Accessibility Audit Cost: WCAG 2.2 Audits Explained

A manual WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility audit of a small or mid-size website or web app costs roughly $1,250 to $10,000 in 2026 on published market rates, and complex applications run $10,000 to $25,000 or more. Automated scans are free to about $2,000 but miss many issues. Price follows the number of unique templates and interactive components, not the page count.

If you would rather have the audit done for you, see how RAITHub would test this near the end. RAITHub runs accessibility audits as a fixed-price, one-off engagement or as part of a monthly QA plan, and never publishes a price: you get a written quote after a free 15-minute call.

What does an accessibility audit actually cost in 2026?

Published prices cluster into three tiers by how much of the work is done by a person. The figures below are market data from the sources cited, checked on 7 October 2026. They are not RAITHub prices.

Audit type	Typical published price	What it finds	Source
Automated scan only (axe, WAVE, Lighthouse, scanning SaaS)	$0 to about $2,000	Machine-detectable issues such as contrast, missing labels and alt text	WebAbility
Hybrid audit (scan plus targeted manual review)	$1,250 to $8,000	Most issues on the key journeys	TestParty, WebAbility
Full manual WCAG 2.2 AA audit, small site (up to about 12 pages or screens)	$2,500 to $10,000	Keyboard, screen reader, focus, forms and authentication issues	TestParty
Full manual audit, larger or complex application	$5,000 to $25,000+; enterprise and regulated work can pass $50,000	The above, across many roles, states and components	WebAbility
Accessibility conformance report (VPAT/ACR) added to an audit	$350 to $950 per edition	A formatted conformance document, not new testing	TestParty

Per-page pricing is common too. Accessible.org states that most of its audits cost $1,250 to $2,750, at $100 to $250 for each primary page or screen and $25 to $100 for each light page (Accessible.org pricing).

Why do accessibility audit quotes vary so much?

Because "audit" covers everything from a scanner report to weeks of keyboard and screen-reader testing. Seven factors move the price.

1. Unique templates and components. Auditors test a representative sample. A 5,000-page blog with three templates can cost less than a 20-screen SaaS dashboard full of custom widgets.
2. Manual depth. Keyboard-only use, screen readers, zoom to 400% and reflow all take a person. Deque's study of over 2,000 audits found its automated rules caught 57% of issues by volume (Deque). The rest needs human judgement.
3. Logged-in states. Dashboards, multi-step forms, error states and role-specific screens multiply what has to be tested.
4. Standard version. WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria, six of them at level A or AA, including target size, dragging movements and accessible authentication (W3C: What's new in WCAG 2.2). Several need manual checks, so a 2.2 audit costs more than a 2.1 audit of the same product.
5. Assistive technology coverage. One screen reader and browser pair costs less than NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver on macOS and VoiceOver on iOS.
6. Deliverables. A spreadsheet of issues costs less than a report with code-level fixes, a conformance report and a retest.
7. Retesting. Ask whether a verification retest after your fixes is included. Without it you cannot show the issues were closed.

Is an automated accessibility scan enough?

No, but it is the right place to start. The 2026 WebAIM Million found detectable WCAG failures on 95.9% of the top million home pages, at an average of 56.1 errors per page. Six types account for 96% of them: low-contrast text, missing alt text, missing form labels, empty links, empty buttons and missing page language (WebAIM Million 2026).

A scanner finds those quickly and cheaply, so fix them before you pay a person to audit. What a scanner cannot judge is whether alt text is meaningful, whether focus order makes sense, whether a modal traps the keyboard, or whether a screen reader user can finish your checkout. That is what the manual part of an audit pays for.

This check takes minutes to add to an existing Playwright suite using the axe-core integration (Playwright accessibility testing docs):

// tests/a11y.spec.ts
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test'
import AxeBuilder from '@axe-core/playwright'

for (const path of ['/', '/pricing', '/signup']) {
  test('no automatic WCAG A/AA violations on ' + path, async ({ page }) => {
    await page.goto(path)
    const results = await new AxeBuilder({ page })
      .withTags(['wcag2a', 'wcag2aa', 'wcag21a', 'wcag21aa', 'wcag22aa'])
      .analyze()
    expect(results.violations).toEqual([])
  })
}

A passing run means "no issues a machine can find on these pages", not "accessible". Treat it as a regression gate after the audit, so fixed issues stay fixed.

What should a good accessibility audit report contain?

Every issue should be something a developer can fix without asking a follow-up question. Look for these in a sample report before you buy.

• Scope statement: which pages, screens, roles and states were tested, on which browsers and assistive technology.
• Per issue: the WCAG 2.2 success criterion, severity, location (URL and element), steps to reproduce, the user impact, and a specific fix, ideally with a code example.
• Grouping by component: one broken date picker can produce 40 issues across 20 pages. Fix it once.
• Priorities: blockers on the money and sign-up journeys first.
• A retest once fixes ship, with each issue marked closed or still open.

