IT Support Cost Calculator USA (2026) - Real Prices, Hidden Extras and In-House Costs
Work out what IT support should cost your business. Published USA prices per user, out-of-hours and onsite rates, and what in-house IT really costs.
Tired of annoying IT support services? It's likely your company signed a multi-year contract with great support on paper, but when you call for help you get through to a junior technician reading from a script, then wait days for a senior engineer on anything remotely complex, and now you're locked into a 36-month term with exit fees you didn't notice. This is exactly why IT Pro Expert offers direct support from a senior engineer with no long-term contracts. Most US businesses pay between $100 and $250 per person per month for managed IT support, and the realistic middle of the market for a 10 to 50-person company sits at $125 to $200. The monthly figure is rarely the whole bill, though. Below is a calculator built on published US prices, the ranges behind it, where our own prices sit, and the extras that tend to appear only after you have signed.
Cut your IT expenses in half with IT Pro Expert
Our Standard support with anti-virus is $64.50 per person a month, against the $125–$200 most 10 to 50-person US businesses pay.
The market prices below were compiled with AI-assisted research from the price guides US providers publish, checked in September 2026, and we have not manipulated them in any way. Most US providers don't publish a rate card, so treat these ranges as their published asking prices.
| Team size | Typical US provider | IT Pro Expertsupport and anti-virus |
|---|---|---|
| 3 people | $500–$2,500seat minimums apply | $249.304-person support minimum |
| 5 people | $500–$2,500seat minimums apply | $322.50 |
| 10 people | $1,000–$2,500 | $645 |
| 25 people | $2,500–$6,250 | $1,612.50 |
| 50 people | $5,000–$12,500 | $3,225 |
| 75 people | $7,500–$18,750 | $4,837.50 |
What our price includes: Standard Support (remote support 9–5 Eastern, fair-use hours) at $55.80 per person, with a 4-person minimum, and ThreatDown Premium anti-virus and endpoint protection at $8.70 per person. That is $64.50 per person.
Need evenings and weekends covered? Our Premium 24/7 plan is $86.70 per person with anti-virus, with a 5-person minimum. It also covers West Coast afternoons, as 9–5 Eastern is 6am–2pm Pacific.
Optional extras, which many providers build into their standard packages: email phishing and malware protection $5.70, vulnerability checks and patch management $7.20 and cloud backup $12 per person, and Microsoft 365 or server management $120 per site or server.
| Type of work | Typical US provider | IT Pro Expert |
|---|---|---|
| Ad-hoc support | $125–$350metro averages $125–$210 | $138$168 for non-contract clients |
Typical monthly figures use the US standard band of $100–$250 per person published by ITAdOn and MSPCompanies.us. The 3 and 5-person rows apply the seat minimums providers commonly set: at least 5 seats at the low end (Solution Builders) and 10 at the high end (MSPCompanies.us). Larger teams often negotiate volume discounts, so the 50 and 75-person ranges may run lower. Hourly figures are from CloudSecureTech, ITAdOn and VC3. Work out your own figure with the calculator.
IT support cost calculator
Very few US providers publish a rate card. Most publish price guides with ranges instead, so this calculator is built from those. Set your team size, sites and the level of cover you need. The estimate updates as you go. All figures are monthly and exclude sales tax, Microsoft 365 licences and hardware.
Count people who use IT, not devices. Most providers, including us, charge per person.
Typical US provider, per month
$1,000–$2,500
$100–$250 per person · $12,000–$30,000 a year
IT Pro Expert: Standard 9–5 Eastern support
- Support: 10 × $55.80$558
- Anti-virus: 10 × $8.70$87
- Total a month$645
$64.50 per person, $7,740 a year.
Need evenings and weekends covered? Our Premium 24/7 plan would be $867 a month.
Budget separately for onboarding ($500–$10,000 one-off with most US providers; ours is quoted before you sign) and around $250–$840 a year for 2 new starters.
Estimates only, based on published US price ranges checked in September 2026. The method and sources are listed at the end of this article.
Want an exact figure?
Send us your estimate and we'll come back with a fixed monthly price in US dollars for your setup.
