SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2: the difference, the cost and the timeline

A SOC 2 Type 1 report gives the auditor's opinion on two things as of a single date: whether your description of your system is fair, and whether your controls are designed well enough to meet the Trust Services Criteria you chose.

Nobody tests whether those controls kept working. The auditor looks at the policy, the configuration and one example of each control, then signs off on the design. That is why a Type 1 is quick, and why buyers read it as "they've built it" and not yet "they run it".

A Type 2 report covers everything in a Type 1 and adds operating effectiveness. The auditor picks samples from across a period, usually 3 to 12 months, and checks that each control worked every time it should have.

So a Type 2 report includes something a Type 1 never has: a table of the auditor's tests and the results, exceptions included. If someone left the company in month four and kept their access for three weeks, it shows up there. That table is what a security reviewer at a large customer turns to first.

Type 1 says the sock fits. Type 2 says it survived the wash.Your engineer

Everything else is the same. Both are attestation reports issued by a licensed CPA firm under the AICPA's attestation standards. Both use the same criteria, and in both only the Security category is mandatory.

Most teams don't choose on principle. They choose because a customer needs something by a date. Drag the deadline and see which report can realistically exist by then.

• Getting ready: a readiness assessment by an audit firm takes about four to eight weeks. Fixing what it finds takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on your starting point.
• Type 1 audit: two to three months from evidence collection to the final report for a first audit, by one large audit firm's own estimate.
• Type 2 period: the AICPA sets no mandatory minimum, though its guidance cautions that periods under six months may be less useful to readers. In practice many auditors accept three months for a first report. Six to twelve is typical.
• Type 2 report: expect it four to eight weeks after the period closes. Promises of a two-week audit deserve suspicion.

Doing all three in sequence, readiness, then Type 1, then Type 2, typically takes 12 to 15 months of calendar time.

For a company under about 50 people with only Security in scope, published fees and observed quotes at boutique and specialist firms run roughly $5,000 to $15,000 for Type 1 and $7,000 to $25,000 for Type 2. Ballpark quotes that one auditor directory collected for buyers in mid-2026 had a median of about $9,000 for a Type 2 at companies under 50 staff.

The firm you pick moves the number more than the report type does. National firms quote roughly $30,000 to $80,000 for a Type 2, and the Big Four start higher still. The audit fee is also only one line of the budget. See what SOC 2 costs in total.

Choose Type 1 if a deal needs proof within the next five months or so, your controls are new, or leadership wants a checkpoint before committing to a full year.

Go straight to Type 2 if your controls have been running for a while, your buyers have said "Type 2" by name, or nothing is due for six months or more. You pay one audit fee where the two-step route pays two.

A common middle path is a Type 1 now, with the Type 2 period starting the day after the Type 1 date. The buyer gets something to read today and a firm date for the real thing. If you're weighing that, read do you need a Type 1 at all?

1. Stopping at Type 1. A Type 1 with no Type 2 behind it looks abandoned within a year.
2. Starting the period before controls work. Every miss inside the period becomes an exception in the report. Fix first, then start the clock.
3. Writing policies you can't keep. The auditor tests what you promised. If the policy says quarterly access reviews and you skip a quarter, that is an exception, even though no rule made you choose quarterly.