$15 on Fiverr or $5,000 at an agency — neither is the right number for most small businesses. Here's what you should actually pay, and what to expect at each price point.
Logo pricing makes no sense to most small business owners — and for good reason. The same logo design "industry" charges anywhere from $5 to $50,000 for what looks, on the surface, like the same thing. Why? And what's the right number for you?
Let's break down what you actually get at every price tier, where AI changed the math in 2026, and what to pay for a logo that does its job: makes you look like a real business, scales to every format you'll ever need, and doesn't make you regret it in a year.
You can technically get a logo for $0 (Canva templates, free generators) or for $5-$15 from low-end Fiverr gigs. What you get: a PNG, maybe a JPG, usually based on a template the seller has used a thousand times. Often no vector file. Often no commercial rights. Often unusable for anything bigger than a website header.
When this is OK: you genuinely don't care, you're testing a hobby business, or you'll redo it later.
When it's not: if you're going to print business cards, put it on a sign, put it on a vehicle, or use it for anything you want customers to remember — the bottom tier will cost you more than it saves. You'll end up paying someone else later to fix or redo it.
This is the new tier that AI made possible in 2024-2026. Real designers using AI to generate dozens of concepts quickly, then curating and refining the best ones. You get: 3-5 real concepts, vector files (SVG/AI), all the formats you need, often a brand-ready package, fast turnaround (24-72 hours).
This is the tier where most small businesses should land. The output is genuinely good — indistinguishable from what an agency would have charged $1,500 for in 2020. The cost dropped because the design exploration that used to take days now takes hours.
Example: our logo design is $75 — 3-5 concepts, up to 5 revisions, all file formats, 48-hour turnaround.
A freelance designer with 5+ years of experience, working without AI assistance. You'll get: discovery call, mood boards, multiple concepts, 2-4 revisions, polished brand guide.
The output is excellent but the timeline is longer (1-3 weeks) and the cost is 5-20× the AI-assisted tier. Worth it if you're a business that genuinely needs a deep brand strategy session and an experienced designer's eye on every decision.
When this is right: high-touch brands where the logo carries a lot of weight (luxury, premium services, brands where storytelling is the product).
Full brand strategy work — not just a logo. You're getting: research, stakeholder workshops, positioning, naming sometimes, identity system, brand guide (40+ pages), launch collateral.
For most small businesses, this is overkill. It's worth it if you're a Series-A startup, a growing franchise, or a brand where investors / partners care about the polish.
The big shift: AI can now generate hundreds of concept directions in minutes. A human designer's role is to brief the AI, curate the best outputs, and refine the winners. The actual creative quality is unchanged — but the time per concept dropped 10-50×.
This compressed the lower price tiers. What used to require $500 of designer time now requires $30 of designer time plus $0.50 of AI API costs. The output quality at $75 today rivals what cost $1,500 in 2020.
It did NOT compress the high end. Brand strategy work still requires humans doing human work (interviewing stakeholders, understanding markets, telling stories). AI hasn't touched that.
When you buy a "logo" you're really buying a brand-mark file set. The single most common reason small businesses end up paying twice is they got a $15 PNG and then needed a vector for a sign maker, a transparent version for an email signature, a square version for a social avatar, a print-ready PDF for business cards — and the original seller didn't include those.
Make sure your logo deliverable includes:
For 90% of small businesses, the right answer is the AI-assisted tier ($25-$100). You get genuinely good design, a complete file package, fast turnaround, and a price that makes sense for your launch budget.
If you're in the 10% with specific reasons (luxury positioning, investor optics, complex brand system needs), pay for the mid-market or agency tier.
If you go cheap-cheap (the $5-15 tier), budget for replacing it in year 2. You'll wish you'd just paid $75 in the first place.
Want to skip the deliberation? Our logo design is $75 flat, 3-5 concepts, 5 revisions, every file format you'd ever need, 48-hour turnaround. Start one or book a 15-min call.