Pricing Guide · Real Numbers
What does a fractional CTO actually cost?
Short answer: across the market, $150–$350 an hour, or $4,000–$15,000 a month on retainer, and almost nobody will tell you their number until they've sized your budget on a discovery call.
I'm Kunal Vohra, a fractional CTO for AI-first startups, and I'd rather you had the numbers before we ever speak. My rate is $100 an hour, and every retainer is published on this page, from $1,500 to $8,000 a month depending on how much of me you need.
Sized for funded teams paying US-market rates. If the numbers here are a stretch right now, the honest advice further down the page is free.
The market
Fractional CTO rates in 2026
Three pricing models dominate this market. Here's the honest range for each, next to what I charge, so you can see exactly where I sit and why.
| Model | Market range | My pricing | The difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $150 – $350 / hour | $100 / hour | Most fractional CTOs bill hourly and meter it. I use the rate to size retainers, then stop counting. |
| Monthly retainer | $4,000 – $15,000 / month | $1,500 – $8,000 / month | The most common model. Almost nobody publishes their number; all three of my tiers are on this page. |
| Equity component | Rare, negotiated privately | Up to ~half the retainer | Any of my retainers can be part-paid in equity, negotiated on stage and how long we expect to work together. |
Why is my rate under the market range? I'm based in India and work US hours, so my cost base isn't a San Francisco cost base, and I publish the honest number instead of padding it to look expensive. Same seniority the range describes; different geography.
My pricing, published
Sized at $100 an hour. Never metered at it.
Every tier is a committed floor of hours, not a cap I bill against. If a week needs more than it was supposed to, it gets more, and you will never see an overage line on an invoice. Three-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days notice either way.
Technical Advisor
$1,500
per month
Minimum 15+ hours a month
A senior technical brain on call. For founders who mostly need the big decisions checked rather than someone in the codebase.
Best for: Pre-seed founders and teams with an agency or junior team already building.
Most common
Fractional CTO
$5,000
per month
Minimum 50+ hours a month
Around 50 hours a month as your acting CTO, usually two days a week. I own technical direction, and the roadmap ships because someone senior is accountable for it.
Best for: Seed to Series A companies with engineers but no senior technical leadership.
Embedded CTO
$8,000
per month
Minimum 80+ hours a month
Around 80 hours a month, usually three days a week, hands on the keyboard. Everything above, plus I build the hard parts myself instead of delegating them.
Best for: Post-PMF teams scaling fast, or companies bridging a CTO departure.
The full breakdown of what each tier includes, with deliverables, cadence, and how the first ninety days run, lives on the Fractional CTO service page. Building a product first? MVP design and development is priced per screen, from $80.
The comparison founders actually run
Fractional CTO vs. a $260,000 full-time hire
A full-time startup CTO in the US costs around $260,000 a year fully loaded, before the 1–4% equity and before the three to six months it takes to hire one. The question isn't whether that's a lot of money. It's whether technical leadership is a forty-hour-a-week job at your stage yet.
| Full-time CTO | Fractional CTO | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash cost per year | ~$260,000 fully loaded | $18,000 – $96,000 depending on tier |
| Equity | 1–4% typical, vesting over 4 years | None, unless you want skin in the game |
| Time to start | 3–6 months of hiring | Days; week one is an architecture review |
| Commitment | Severance, notice periods, a board conversation | 3-month minimum, then 30 days notice |
| Right for | Post-Series A, 8+ engineers, technical leadership is a full-time job | Pre-seed to Series A, where the role needs 2–3 days a week |
Behind the ranges
What actually moves a fractional CTO's price
When you get quotes that differ by 3x for "the same" role, one of these five things is why. Use them to compare quotes honestly, including mine.
Days per week
The single biggest driver. One day a week of advisory is a different product from three days a week of hands-on leadership, and it should cost a third as much. My tiers map to roughly half a day, two days, and three days a week.
Advisory vs. hands-on
A CTO who only reviews decisions is cheaper than one who also builds. If the engagement includes writing the hard code personally (migrations, the AI/ML layer, security-critical paths), expect the top of any range, mine included.
