workshop, hourly quote | Half a day, 16 hours of work | $4,400 at $275 an hour (Sebastopol, California, 2026) | 1 proposal |
| Council goal-setting workshop, fixed quote | One workshop, interviews beforehand | $9,125 not to exceed, travel included (Sebastopol, 2026) | 1 proposal |
| Strategic planning retreat | Two days | $5,500 plus travel and lodging (Victoria, Minnesota, 2019) | 1 proposal |
| Three- to five-year plan, public library | About six months | $34,000 not to exceed (Ypsilanti District Library, 2026) | 1 contract |
| First strategic plan, small city | About eight months | $100,000 not to exceed, 465 hours (Snoqualmie, Washington, 2025) | 1 contract |
| Economic growth strategy, UK council | Four to five months | £55,838 to £152,057 (2024) | 2 contracts |
| Strategic plan, university system | Not published | $566,250 (Huron, University of Maine System, 2022) | 1 contract |
| Sector strategy refresh | 8 weeks | $1,780,000 maximum, plus expenses (BCG, Puerto Rico, 2023) | 1 contract |
| Two strategic plans, one university | 10 months | More than $14 million (McKinsey, University of Arizona, 2018) | 1 contract |
| Average management consulting project | 6.86 months | $132,000 revenue per project (2024) | 85 firms (SPI) |
Read every row except the last as a price one buyer agreed or was quoted, not as a market median. Inside each row, the fee moves with the hours, the engagement outside the boardroom and the deliverable.
What a strategic planning consultant costs
How much does a strategic planning consultant cost? By the hour, $100 to $149 on Clutch’s average for business strategy consultants, and a median of $162.03 across 310 US federal ceiling rates for strategy and strategic planning roles. By the project, a multi-year plan for a small public body was agreed at $34,000 to $100,000 on the 2025 and 2026 public record. Both contracts were scheduled to take six to eight months.
The City of Snoqualmie’s contract shows how the larger figure is built. On 24 March 2025 the city signed BERK Consulting to write its first citywide strategic plan. Nine qualified proposals came in. BERK invoices monthly on time and materials, up to a not-to-exceed amount of $100,000, with the plan ready for adoption on 14 November 2025.
The compensation schedule prices every task in hours:
| Line | Hours | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Kick-off, first council retreat and project management | 50 | $11,140 |
| Phase 1: assessment, community engagement and direction setting | 251 | $47,660 |
| Phase 2: second retreat, work sessions, draft and final plan | 164 | $34,670 |
| Consultant cost | 465 | $93,470 |
| Contingency | $5,000 | |
| Printing and mileage | $1,530 | |
| Not to exceed | $100,000 |
City of Snoqualmie council packet, 24 March 2025, item 14. One contract. The hours are BERK’s estimate, not an invoice.
Four rate lines sit behind those hours: $260 an hour for the project manager, $190 for the co-facilitator and lead analyst, $160 for engagement and analytic support, and $190 for finance, economics and land-use specialists. That is a blended $201.01 an hour. The blended rate is our arithmetic: $93,470 divided by 465 hours. Our consultant hourly rates guide puts those rates against the rest of the market.
Of BERK's 465 estimated hours for Snoqualmie, 129 went on community engagement in the first phase, priced at $21,990. The two council retreats, two work sessions and two briefings took 92 hours. Drafting and finalising the plan itself took 66 hours, 14% of the total. Source: City of Snoqualmie council packet, 24 March 2025. The shares are our arithmetic.
The Ypsilanti District Library’s contract is the smaller version. Eight proposals came in. On 15 April 2026 the board awarded K. Cain Consulting a not-to-exceed fee of $34,000 for a three- to five-year plan. The request for proposals set a draft for the end of September and the final plan for the board meeting of 28 October 2026. The library’s April 2026 check register shows a first payment of $11,216.67, marked one of three.
The library’s request for proposals is worth copying. It asked each bidder for a not-to-exceed total, the estimated facilitator hours and the rate per hour. It put normal travel at the facilitator’s expense. It asked for a list of exclusions, one complete report from a similar project, and every piece of raw and summary data handed over at the end.
