I've seen founders pay three thousand dollars for a smart contract audit. I've seen others pay a hundred and fifty thousand. Both of them thought they got a fair deal. Only one of them was right.

My name is Carlos. I'm the founder of Zealynx Security — we've audited over 41 protocols and secured more than 33 projects. And this is what a smart contract audit actually costs in 2026. Real numbers, not vague ranges.

If you've ever tried to find audit pricing online, you already know the problem. Most firms don't publish prices. They make you fill out a form, wait for a call, and then hit you with a number after you're already invested in the process.

That's not an accident. Variable pricing gives firms flexibility. It also means a founder with no context will almost always overpay — or underpay and get burned.

Smart contract audits are not priced like SaaS subscriptions. They're priced like consulting.

The core unit is auditor days. You're paying for a senior security researcher's time. Their job is to read every line of your code, understand what it's supposed to do, find every way an attacker could make it do something else, and write it all up in a detailed report. That takes time — real, focused, expert time.

At Zealynx, our day rate is around $1,200 per auditor. That works out to roughly$6,000 per auditor per week.

Depending on the size and complexity of your codebase, an audit might take one week or four. A simple DeFi protocol with one to three thousand lines of code? Probably one to two weeks — call it $6,000 to$12,000. A complex DeFi protocol with multiple contracts, intricate logic, and cross-chain interactions? That's a two to four week engagement, putting you at $12,000 to$24,000, sometimes more.

If you need two auditors working simultaneously on a large codebase — which is the right call for anything above three thousand lines — you're doubling that number.

Lines of code is the most direct driver. More code means more auditor time. Every function, every modifier, every edge case gets read.

Complexity matters just as much. A simple staking contract is not the same as a lending protocol with liquidation logic. Complex financial mechanisms, upgradeable proxies, and custom math all add time.

The language your contracts are written in has a real impact. Solidity is the standard. If you're working in Rust, Cairo, or Move, the auditor pool is smaller, the expertise is rarer, and the cost reflects that.

Your timeline affects the price more than most founders expect. If you need results in two weeks instead of six, that means the firm has to prioritize your project at the cost of others. Rush fees are real. Plan your audit early.

Scope determines whether you're auditing just the smart contracts or also the off-chain infrastructure, the frontend, and the API layer. Each layer adds time and cost. Get clear on your scope before you request a quote — it makes the conversation faster and the number more accurate.

Here's the framing shift that matters most.

You're not paying for a PDF.

You're paying for the right to tell your investors: "Our code has been independently verified by experts." You're paying for the protection that means your users don't lose their funds to an exploit on launch day. You're paying for the reputation that takes years to build and less than twenty-four hours to destroy.

The protocols that got hacked in 2024 lost a combined $3 billion. Most of them had not been audited. Some of them had — but by firms that were too cheap to be thorough.

An audit is not an expense. It's insurance. And like all insurance, the cheap version tends not to be there when you need it.

If someone is quoting you under $3,000 for anything beyond a basic token contract, be very careful. That price point usually means automated tools only with no manual review, junior auditors rather than senior researchers, or a templated report with your project name swapped in — sometimes all three.

Before signing with any firm, ask: how many auditors will work on my code? What is their background? Can I see redacted samples of previous reports? Do you have a responsible disclosure process? A serious firm will answer all of those without hesitation.

Go to zealynx.io, click Request Audit in the top right corner, and fill in your contract details — size, language, timeline. You'll hear back within four to eight hours.

We've worked with over 41 protocols. We're not here to give you a generic quote — we're here to understand your project and tell you exactly what it'll take.