What managed IT support costs per person
US managed support falls into three bands. Basic support covers a business-hours helpdesk, monitoring and patching, usually with onsite visits billed separately. Standard support adds proactive maintenance, endpoint protection, email security and regular reviews, and is where most businesses with 10 to 100 staff sit. Security-led packages add managed detection and response, compliance help and often 24/7 cover.
- US market range
- IT Pro Expert
Where IT Pro Expert fits
We support US businesses remotely and publish our prices in US dollars. We charge per person (per Microsoft 365 account), not per device, so a laptop and a phone for the same person cost the same as one. For US clients, our Basic and Standard plans run 9–5 Eastern time. All prices below are monthly and exclude tax.
| Service | Typical US market | IT Pro Expert |
|---|---|---|
| Basic support, 9–5 Eastern | $80–$150 per person | $53.10 per person: support $44.40 plus anti-virus $8.70 (4-person minimum; limited hours, working-day response; excludes new Windows setups) |
| Standard managed support, 9–5 Eastern | $100–$250 per person | $64.50 per person: all-inclusive support $55.80 plus anti-virus $8.70. Email protection, vulnerability and patch management, and cloud backup are optional (fair-use hours) |
| 24/7 support | Standard plus $20–$40 per person | $86.70 per person: Premium 24/7 support $78 plus anti-virus $8.70 (unlimited hours, rapid response; covers evenings, weekends and West Coast afternoons) |
| Small teams | 5-seat minimums are common, and many providers set 10–15, so a six-person firm pays for ten | From $177.60 a month: a 4-person minimum on Basic ($177.60) and Standard ($223.20), and a 5-person minimum on 24/7 support ($390) |
| Onsite visits | $100–$250 per visit, or $150–$250 an hour | Remote support only for US clients |
| Microsoft 365 or server management | $100–$400 per server a month | $120 per site or server |
| Cloud backup | $10–$30 per person | $12 per person |
| Email security | $5–$10 per person | $5.70 per person |
| Ad-hoc support outside a contract | $125–$350 an hour | $168 an hour, or $138 for contract clients |
| New Windows PC setup | $125–$420 per new starter (one to two billable hours) | $138 per device |
| Onboarding | $500–$10,000 one-off, or one to two months of fees | 1 to 2 months fee one-off |
| Project work | $150–$275 an hour, or $1,200–$2,200 a day | $1,032 a day, or $540 a half day |
| Endpoint protection | $15–$25 per endpoint for endpoint detection and response | $8.70 or $10.80 (ThreatDown Premium or Elite) |
Most US providers charge $500 to $10,000 for onboarding, or one to two months of fees up front. Ours is quoted before you sign.
The extras nobody mentions
The monthly fee is the easy part to compare. These are the charges that usually sit outside it.
Onboarding
$500–$10,000 one-off for the initial audit, documentation and tool rollout, or one to two months of the recurring fee.
New starters
Around $125–$420 per person, based on one to two billable hours to set up accounts, devices and security profiles.
Seat minimums
Most providers want at least 5 seats and many set 10–15, which quietly prices out one to nine-person businesses.
Out of hours
1.5 to 2 times the normal rate on business-hours contracts, and 2 to 3 times at some providers, which can mean $225–$700 an hour.
Onsite visits
$100–$250 per visit, or $150–$250 an hour, when visits are not in the contract. Some charge per mile on top.
Project work
Migrations, office moves and upgrades at $150–$275 an hour, billed outside the monthly fee.
- US market range
- IT Pro Expert
- US market range
- IT Pro Expert
Smaller print worth checking
Does location change the price?
Yes, and by a lot. CloudSecureTech's data across 47 US metros runs from $85–$165 per user in El Paso to $175–$350 in New York. MSPCompanies.us puts New York and San Francisco at $180–$250 or more, mid-market cities such as Dallas, Atlanta and Denver at $130–$180, and remote-first providers without local offices at $100–$140.
- Published metro range
- IT Pro Expert Standard
What in-house IT really costs
Hiring your own IT person looks simple on a job advert. The salary is only the start: benefits, payroll taxes, training and the tools to do the job all come on top, and when that one person is on holiday or off sick, so is your support.