The negotiation lever is the engagement line, not the rate. Snoqualmie’s contract priced engagement as a separate $21,990, so the city could see what fewer discussion groups would save. At BERK’s blended rate, every 10 hours removed is about $2,010.
Ask for the hours by task. Without them you cannot tell a plan that is mostly engagement from a plan that is mostly writing.
What a board offsite or strategy retreat costs
How much does it cost to hire a facilitator for a board retreat or strategy offsite? On the 2026 public record, $4,400 to $9,125 for one council goal-setting workshop, from two quotes to the same California city. A two-day strategic planning retreat was quoted at $5,500 plus travel and lodging in 2019. In the UK, a government department awarded a £30,000 contract in 2026 to design and facilitate a leadership offsite.
The two quotes Sebastopol received for its 2026 workshop price the same job two ways.
| Quote | Pricing | What it includes | Fee | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $275 an hour, about 16 hours | Two hours of planning, three to four of design, a six-hour half-day session, four hours writing up the decisions | $4,400 estimated | 1 proposal |
| Fixed | Not to exceed | Confidential 45-minute interviews with each councillor, workshop design and facilitation, a feedback survey, a one- to two-page summary | $9,125, travel included | 1 proposal |
City of Sebastopol, agenda item report for 17 February 2026.
The session itself was 6 of the 16 hours in the hourly quote. The rest was planning, design and the write-up. The fixed quote named a price for anything outside its scope, $250 an hour, and offered a follow-up mini-workshop six months later for $1,800. Both lines protect you. The first puts a price on change requests before they arrive. The second prices the session that checks whether the goals were kept.
A Minnesota city was quoted $5,500 plus travel and lodging in January 2019 for a two-day strategic planning session, the documentation and a follow-up. The output was a vision, strategic directions and a one-year work plan with milestones.
In May 2026 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero awarded £30,000, without competition, for “DG Offsite Design and Facilitation”. The contract runs to 31 March 2027. The notice describes “leadership focused events” and does not say how many.
Ask for the interviews, the write-up and the follow-up session to be priced as separate lines. The day in the room is less than half the work.
What an annual strategic plan costs a small business
How much does a strategic plan cost for a small business? There is no public contract for a private company’s plan, so this figure is our arithmetic. BERK estimated up to 26 hours for a council retreat and 38 hours for drafting a plan. At Clutch’s $100 to $149 an hour, those 64 hours cost $6,400 to $9,536. At BERK’s blended $201.01, they cost $12,865.
That is a plan built around one offsite and one document, without the public engagement a city has to buy. If you add customer or staff interviews, the fee rises with the hours. Price each round of interviews as its own line.
The cheaper options come first. In the US, SCORE’s volunteer mentoring is free “for the life of your business”, from a network of more than 10,000 mentors. America’s Small Business Development Centers offer no-cost consulting from nearly 1,000 local centres. In the UK, the Help to Grow: Management course costs £750 a person, with 90% of the fee paid by the government. It runs 50 hours over 12 weeks for firms with 5 to 249 employees, and it ends with a growth action plan for your business.
A mentor or a subsidised course will not run your offsite. It will tell you whether you need someone who does. SCORE mentoring is free, SBDC consulting is no-cost, and Help to Grow: Management costs £750 a person in the UK. If the plan that comes out of it is enough, you have saved the fee.
If you are not sure the problem is strategy at all, our guide to strategy versus management consulting sets out which kind of help fits which problem.
Facilitated offsite or a full strategic plan? Five questions
Question 1 of 5
Does your leadership team broadly agree on where the business is going?
Who needs to be heard before the plan is set?
What do you need at the end?
Is there data to gather before anyone can decide?
What is the budget approved for?
What a market entry strategy costs
How much does a market entry strategy cost? The first assessment can cost under $5,000. The US Commercial Service charges $1,950 per market for an Initial Market Check and $3,250 for a Gold Key programme of meetings. A consultancy’s market entry strategy costs far more. On our arithmetic, two consultants at the federal strategy median cost $77,774 for six weeks, and a Bain team for the same six weeks $663,325.
