Executive coaching is priced three ways: by the hour, as a fixed program or as a monthly retainer. The latest free public survey of rates, Sherpa’s 2020 report, found veteran coaches charging over US$450 an hour. In the model on this page, US$500,000 a year takes about 112 hourly engagements, 34 six-month programs or 19 retainers.
| Model | What the client buys | Illustrative engagement value | Engagements for US$500k | Who it tends to attract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Sessions as needed | US$4,500 (10 × US$450) | 112 | Self-funded executives comparing rates |
| Program | A fixed 6-month engagement with set objectives | US$15,000 | 34 | A sponsor with a budget line and an outcome to report |
| Retainer | Ongoing access, billed monthly | US$27,000 (US$3,000 × 9 months kept) | 19 | Owners and CEOs who pay personally and stay |
Only the US$450 comes from a published source (Sherpa Coaching, 2020). Session counts, program fee, retainer fee and retention are assumptions for you to replace. The 2025 ICF Global Coaching Study counts 122,974 coach practitioners worldwide, so buyers have a lot of coaches to compare you with.
How much do executive coaches charge per hour?
No current, free, public benchmark gives a reliable hourly rate for executive coaching. The best available figure is dated. Sherpa Coaching’s 2020 Executive Coaching Survey executive summary reported coaches with 15+ years in business “charging over $450 per hour” and averaging close to US$160,000 a year from coaching. Coaches in their first two years had risen “from about $200 per hour, five years ago, to nearly $300”. The 2025 ICF Global Coaching Study landing page reports practitioner numbers and revenue but gives no hourly fee. Its figures also disagree internally: it says 2025 revenue of US$5.34 billion is “almost double” a 2023 total of US$2.849 billion, while the 2023 figure listed further down the same page is US$4.564 billion. So we use neither revenue number here.
Treat US$300-450 an hour (2020 figures) as a floor for experienced corporate work, not a market rate. Most executive coaches who publish a price at all publish a package, not an hour, and the reason is below.
How it works
Choosing an executive coaching pricing model
Set the annual target
Write the revenue you need from coaching this year. The worked example uses US$500,000.
Value one engagement
Multiply price by the sessions or months a typical client actually buys under each model.
Count engagements needed
Divide the target by engagement value. Check the coaching hours fit your week.
Size the pipeline
Divide engagements by your close rate on qualified conversations. That is the number of sales meetings to book.
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Hourly, program or retainer: which executive coaching pricing model should I use?
Each model changes three things: what a sale is worth, who can sign it, and how the buyer compares you with other coaches.
- Hourly is easy to buy and easy to compare. The buyer divides your rate by a competitor’s and the cheaper coach looks like better value. The engagement ends whenever the client stops booking.
- Program pricing (for example six months, a set number of sessions, a stakeholder check-in at the start and a review at the end) is priced on the outcome. It fits the way an organisation approves spend: one fee, one objective, one end date.
- Retainer pricing sells access rather than sessions. It suits a founder or CEO who wants a standing adviser. It earns the most per client, but it depends on retention you cannot see until month four or five.
We call the first model’s weakness the Per-Hour Trap: an executive coach who prices by the hour invites a per-hour comparison, and a per-hour comparison can only be won by lowering the rate.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
How many clients do I need to make $500k a year as an executive coach?
Divide the target by engagement value, then check the result against your calendar. The session assumptions are 10 sessions per hourly client, 12 per program and 2 a month for 9 months per retainer. All inputs except the US$450 hourly rate are assumptions.
| Model | Engagement value | Engagements for US$500k (rounded up) | Client sessions a year | Effective fee per session |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly at US$450 | US$4,500 | 112 | 1,120 | US$450 |
| 6-month program at US$15,000 | US$15,000 | 34 | 408 | US$1,250 |
| Retainer at US$3,000/month, kept 9 months | US$27,000 | 19 | 342 | US$1,500 |
The hourly row is the one that breaks. 1,120 client sessions is about 23 a week across 48 working weeks, before preparation, travel and selling. The program row needs about a third of the sessions for the same revenue. That capacity limit, more than any positioning argument, is why coaches move away from hourly pricing. The same arithmetic for consumer coaching offers, with four price tiers, is on our page on how to price a high-ticket coaching offer.
How many sales conversations does each pricing model need?
