By Mehdi HassanHow much does a logo cost in 2026?
A logo costs anywhere from almost nothing with an AI generator to well over $25,000 inside a strategy-led agency identity. For most startups, the realistic range is about $100 to $2,000 for a logo on its own, or $500 to $5,000 for a starter identity that includes the logo, a palette and fonts. These are typical ranges we see quoted in 2026, and they vary.
The wide spread exists because 'a logo' means very different things depending on who's selling it. At the low end it's a single mark and a few files. At the high end it's the visible tip of research, positioning, a full visual system and guidelines. Comparing prices only makes sense once you compare what's included. For the bigger picture of logos in a startup brand, see our hub on logo design for startups.
What do logo design prices look like by provider?
Logo design prices rise with the amount of strategy, design range and testing included. The table below collects the tiers published in the branding cost guides we reviewed, plus the sprint formats sold in the market.
Provider or tier | What you typically get | Typical price range |
|---|---|---|
AI logo generator | Generated marks and basic files | Low; check the current plan page |
Logo-only (freelance or contest) | One mark, a few file formats | About $100–$2,000 |
Freelance brand sprint | Logo, palette, fonts in a short engagement | About $249–$2,300 |
Starter identity | Logo, palette, type, basic rules | About $500–$5,000 |
Studio one-week identity | Logo and basic identity; extras sold separately | Around $3,000 |
Designify brand & design sprint | Refresh or redesign plus 10 website or product explorations, Figma files | $3,000 fixed |
Agency brand sprint | Workshops, identity, presentation, about four weeks | Around £10,000 |
Full identity system | Identity, guidelines, applications | About $5,000–$25,000 |
Strategy-led agency | Research, strategy, naming, identity, rollout | About $25,000–$200,000+ |
Well-known branding agencies at the top of the market start at around $50,000 to $60,000, according to their published pricing. That level makes sense for a later-stage company with many stakeholders, not usually for a seed-stage startup. Our logo design cost breakdown goes deeper on logo-only pricing, and how much branding costs covers full identity budgets.
What drives the cost of a logo?
The cost of a logo is driven by scope, strategy, the number of routes and rounds, testing on real surfaces, and the experience of the people doing the work. Two logos can look equally simple and cost very differently because of everything that went into choosing them.
- Scope. A single mark costs less than a mark plus color, type and a small-size version, which costs less than a full system with guidelines.
- Strategy. Positioning work, category research and a written brief take time, and they're what make a simple logo the right one.
- Routes and rounds. More directions explored and more revision rounds mean more hours, unless the price is fixed.
- Testing. Checking routes as a favicon, an app icon and on website or product screens adds work and prevents costly redraws.
- Type of logo. Wordmarks are usually cheaper than combination marks, mascots or emblems. Our guide to the types of logos explains why.
- Experience and rights. Senior designers cost more, and so do contracts with clear ownership and licensed fonts.
Why is a logo alone often the wrong purchase?
A logo alone is often the wrong purchase because a startup can't use a logo without the colors, type and layouts around it, and someone still has to design those. Buying the mark on its own usually means paying again, later, to build the system it should have come with.
Here's what typically happens. A founder buys a logo for a few hundred dollars. Then the web designer needs a palette, so they invent one. The deck needs fonts, so the founder picks some. The product team needs button colors and uses the library defaults. Within months the company has a logo and three unrelated visual systems. Fixing that costs more than doing it together would have.
Hypothetical example: the true cost of a cheap logo
For example, suppose a startup pays a few hundred dollars for a logo-only package. It gets a mark and PNG files.
A few weeks later, its website designer spends extra hours choosing colors and type to go with it, and finds the logo is unreadable as a favicon, so a small version has to be drawn. The founder builds the deck with different fonts. Six months on, before a raise, the team pays for a refresh to make the website, product and deck consistent.
The logo itself was cheap. The total spend across extra design hours and the refresh ends up higher than a single identity project would have cost, and the company looked inconsistent for six months in between. The numbers here are illustrative, but the pattern is common.
A logo-only purchase does make sense in some cases: a side project, a test of a name, or a company that already has a strong system and just needs a new mark. For a startup about to build a website or raise money, buying the identity as one piece is better value.
What does $3,000 buy at Designify?
At Designify, $3,000 buys our brand & design sprint: a brand refresh or redesign that includes the logo, plus 10 website or product explorations showing the identity on real screens, delivered as Figma files. It's design only, fixed in price and scope.
- Brand & design sprint, fixed price, logo included
- $3,000
- Website or product explorations included
- 10
- Landing page package, if you want the next step built
- $6,000
Positioning in words
A one-line description of what you do and for whom, and the messages the brand must carry. We start with the words because they decide what the logo has to express.
Identity
A logo or wordmark, new or refreshed, with color and type chosen for screens first.
Ten explorations
The identity applied to real website and product screens, such as a homepage hero, a pricing section or a dashboard view.
Figma files
Editable, organized files your team or developer can work from.
The sprint doesn't include building the website, writing every page or a full guideline book. When you're ready to build, our landing page is $6,000 and a website is $8,000 for up to 6 pages. The landing page cost guide explains that next step, and our brand sprint cost article sets out everything the $3,000 sprint includes.
How much should a startup budget for a logo?
A startup should budget for an identity, not a logo, and the amount should match its stage. Pre-launch teams can do well with a strong wordmark and simple rules, while funded startups preparing to raise or sell upmarket usually need a starter identity or a sprint that tests the brand on real screens.
Stage | Sensible approach | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
Side project or name test | AI generator or a simple wordmark | Low |
Pre-seed, pre-launch | Wordmark plus palette and type | About $500–$5,000 |
Seed, building website and raising | Identity sprint tested on real screens | Around $3,000 |
Series A and later | Full identity system and guidelines | About $5,000–$25,000+ |
Remember the other launch costs around the logo, such as a deck and a website. Our article on pitch deck design cost covers the deck, and a rule of thumb quoted in pitch deck cost guides is to spend about 0.2–2% of the raise on it. The process behind any logo is laid out in the logo design process.