The Commercial Service’s price list is the cheapest public benchmark for market entry work. Its fees changed on 22 July 2026, and there is no longer a discount for small companies. The services are for export-ready US companies.
| Service | What it covers | Fee | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Market Check | Feedback from up to five industry participants, with a written recommendation on whether to pursue the market | $1,950 per market | 1 price list |
| International Partner Search | Up to five interested partners or distributors, each profiled | $2,500 | 1 price list |
| Gold Key Service | Contacts found, meetings arranged, staff attend with you; $800 more above five appointments | $3,250 plus direct costs | 1 price list |
| Customized Market Research | Research to your questions | $90 per staff hour plus direct costs | 1 price list |
US Commercial Service user fees, in force since 22 July 2026.
A market check, a partner search and a Gold Key programme in one country cost $7,700 plus direct costs. That is our arithmetic on the published fees.
The consultancy figures are our arithmetic too. Six weeks is the length of two strategy contracts on the UK public record: McKinsey’s for the Department of Health and Social Care and EY’s for the Cabinet Office. Two consultants for 40 hours a week over six weeks is 480 hours. At $162.03, the median of 310 federal ceiling rates for strategy and strategic planning roles, that is $77,774. That is a market median, not a boutique quote: boutiques publish no rate cards. Bain’s Team A, half a manager and three consultants, was priced at $110,554.16 a week on its federal schedule for 2013 to 2018. Six weeks of it is $663,325.
Buy the market check before the strategy. At $1,950 it tells you whether the market is worth a six-figure study. If a consultancy’s scope includes a partner search or buyer meetings, ask what it charges for them against the Commercial Service’s $2,500 and $3,250. We found no UK price list for the same services that we would cite.
What a growth strategy costs
How much does a growth strategy cost? For a mid-sized company, the nearest market figure is SPI Research’s: management consulting projects averaged $132,000 in revenue in 2024, with 2.95 people over 6.86 months. On the public record, two UK councils agreed £55,838 and £152,057 in 2024 for economic growth strategies scheduled over four to five months. At the top, BCG’s eight-week refresh of Puerto Rico’s biopharma sector strategy was capped at $1.78 million plus expenses.
The council contracts show what moves the fee. North Northamptonshire’s £55,838 bought a growth strategy for 2025 to 2030 from SQW, with a horizon to 2050 and actions to 2030. Cumberland’s £152,057 bought a growth strategy and a set of place plans from Cambridge Econometrics. The second contract bought more documents, and cost nearly three times as much.
BCG’s cap works out at $222,500 a week. The contract also required monthly invoices with time records showing the portions of days worked. Copy that clause into any fixed-fee growth strategy, because it tells you what the fee bought.
For a company, a growth strategy from a firm is priced like any strategy sprint: a team, a number of weeks and a rate. Ask which documents the growth strategy produces, and price each one.
Boutique or MBB: what the same strategy work costs
How much does a strategy engagement cost at McKinsey, BCG or Bain? By the week, on the public record. McKinsey charged the University of Arizona up to $185,000 a week for each three-person team. BCG’s eight weeks for Puerto Rico’s oversight board were capped at $222,500 a week. Boutiques publish no rate cards. BERK’s, on one city contract, ran from $160 to $260 an hour.
The two sides price differently. A large firm sells a team by the week, full time. A boutique sells hours, spread over months. BERK’s 465 hours ran over about eight months. McKinsey sent at least 16 consultants to the University of Arizona’s campus over ten months. The fees passed $14 million for two plans, one for the university and one for its medical enterprise. The firm was hired without competitive bidding.
BERK never staffed four people full time. Its $100,000 bought 465 hours, which a four-person team working full time uses up in under three weeks. That is the difference you are buying: senior hours spread over months, or a full-time team for weeks. Our consulting fees by industry guide sets out the public rate evidence for each firm type.
Large firms also sell strategy on standby. In December 2024 the UK housing ministry awarded McKinsey a three-year contract for strategy advice, from January 2025 to January 2028, with a contract value of £11,995,000. The notice gives the contract value, not the spend. A standby arrangement behaves like a retainer and needs the same clauses, which our consulting retainers guide lists.