Be wary of any vendor that promises a "compliance certificate". An audit measures your product against WCAG. Whether that satisfies a particular law is a legal question. RAITHub's audits test against WCAG 2.2 AA and report each issue with its fix. They do not certify legal compliance with the ADA, the European Accessibility Act or Section 508. This is general information; confirm with your adviser what your obligations are.

Do I need an audit for the European Accessibility Act?

Not by name, but you need evidence. The EAA has applied since 28 June 2025 to a defined list of consumer services, including e-commerce, consumer banking and e-books (Directive (EU) 2019/882). Its technical benchmark is EN 301 549. Version 4.1.1, which moves the web baseline from WCAG 2.1 to WCAG 2.2 AA, was published on 2 September 2026 and is expected to be cited in the EU Official Journal in late 2026 (National Disability Authority, Ireland). Auditing to WCAG 2.2 AA now avoids paying twice. Scope, exemptions and SaaS are covered in the European Accessibility Act for SaaS and web apps. As above, this is general information; confirm with your adviser.

How can you lower the cost of an accessibility audit?

• Fix the scanner findings first. Run axe or WAVE yourself and clear contrast, labels and alt text. You stop paying an auditor to log the obvious.
• Audit components, then journeys. If you have a design system, audit its components once, then sample the journeys built from them.
• Pick the journeys that matter. Sign-up, login, the core workflow and checkout carry most of the risk.
• Freeze the UI. Auditing a design that changes next sprint wastes the report.
• Book the retest up front so it is priced into the original quote.

Our accessibility testing checklist for web apps lists the manual checks you can run in-house before an audit.

Buy, build or hire?

Option	What you get	Choose this when	Watch out for
A tool or SaaS testing platform (scanner or monitoring service)	Automated scans on a schedule, dashboards	You need continuous detection of regressions across many pages	It catches only machine-detectable issues; it is not an audit
Freelancers or crowdtesting	Manual testing by individuals, sometimes including disabled testers	You want real assistive-technology users on a few journeys	Report quality and WCAG mapping vary; fixes are rarely included
An in-house QA hire	A person who learns your product and tests every release	You ship UI weekly and accessibility is a permanent requirement	Accessibility specialists are scarce; one person also needs cover and tooling
A managed QAaaS team	A fixed-price audit, then ongoing checks in a monthly plan	You want an audit with fixes and CI gates so issues stay closed	Check the vendor tests manually, not only with a scanner

When don't you need RAITHub for this?

• You need a signed legal compliance statement. RAITHub reports against WCAG 2.2 AA; it does not certify legal compliance. Use a legal adviser, and an accessibility firm that issues the document you are asked for.
• Your site is a brochure on a mainstream theme. A free scanner plus a careful keyboard pass may be enough.
• You need testing by people with disabilities as the core method. Specialist user-testing panels do this better.

How RAITHub would test this

RAITHub's accessibility testing service is part of its QA as a service offer. For an audit, the scope looks like this:

• Agree the sample: unique templates, components and the journeys that make money or hold data, plus each user role.
• Automated pass with axe-core across the sample, to clear machine-detectable issues fast.
• Manual pass against WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard-only, focus visibility, screen reader, zoom and reflow, forms, errors, target size and authentication.
• A report with each issue mapped to its success criterion, its severity, steps to reproduce and a specific fix.
• Regression gates: axe checks added to your automated test suite in your CI, so fixed issues stay fixed, and a retest once your fixes ship.

You can buy it as a fixed-price one-off audit, inside a monthly QA plan, or with a dedicated QA team that RAITHub manages. Testers are never placed under your management. What you receive: the report, the tests in your repository, and an NDA before access. RAITHub has no accessibility case study to show yet; its proof is engineering test suites, such as 1,024 tests on PropDesk and 750+ on TheSkinProof, the founder's own venture.

The next step is a free 15-minute call, then a written fixed quote. Ask for an accessibility audit quote.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a WCAG 2.2 accessibility audit cost?

Published 2026 market rates put a manual WCAG 2.2 AA audit of a small site at about $2,500 to $10,000, hybrid audits at $1,250 to $8,000, and complex applications at $10,000 to $25,000 or more. Automated scans alone range from free to about $2,000.

How long does an accessibility audit take?

It depends on the number of unique templates, components and user roles in scope. A small marketing site takes far less time than a logged-in application with many states. Ask any vendor for a timeline in writing alongside the quote.

Does an accessibility audit make my site legally compliant?

No audit can do that on its own. An audit measures your product against WCAG and tells you what to fix. Whether that meets the ADA, the European Accessibility Act or Section 508 is a legal question. This is general information; confirm with your adviser.

Should I audit against WCAG 2.1 or WCAG 2.2?

WCAG 2.2 AA. It includes everything in 2.1 except the removed Parsing criterion, and EN 301 549 version 4.1.1 moves the EU web baseline to WCAG 2.2 AA.

Can I just use an automated scanner?

Use one first and keep it running in CI, but do not stop there. Scanners miss issues that need human judgement, such as focus order, meaningful alt text and whether a screen reader user can complete a task.

Does RAITHub publish accessibility audit prices?

No. RAITHub quotes a fixed price in writing after a free 15-minute call, based on the templates, components and journeys in scope.