Engagements needed ÷ close rate on qualified conversations = conversations to book. No credible public figure exists for executive coaching close rates, so these three bands are assumptions. Your own last 20 sales meetings are a better input.
| Model (engagements needed) | At 15% close | At 25% close | At 35% close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly (112) | 747 | 448 | 320 |
| Program (34) | 227 | 136 | 98 |
| Retainer (19) | 127 | 76 | 55 |
At the middle band, an hourly practice needs about nine qualified conversations a week all year, and a program practice needs under three. To turn those conversations into a cost per client, divide your cost per booked call by show rate × close rate, as worked through on our page on the cost to acquire a coaching client.
If we can’t make you money, we don’t deserve yours.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — performance-based alignment.
Does hourly pricing attract the wrong executive coaching clients?
It attracts a particular client, which is only wrong if that client is not your plan. What follows is reasoning from how each buyer approves spend, not a measured finding:
- A self-funded executive is paying out of their own income, so a low entry price and freedom to stop matter to them. Hourly pricing suits them. Expect short engagements.
- An organisational sponsor (HR, L&D or a line executive) needs a fixed fee, an objective and an end date to get approval. An open-ended hourly quote is harder for them to approve than a program with a total.
- A founder or CEO paying personally is buying judgement on demand. A retainer matches that, and they will often stay longer than a sponsored client whose budget resets every year.
A second filter sits beside price. In the 2025 ICF study, 73% of coaches agree that clients and organisations expect a coaching certification or credential. If your price assumes corporate sponsors, expect to be shortlisted on your credential before your fee is compared. How the sponsor-led sale runs in practice is covered in our guide to lead generation for executive and leadership coaches.
How do I move from hourly to program pricing?
- Price your current average. Take your last ten clients’ total spend and median number of sessions. That total is your first program price.
- Name the outcome and the end date. A program with no objective is just a bulk discount on hours.
- Keep an hourly rate, and set it high. It becomes the anchor that makes the program look like good value, and it is there for clients who genuinely only want a session or two.
- Re-price new enquiries first. Move existing clients over at renewal, not mid-engagement.
The honest cost of doing this yourself is the pipeline, not the pricing. Even the program model needs 136 qualified conversations a year at the 25% band. For a solo coach, that means list-building, follow-up and booking on top of delivery. If you hand that work to someone else, LeadsNow (50,769+ AI-booked sales appointments since 2017) is paid 5-20% of the sales it helps generate, or roughly 1-5% of closed-deal value per booked appointment, rather than a retainer. The coaching service pages are at LeadsNow for coaches and, for US practices, lead generation for coaches in the USA.
Frequently asked questions
How much does executive coaching cost?
There is no current public price index. The most recent free survey figure is Sherpa Coaching’s 2020 executive summary, which reported coaches with 15+ years’ experience “charging over $450 per hour” (Sherpa, 2020). Many executive coaches sell fixed programs instead. The US$15,000 six-month program on this page is an illustrative assumption, not a market price.
What should I charge for executive coaching as a new coach?
Sherpa’s 2020 summary found coaches in their first two years had moved from about US$200 an hour to “nearly $300” (Sherpa, 2020). Price from that range upwards, and package it early. The model on this page shows hourly pricing needs roughly three times the sessions of program pricing for the same revenue.
Do executive coaches charge by the hour or by the package?
Both are common, and many coaches publish a package while keeping an hourly rate for one-off sessions. Sponsored corporate clients usually need a fixed fee and an end date to get approval, which favours packages. Self-funded individuals often prefer to pay as they go.
Does an ICF credential let me charge more?
No public source we could verify links a credential to a specific fee increase. What the 2025 ICF study does show is that 73% of coaches agree clients and organisations expect a certification or credential. The PCC credential requires 125+ hours of education and 500+ hours of coaching experience.
How much do executive coaches make a year?
Sherpa’s 2020 executive summary reported coaches with 15+ years in business averaging close to US$160,000 a year from coaching, and US$122,000 for the 10-15 year bracket (Sherpa, 2020). The US$500,000 target on this page is a planning figure for a practice, not a typical income.
Sources
- Sherpa Coaching, 2020 Executive Coaching Survey, executive summary (PDF) — hourly rates and annual earnings by years in business. Read 29 September 2026.
- International Coaching Federation, 2025 Global Coaching Study — 122,974 practitioners; 73% credential expectation; revenue figures that disagree with each other. Read 29 September 2026.
- ICF, Credentials and Standards — ACC, PCC and MCC hour requirements. Read 29 September 2026.
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