Our Big Four vs MBB fees guide sets out the full grade tables, and when the large-firm premium is worth paying. Convert every quote to a weekly figure and an hourly figure, then compare.
What the deliverable of a strategy engagement actually is
What should a strategic plan deliverable include? The contracts name it. At the small end, a one- to two-page summary of the year’s goals. In the middle, a multi-year plan with an implementation framework: phased actions and performance measures. At the top, a sector strategy with a roadmap. The fee follows the document.
| Engagement | Deliverable named in the contract or request | Fee | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council goal-setting workshop, 2026 | A one- to two-page summary of the takeaways and the year’s goals | $9,125 | 1 proposal |
| Two-day retreat, 2019 | A vision, strategic directions and a one-year work plan with milestones, written up | $5,500 plus travel | 1 proposal |
| Public library plan, 2026 | Draft and final plan with an executive summary, a community profile, peer comparisons, a built-in review process, and all raw data handed over | $34,000 | 1 contract |
| City strategic plan, 2025 | Draft and final strategic plan with an implementation framework of phased action steps and performance measures | $100,000 | 1 contract |
| One team’s plan, Cabinet Office, 2025 | A three- to five-year strategic plan, written by EY in six weeks | £99,996 | 1 contract |
| Sector strategy, Puerto Rico, 2023 | A refreshed biopharma sector strategy, a plan for expected plant vacancies and a workforce roadmap | $1,780,000 | 1 contract |
Name the deliverable in the statement of work, then write its acceptance criteria. Our five tests for auditing consulting deliverables turn that into a rubric you can share at the start.
A strategic plan earns its fee when someone other than the consultant can use it to say no to a project. Ask to see the page in their last plan that did that. If they cannot find one, you are paying for a list of everything the organisation already does, sorted by department.
Our Strategy Consulting 101 guide sets out what a strategy engagement should deliver, from the buyer’s side. Put the list of contents in the contract, not in the proposal.
Strategy consulting fees in the UK
What does a strategy consultant cost in the UK? As an individual contractor, a median of £600 a day on 17 quoted rates in the six months to 28 September 2026. From a firm, the public record runs from £30,000 for a leadership offsite to £563,400 for six weeks of McKinsey strategy work. For a small business, the Help to Grow: Management course costs £750 a person and ends with a growth action plan.
| UK engagement or rate | Figure | What it covers | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy Consultant, contract median | £600 a day | Six months to 28 September 2026; half the rates between £520 and £656 | 17 quoted rates |
| Help to Grow: Management | £750 a person | 50 hours over 12 weeks, 90% paid by the government | 1 programme |
| DESNZ leadership offsite, 2026 | £30,000 | Design and facilitation, direct award | 1 contract |
| North Northamptonshire growth strategy, 2024 | £55,838 | SQW, strategy for 2025 to 2030 | 1 contract |
| Cabinet Office strategic plan, 2025 | £99,996 | EY, a three- to five-year plan for one team, in six weeks | 1 contract |
| Cumberland growth strategy and place plans, 2024 | £152,057 | Cambridge Econometrics | 1 contract |
| McKinsey, Department of Health and Social Care, 2020 | £563,400 | Six weeks of strategy work | 1 contract |
| McKinsey, housing ministry standby, 2025 to 2028 | £11,995,000 | Strategy advice on call for three years; contract value, not spend | 1 contract |
Sources: IT Jobs Watch; the University of Lancashire’s Help to Grow: Management course page; Contracts Finder.
EY’s six weeks for the Cabinet Office cost about £16,700 a week. McKinsey’s six weeks for the Department of Health and Social Care cost £93,900 a week. Same length, 5.6 times the weekly fee. Ask each firm for the team behind its weekly figure.
The contract median rose 3.23% on the year, from £581 on 6 quoted rates in the same period of 2025. Both samples are small, so read the move as direction, not a benchmark. The median is what an individual is paid, without a consultancy’s margin on top. Our management consulting day rates page tracks the wider contract market each quarter.
Before you compare a firm’s quote with the £600 median, check which market each number comes from.
How to check a strategy consulting quote
Three checks tell you most of what a proposal hides.