- Managed support, standard band
- One in-house technician
- IT Pro Expert
Questions to ask before you sign
Frequently asked questions
How much does IT support cost per person in the US?
Most US businesses pay $100–$250 per person per month for standard managed IT, and security-led packages run $200–$400. As a guide, a 10-person business on standard support typically pays $1,000–$2,500 a month, and a 25-person business $2,500–$6,250, excluding tax.
Is per-person or per-device pricing better?
Per-person pricing is the most common model and usually the fairest; one provider guide puts it at more than 80% of contracts signed in 2026. A typical office worker with a laptop, dock and phone can count as several devices, and per-device rates run $50–$125 per workstation and $100–$400 per server. We charge per person.
What does 24/7 IT support cost?
Moving from business hours to 24/7 cover typically adds $20–$40 per person per month, and business-hours-only plans usually cost 15–25% less than 24/7 ones. Without a 24/7 contract, out-of-hours work is often billed at 1.5 to 2 times the normal hourly rate.
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house IT person?
Rarely, for a small business. One support technician costs about $90,000–$111,000 a year once benefits are included, before tools, training and recruitment. Managed support for 30 people on a standard package costs $36,000–$90,000 a year.
Why do some providers quote under $80 a person?
Usually because the package is helpdesk-only or monitoring-only, or leaves security, backup and after-hours work to be billed separately. Our $64.50 includes 9–5 Eastern support and anti-virus, with email protection, patching and backup listed as add-ons, and it is lower because we deliver it remotely from the UK without US office costs.
Can a UK-based provider support a US business?
Yes. Most business IT support is delivered remotely, and for US clients we work on US Eastern time: Basic and Standard cover 9–5 Eastern, and Premium 24/7 covers evenings, weekends and West Coast afternoons. We price in US dollars and charge per person. We don't offer onsite visits in the US, so if you regularly need someone on site, a local provider or a co-managed arrangement may suit you better.
How we built the estimate
The calculator uses published US price ranges for each service level, then adjusts for the options you choose. The adjustments are our own working assumptions, listed here so you can judge them:
- Service levels: Basic $80–$150, Standard $100–$250 and Security-led $200–$400 per person, from ITAdOn's 2026 tiers and MSPCompanies.us.
- Seat minimums: the low estimate bills at least 5 seats and the high estimate at least 10, in line with the minimums Solution Builders and MSPCompanies.us report.
- Team size: larger teams pay less per person, so we reduce the rate by 3% at 30 people, 7% at 50, 15% at 100 and 25% at 200 or more. DataStrive reports that a 200-user company pays 20–30% less per user than a 25-user one.
- Location: New York, San Francisco, Boston and DC add 20–40%, and smaller cities and rural areas reduce the figure by 10–15%, based on the metro ranges from CloudSecureTech and MSPCompanies.us.
- 24/7 cover adds $20–$40 per person (DataStrive); compliance support adds $15–$60 per person (MSPCompanies.us puts HIPAA at $15–$30 and CMMC at $30–$60).
- Servers add $100–$400 each a month (VC3); each extra site adds $100–$155 a month (EN Computers' $100 per extra network closet, up to a firewall and two switches at VC3's per-device rates); onsite visits add $100–$250 each (Petronella Technology Group).
- New starters: one to two billable hours each at CloudSecureTech's $125–$210 metro hourly rates.
- In-house: $90,300–$111,300 a year per technician, from BLS median wages for computer user and network support specialists divided by 0.685 to add benefits, plus tools at $25–$50 per person, a month.
- These are asking prices from providers' own guides. Kaseya's 2023 survey of 1,091 providers found the most common per-user price was $50–$100, so some providers do charge less than the guides suggest; ask what is excluded.
Sources, all checked in September 2026: ITAdOn, MSPCompanies.us, Solution Builders, VC3, Datapath, CloudSecureTech, ITreviews.co, Petronella Technology Group, DataStrive, LayerLogix, SerenIT, Flamingo, EN Computers, Growth Generators, Velo IT Group, Aliteq's summary of Kaseya's 2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026) and Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. IT Pro Expert prices are from our current service catalogue.
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Tell us your team size and setup, and we'll quote a clear per-person price in US dollars with nothing hidden. See our IT support services and cyber security pages for what's covered.