What US growth agencies charge in 2026: seven in ten disclosed rates land between $100 and $199 an hour
Across 1,440 US agencies that publish an hourly-rate band, $150–$199 is the single most common answer — and the premium tail above $300 is far smaller than agency marketing suggests.
Of the 1,738 listings in The Wall's index that carry provider-declared engagement data, 1,440 publish an hourly-rate band. The distribution is tighter than most buyers expect:
| Hourly-rate band | Firms | Share of disclosed |
|---|---|---|
| $150 – $199 / hr | 531 | 36.9% |
| $100 – $149 / hr | 470 | 32.6% |
| $200 – $300 / hr | 163 | 11.3% |
| $50 – $99 / hr | 159 | 11.0% |
| $25 – $49 / hr | 70 | 4.9% |
| < $25 / hr | 25 | 1.7% |
| $300+ / hr | 22 | 1.5% |
Two-thirds of the market prices in a $100 band: 1,001 of 1,440 disclosed rates — 69.5% — fall between $100 and $199 per hour. The tails are thin on both ends. Only 6.6% of disclosing firms price below $50 an hour, and only 1.5% price above $300.
What the compression means for buyers
For a company budgeting an engagement, the practical read is simple: a US agency quoting inside $100–$199 is quoting the market norm, and a quote outside that band should come with a reason — deep specialization and senior-only teams on the high side, offshore delivery or junior-heavy teams on the low side. At the modal band, a 20-hour-per-month retainer prices at roughly $3,000–$4,000 per month before deliverable-based pricing enters the picture.
A further 298 firms in the engagement-data set — 17.1% — publish no rate at all. That group is examined separately in the transparency-gap briefing.
How this was computed. Figures are computed from The Wall's index of approved, US-based, machine-verified-live listings, using the index snapshot current when each briefing was published: 2,286 listings at launch (August 3, 2026) and 3,460 in the latest snapshot (captured August 9, 2026). Engagement data (rates, minimum project sizes, team sizes, founding years, ratings) are provider-declared figures published on public Clutch profiles; they were present for 1,738 of the 2,286 launch listings, and coverage counts for later snapshots are stated inside each briefing that uses them. Percentages of "disclosed" values exclude listings that publish no figure. Nothing in this briefing is estimated or modeled. Sourcing standards: editorial policy.