Divide the fee by the hours. That gives the blended rate. BERK’s was $201.01. Place yours against Clutch’s $100 to $149 and the federal median of $162.03. Half of the 310 federal rates sit between $121.64 and $222.07. A figure above that range needs a reason on the page.
Find the engagement line. In BERK’s 465 hours, 129 were community engagement. If the quote has no count of interviews, workshops and sessions, ask for one. That count is the line you can scale.
Name the deliverable. Check the proposal against the deliverables table above. A quote for a strategic plan that names no document has not told you what you are buying.
Then name the lever. For a boutique it is the engagement line. For a large firm it is the team and the weeks. The rate is the last thing to move. To compare several firms on the same basis, ask each for a consulting rate card with a rate per grade.
Eight questions to ask before you sign
- How many hours does the fee buy, by person and by task?
- How many interviews, workshops and retreats are included, and what does one more cost?
- What is the deliverable, by name, and what are its acceptance criteria?
- Is the fee fixed, time and materials with a not-to-exceed total, or time and materials without one?
- What is the hourly rate for work outside the scope, and who signs it off before it starts?
- Is a follow-up session after adoption priced in the proposal?
- Which parts of the research could you buy for less from the Commercial Service, an SBDC or a subsidised course?
- Which milestones trigger each payment?
If the proposal cannot answer the first question, do not sign it. For the whole process from brief to contract, start with our guide to hiring a consultant.
- Strategy consulting fees on the public record run from a $4,400 quote for a half-day council retreat to more than $14 million for two McKinsey strategic plans
- A multi-year strategic plan for a small public body was agreed at $34,000 to $100,000 in 2025 and 2026, scheduled over six to eight months
- BERK's $100,000 city plan was priced at 465 hours, a blended $201.01 an hour; engagement took 129 hours and writing the plan 66
- A facilitated council goal-setting workshop was quoted at $4,400 to $9,125 in 2026; the session itself was 6 of the 16 hours in one quote
- Market entry research from the US Commercial Service costs $1,950 per market; six weeks of Bain's smallest federal team costs $663,325 on our arithmetic
- Large firms sell a full-time team by the week: $110,554 to $222,500 a week on the public record
- The UK contract median for a strategy consultant was £600 a day on 17 quoted rates in the six months to 28 September 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much do strategy consultants charge per hour?
Clutch lists an average of $100 to $149 an hour for business strategy consultants, updated September 2026, without a sample size. US federal ceiling rates for strategy and strategic planning roles have a median of $162.03 across 310 rates. Boutiques publish no rate cards; BERK’s, on one city contract, ran from $160 to $260. At the top, McKinsey’s 2024 federal schedule lists $834.40 an hour for an engagement manager.
Are strategy consulting fees fixed or hourly?
Both appear on the public record. Snoqualmie’s plan is time and materials up to $100,000. Sebastopol received one hourly quote and one fixed quote for the same workshop. The large firms price by the team-week, and BCG’s Puerto Rico contract set a maximum amount chargeable. Whichever model you choose, ask for a not-to-exceed total.
How long does a strategic plan take?
Six weeks to ten months on the public record. EY’s contract to write one team’s plan for the Cabinet Office ran six weeks. The Ypsilanti library’s plan is scheduled for about six months from award to the final presentation, and Snoqualmie’s was scheduled for about eight. McKinsey’s work for the University of Arizona ran ten months.
How much does a strategic planning consultant cost for a nonprofit?
The nearest public record is a public library: $34,000, not to exceed, for a three- to five-year plan in 2026, chosen from eight proposals. A facilitated council goal-setting workshop was quoted at $4,400 to $9,125 to a US city in the same year. Ask for the hours and the rate per hour, as the library’s request for proposals did.
Is a strategic planning consultant worth it for a small business?
Try the free options first: SCORE mentoring and SBDC consulting in the US, or Help to Grow: Management at £750 a person in the UK. If you still need a facilitator, a council goal-setting workshop was quoted at $4,400 to $9,125 in 2026. A plan built around one offsite comes to $6,400 to $12,865 on our arithmetic.
Last updated: 28 September 2026