Nobody publishes these numbers, which is exactly why the market feels murky. Here they are, honestly, with the catch on each. Then the one comparison that reframes the whole decision.
Every option is right for someone. The numbers below are 2026 market rates; the catch is what the number doesn’t show.
| Option | Typical 2026 cost | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance proposal manager (10 yrs, public sector) | $125–200/hr · roughly $15–30K per bid | One set of hands, one bid at a time. Nothing kept between pursuits, no warranty, and they leave when it ships. |
| Big consultancy (Shipley / Lohfeld tier) | Premium day rates / large retainers — quoted, not published | Built for billion-dollar primes with the budget for an army and a heavy process. Priced out most small and mid firms, and you negotiate for the number. |
| AI proposal tool | ~$30–40K/yr in seats — plus the salary to operate it | It assumes you already have a proposal team to run it. If your whole problem is that you don’t, it’s shelfware by month three. |
| In-house hire (senior proposal manager) | $160–240K/yr loaded | Paid whether you bid or not, idle between pursuits, a single point of failure — and one person can’t do capture, graphics, and review alone. |
Here’s the reframe that makes the numbers make sense. The industry norm is to spend one to three percent of contract valuepursuing it. On a $1M opportunity, that’s $10–30K of bid-and-proposal money that’s simply the cost of competing. Measured against an hourly rate, good proposal help looks expensive. Measured against the contract it’s chasing, the same number is a rounding error — and the real question stops being “what’s the rate” and becomes “which of these actually makes me more likely to win, and leaves me something for next time.”
Published, on the pricing page, and inside the 1–3% band: a pursuit runs $15–30K by contract value — the same market rate as one senior freelancer, with a department, the tooling, a knowledge base you own, and a compliance warranty behind the fee instead of a single set of hands. Below that, a review subscription from $750/mo for teams that write their own and just want a senior human to catch the misses. We publish every number because the murk is the problem, and a firm that names its price is telling you it doesn’t haggle.
Before you buy any proposal help, write down two things: the contract value you’re chasing (so you can price the help against it, not against an hour), and the name of the person who will run whatever you buy. If you can’t name that person, cross the AI tool off the list — you’d be buying shelfware.
Every price on one page, inside the band, with a department behind the fee. Start with a Sprint on one live bid and see the standard for yourself.
See the prices →