Costs and timelines
SBIR Proposal Cost and Timeline Benchmarks
The short answer
A professionally written SBIR Phase I proposal costs roughly $5,000 to $20,000 with a freelance writer, or an engagement fee plus a success fee with a full-service consultancy. Writing it yourself costs 80 to 200 hours of founder and PI time. Either way, plan six to eight weeks from topic selection to submission, and start your federal registrations before you start writing.
What each route costs, in money and in hours
| Route | Typical cost | Your time | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing it in-house | No cash cost | 80 to 200 founder and PI hours | The real price is senior technical time taken out of product development during the weeks before a deadline. |
| Freelance grant writer | $5,000 to $20,000 per proposal | 30 to 60 of your hours | You still own topic selection, budget build, letters of support and compliance checking in most freelance engagements. |
| Hourly consultant | $75 to $250 per hour | Varies with scope | Useful for review and coaching. Costs become unpredictable when the scope expands late in the cycle. |
| AI proposal software | $50 to $500 per month | 40 to 100+ of your hours | Produces structure and first drafts. Reviewers increasingly recognise and penalise generic machine phrasing. |
| Full-service consultancy | Engagement fee plus success fee on award | 3 to 5 founder hours | The whole submission is developed for you, including narrative, budget, justification, supporting documents and compliance QA. |
Figures are market ranges for US federal SBIR and STTR work and vary by agency, phase and scope. For how our own engagements are priced, see our grant writing services.
A realistic SBIR proposal timeline
Six to eight weeks for a Phase I, eight to twelve for a Phase II. Registrations run in parallel and should be started first.
Weeks 1
Agency and topic selection
Confirm eligibility, shortlist the solicitations and topics your technology genuinely answers, and decide whether this cycle or the next one gives you the better odds.
Weeks 2 to 3
Technical strategy and outline
Define the central innovation, the hardest technical risk, the Phase I objectives and the measurable success criteria reviewers will score against.
Weeks 3 to 5
Narrative drafting
Write the technical volume against the published review criteria, in the order and language the agency uses, not the order the science happened in.
Weeks 4 to 6
Commercialisation plan and letters
Build the market and customer evidence, secure letters of support, and align the commercialisation story with the technical milestones.
Weeks 5 to 7
Budget and justification
Cost the work plan line by line so that every milestone is delivered by budgeted staff, equipment and subcontracts.
Weeks 7 to 8
Compliance QA and submission
Independent review against the solicitation checklist, registration checks (SAM.gov, SBC, eRA Commons or DSIP), and submission with days to spare rather than hours.
What moves the price up or down
- Phase I or Phase II. Phase II proposals carry more budget detail, more data, and a full commercialisation plan, so the work and the fee are typically higher than Phase I.
- Agency and format. An NSF Project Pitch plus full proposal is a different workload from a DoD topic response or an NIH application with human subjects and vertebrate animal sections.
- How much material already exists. A company with published data, a clear work plan and customer discovery behind it needs fewer hours than one starting from a concept note.
- Partnerships and subawards. STTR submissions and university subawards add negotiation, institutional paperwork and extra budget documents to the critical path.
- How late you start. Compressed timelines cost more everywhere, and they are the most common reason good science ends up in a weak proposal.
Weighing the cost against the odds? Read SBIR success rates by agency or how to choose an SBIR consultant.
SBIR proposal cost questions founders ask us
How much does it cost to write an SBIR proposal?
Freelance SBIR grant writers typically charge $5,000 to $20,000 per proposal, and hourly consultants $75 to $250 per hour. Full-service consultancies usually combine an engagement fee with a success fee payable on award, sized to the agency, the phase and the amount of material you already have.
What percentage do SBIR grant writers get paid?
Success fees are usually a single-digit percentage of the awarded amount. Be careful with pure no-win-no-fee arrangements: they reward volume of submissions rather than quality, and federal rules restrict what can be charged to the award itself.
Can SBIR funds be used to pay a grant writer?
Proposal preparation costs are generally not an allowable direct charge to the award, because they are incurred before the award exists. Some agencies do fund commercialisation assistance separately, for example the Technical and Business Assistance budget available alongside many awards.
How long does it take to write an SBIR proposal?
Plan for six to eight weeks from topic selection to submission for a Phase I, and eight to twelve weeks for a Phase II. Registrations such as SAM.gov can take several weeks on their own, so start them before you start writing.
How many hours does an SBIR proposal take?
Writing in-house usually costs 80 to 200 hours of founder and PI time. With a full-service consultancy the founder commitment is typically three to five hours of interviews and review, because the drafting, budget and compliance work is done for you.
Is hiring an SBIR grant writer worth the cost?
With Phase I awards commonly worth $150,000 to $314,000 and Phase II awards reaching $1M to $2M, the fee is small next to the award. The value comes from avoiding the losses that have nothing to do with your science: wrong topic, unaddressed review criteria, thin commercialisation evidence or a compliance failure.
Free download
NSF SBIR Phase I readiness checklist and federal deadline calendar
Two pages, no email required. Every registration, eligibility test and proposal section you need before you write, plus the next deadline for NSF, NIH, DoD, DOE, NASA and USDA with the date you realistically need to start.
- 37-point readiness checklist
- Six agency deadlines with lead times
Get a scope and a price before you commit
Book a free consultation and we will tell you what your proposal needs, what it will cost and whether this cycle is the right one.