Stage and mess
A pre-launch startup with no code is cheap to lead. A Series A company with three years of debt, a compliance deadline, and a team of eight is not. Price follows the surface area of what can go wrong, not the size of the ambition.
Specialisation
Generic web-app leadership is abundant and priced accordingly. AI infrastructure, healthcare compliance, security posture ahead of an enterprise deal: scarcer, and worth more, because the expensive mistakes are easier to make.
Cash vs. equity mix
Equity lowers the invoice and raises the commitment. If a meaningful slice of the fee is equity, the cash number drops, but expect the engagement to be structured for years, not months, because now we both own the outcome.
The honest part
When you shouldn't pay for a fractional CTO at all
If you have no product, no engineers, and no code yet, you don't need ongoing technical leadership; you need the thing to exist. A scoped MVP build tests your idea for a fraction of a year-long retainer.
If you mostly need big decisions checked, an architecture reviewed, an agency's work audited, or a technical story for investors, the $1,500 advisory tier covers it, and I'll tell you if even that is more than your situation calls for.
And if you're past Series A with eight or more engineers, you should probably hire a full-time CTO, and the useful version of me is the bridge who runs engineering while you search, then helps hire my own replacement. I've done exactly that, and it's in the case studies.
Pricing questions, answered plainly
The numbers, in more detail
How much does a fractional CTO cost per month?
Across the market, most fractional CTO retainers run $4,000 to $15,000 a month, with some quoted as high as $25,000 for multi-day, hands-on engagements. Mine are published: $1,500 a month for advisory (15+ hours), $5,000 for the standard fractional CTO engagement (50+ hours, about two days a week), and $8,000 for embedded, hands-on-keyboard work (80+ hours, about three days a week). All in USD, three-month minimum, then month to month.
What is a typical fractional CTO hourly rate?
The market runs $150 to $350 an hour for experienced fractional CTOs, with specialists at the top of that range. I price my time at $100 an hour and use it to size the retainers: 15, 50, or 80 hours a month. The hours are a floor I commit to, not a meter I bill against. If a week needs more, it gets more, and no invoice changes.
Why is your rate lower than the market range?
Because I'm based in India and work US hours, my cost base isn't a San Francisco cost base, and I'd rather publish an honest number than pad it to look expensive. What you're buying is the same seniority the range describes: six times a technical co-founder, an M.Tech in Cybersecurity, 30+ research citations, and a production multi-LLM platform I run myself. The rate is a geography fact, not a seniority discount.
Are there cheaper options than a fractional CTO?
Yes, and sometimes they're the right call. A monthly technical advisor ($1,500 with me) covers a founder who mostly needs decisions checked. A one-time architecture review covers a team that needs a verdict, not a leader. And if you have fewer than two engineers and no near-term hiring plan, you may not need ongoing technical leadership at all yet; a scoped MVP build or a few advisory calls will test your idea for less. I'll tell you which one your situation is on the first call.
Is a fractional CTO worth it compared to hiring full-time?
Run the arithmetic. A full-time startup CTO in the US costs roughly $260,000 a year fully loaded, plus 1–4% equity, plus three to six months of hiring time. A serious fractional engagement runs $60,000 to $96,000 a year, no equity, and starts in days. Until technical leadership is genuinely a forty-hour-a-week job (usually post-Series A with eight or more engineers), the full-time hire is the expensive way to solve a two-day-a-week problem.
Why do you publish your pricing when nobody else does?
Because the discovery-call dance is a tax on founders. Most fractional CTOs quote after they've sized your budget; I'd rather you disqualify me for free in thirty seconds than in a thirty-minute call. Published pricing also filters my inbox toward funded teams who've already done the arithmetic, which is exactly who a fractional CTO engagement is built for.
Can part of the fee be paid in equity?
Yes. Any retainer can be structured from a small equity component up to roughly half equity and half cash, negotiated on your stage and how long we expect to work together, with standard vesting and a cliff, documented before we start. Early-stage teams tend to want more equity in the mix, which also means I'm carrying some of the same risk you are.
You have the numbers. The rest is fit.
Thirty minutes: tell me what you're building and where it's stuck, and I'll tell you which tier fits, or that you don't need one yet. No quote to wait for; you've already seen it.
Book a 30-min callSend me a messagePrefer email? me@kunalvohra.com