How Much Does a Fractional CTO Cost?
Compare audit, advisory and fractional CTO pricing. See what is included and how the level of involvement changes the cost.
A fractional CTO, advisory, and a five-business-day Team & AI Audit are distinct engagement formats. For ongoing work, we agree time, responsibilities, availability, scope and commercial terms before starting.
How Fractional CTOs Charge
Four billing structures behind the fractional CTO rates you see quoted. The first one covers most serious engagements.
Monthly retainer
The standard. You buy a level of involvement for the month rather than a stack of hours, and the CTO owns outcomes: architecture, hiring, delivery. Market retainers sit at $8,000–25,000/month; scope and commercial terms are agreed before the engagement starts.
Day rate
Common in the UK market and for work with defined edges: a due-diligence review, a board-facing assessment. It suits an assignment with a start and an end, though it prices attention rather than responsibility.
Hourly
Hourly billing can suit limited consultations where tracking time matters. I offer ongoing technical leadership with monthly pricing and an agreed scope.
Equity or hybrid
Early-stage companies often ask to cover part of the retainer in equity. That can make sense when cash is the real constraint, but it changes the role: an advisor with a vesting schedule is a part-owner, not a hired operator. I keep the cash portion meaningful so both sides stay clear on what is being bought.
What the Alternatives Cost
The same job, senior technical leadership, priced three ways.
Full-time CTO
$200,000+
per year, plus equity
- Equity on top, plus benefits and payroll tax
- Months of searching before anyone starts, and a bad hire makes you run it twice
- You still fund the whole team underneath
Market fractional CTO
$8,000–25,000
per month, retainer
- The usual range for an experienced operator at a few days a month
- Firms sit at the top of it, because you also pay for their bench
- Tooling, CI, and monitoring stay on your own budget line
Fractional CTO with me
Custom scope
Terms agreed before work starts
- One senior operator, no agency margin between you and the work
- GitLab with in-memory CI runners, Sentry, Grafana, and Loki included, a stack worth $2,000–5,000/month
- Advisory or a five-business-day Team & AI Audit as an entry point
These figures are here for comparison. What sits inside each package is listed in full on my pricing page.
What Moves the Price
Most of the spread between one quote and the next comes down to these.
Scope: advice or hands on the work
Judgment on a weekly call is one engagement shape. Owning delivery is another: writing code, running the pipeline, being on the hook when something breaks overnight. Scope and commercial terms differ with the level of operating responsibility.
Company stage and team size
A seed company with a handful of engineers needs decisions and an architecture that holds. An org spread across several squads needs process, hiring, and a management layer, which takes more days and costs more money.
Specialized work
AI transformation and technical due diligence carry a premium. Both are judgment calls made against a deadline with real money on the outcome, and due diligence in particular compresses weeks of review into a short window.
Timezone and cadence
Daily standups inside your working hours cost more than async review with one call a week. I work US Pacific and async-first, in English and Russian, which keeps the cadence affordable without leaving anyone waiting a day for an answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a fractional CTO cost?
Most fractional CTOs work on a monthly retainer of $8,000–25,000, depending on seniority, involvement, and whether you hire an individual or a firm. A full-time CTO costs $200,000+ per year plus equity, before you count the team underneath. Market pricing is retainer-first; scope and commercial terms for this practice are agreed before work starts.
What is different about working directly with you?
You work with me directly. I use AI in delivery and bring my own platform: GitLab, CI, Sentry, Grafana and Loki. We discuss which parts your team needs, then agree the scope and terms.
Do you charge hourly?
Ongoing work is agreed month by month, with scope and time agreed in advance. The Team & AI Audit is a bounded five-business-day engagement.
What is included in a fractional CTO engagement?
Team transformation comes first: restructuring engineering around AI so fewer people ship more. Then AI development workflows, my platform (GitLab, in-memory CI, Sentry, Grafana, Loki), the "how to work" framework your team keeps after I leave, and ongoing technical leadership across architecture, hiring, vendors, and board questions. The pricing page breaks down what belongs to each package.
Can we start small?
Yes. The Team & AI Audit is a common entry point: five business days, a written report, and a walkthrough call, with no obligation to continue. Work after the audit is month to month, so you can stop at the end of any month.
Choose how we work together
Audit, advisory or technical leadership. On a free first call, we discuss your situation and choose where to start.
Month-to-month, end at month-end
Related reading
Notes on fractional leadership, AI-lean teams, and what engineering actually costs.
