Pricing

How Much Does Executive Protection Cost?

The four cost drivers

Team size is the largest lever. Cost scales close to linearly with headcount, and headcount is set by the movement rather than by the client's preference. A single principal attending one private meeting is one agent. The same principal walking a red carpet is a team.

Coverage hours matter more than most buyers expect, because protection does not bill only the hours the principal is in view. An agent who must be in position at 5:30 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. departure is working from 5:30 a.m.

Armed posture raises the rate, typically by 25 to 40 percent, and narrows the pool of agents who can legally work the assignment in that state.

Advance work is the line item buyers most often try to cut and the one that most determines whether the detail works. An advance is a separate day of labor at the site before the movement. Cutting it does not save money, it converts a planned operation into an improvised one.

United States market ranges

The figures below are general market ranges for the United States as of 2026, not a quote. Rates vary materially by city, by threat level, and by how specialized the assignment is. Major metropolitan markets and short notice deployments sit at the top of each band.

Single unarmed agent: roughly 75 to 150 dollars per hour, with an eight to twelve hour minimum. Single armed agent: roughly 100 to 200 dollars per hour on the same minimum. Detail Leader or agent with federal protective experience: a premium above those bands. Advance work: typically billed as a separate day at the agent rate, plus travel. Protective driver with a vehicle: billed separately from the agent, with the vehicle as its own line.

Multi day travel details add travel time, lodging, per diem, and in most cases a travel day at a reduced rate on each end. Event details are usually quoted as a fixed engagement fee built up from the same hourly math rather than as an hourly figure.

What a low quote usually means

A quote materially below these ranges is generally explained by one of four things, and it is worth knowing which. The agents are unlicensed in the state where the work will happen. The firm is a broker subcontracting to whoever is available rather than a firm with its own vetted roster. The advance has been silently removed from the scope. Or the insurance is thin, absent, or does not name you as an additional insured.

The economics are not mysterious. An agent's pay, payroll burden, licensing, insurance, and equipment set a floor. A firm quoting below that floor is either losing money, which is temporary, or cutting something you have not been told about, which is not.

How to compare two quotes honestly

Put both on the same basis before you compare the totals. Ask each firm for the number of agents, the exact billed hours per agent, whether advance days are included or excluded, whether armed coverage is included, whether the vehicle is separate, what the overtime trigger and rate are, and what the cancellation window is.

Then ask the question that separates firms from brokers: are the agents on this detail your employees or subcontractors, and can you tell me the specific background of the people who will actually be assigned. A firm that cannot answer that in a sentence is not the firm running your detail.

Consulting and program work is priced differently

Assessment and program work is scoped as a project rather than by the hour. Threat assessments, security program design, compliance program build, and facility assessments are quoted as flat engagements because the deliverable is a document and a plan rather than coverage hours.

Ongoing advisory work is typically retained annually and banded to organizational size, since the driver of cost is headcount and site count rather than a description of scope.