How much does GDPR certification cost: Your practical guide

As your business scales, securing enterprise-level clients often relies on demonstrating strong data privacy practices. A no to the question, “Are you GDPR-compliant?” can derail major deals and slow down growth.

While a formal GDPR certification is optional, it can be a valuable tool for enhancing business credibility. It signals secure data handling, audit-readiness, and a deep commitment to trust. 

However, if you're concerned about the cost of GDPR certification, you’re not alone. 

This guide walks you through the key components of GDPR certification costs and certification options, helping you make informed budgeting decisions.

Is GDPR certification mandatory?

Businesses often confuse being GDPR-compliant with having an EU-issued certificate. However, that’s not the case.

Let’s be clear on this: A formal GDPR certification is not legally mandatory for organizations, and the EU does not issue such certificates.

What is mandatory is adhering to the GDPR’s stringent requirements when processing the data of EU residents.

Article 42 of the GDPR clearly encourages “the establishment of data protection certification mechanisms and of data protection seals and marks for the purpose of demonstrating compliance...”

Not requiring it officially doesn’t mean it’s just a piece of paper. It's a rewarding asset in competitive markets, especially for fast-growing companies in heavily regulated domains, such as SaaS, healthcare, and fintech. It serves as verifiable proof of your commitment to protecting individuals’ right to privacy. It’s a way to:

• Avoid fines: Steer clear of heavy penalties that may result from a poor compliance posture. As of June 2025, the average fine from 2,482 GDPR fines is a staggering $2.6 million. However, it’s important to note that this figure is the mean average and not representative of a typical fine. The distribution is skewed by a small number of large penalties levied against major companies, such as Meta and Amazon. For example, the largest GDPR fine to date was over €1 billion against Meta Platforms.
• Build trust: Show customers, partners, and investors that you take data privacy seriously and that your company is trustworthy.
• Gain a competitive edge: Use certification as a differentiator to win enterprise clients and expand your business.
• Streamline audits: Simplify vendor security questionnaires and due diligence processes to enhance efficiency and expedite deal closures.

Who issues the GDPR certification?

Another question you may have is, “Who issues GDPR certifications?”

GDPR certification is issued by organizations, typically referred to as certification bodies. These bodies are accredited by supervisory authorities or a national accreditation body.

Certification bodies rigorously assess your data protection practices, the management of data subjects’ rights, and the controls in place to ensure compliance. If found in line with GDPR’s guidelines, they issue a certificate that demonstrates your commitment to data protection.

As per Article 43 of the GDPR, obtaining accreditation requires these bodies to demonstrate:

• Their independence and expertise regarding the subject matter of the certification.
• Clear procedures for issuing, reviewing, and withdrawing certifications are in place.
• That their activities do not result in a conflict of interest.

Several accredited certification mechanisms and frameworks enable you to demonstrate compliance with GDPR laws. They include, but are not limited to:

• ISO/IEC 27701: A privacy-specific extension to the popular ISO 27001 standard, it’s a globally respected, external endorsement. It helps you demonstrate to various stakeholders that your privacy controls are aligned with GDPR.
• Europrivacy™ seal: The first official European data protection seal developed to be endorsed under Article 42 of the GDPR.
• EuroPriSe seal: A well-established German data privacy seal with GDPR-audited criteria for IT products, services, and websites.
• EU GDPR institute: A professional services firm that offers GDPR certifications. It also focuses on practical application, training, and ongoing support for GDPR compliance.

Estimated GDPR certification and compliance costs: Key takeaways

Before we discuss the GDPR certification cost breakdown in detail below, here’s an overview of cost estimates for the key certification components: 

Typical components of GDPR certification and compliance costs: A complete checklist

The total cost for demonstrating GDPR compliance, whether through an official GDPR certification or an equivalent framework, is more than just the auditor’s fee.The total cost for GDPR certification is more than just the auditor's fee. It’s a sum of several internal and external expenses.

The final cost usually depends on various key factors, including your:

• Organization’s size and complexity.
• Geographic presence and number of locations.
• Data volume, as well as its processing and transfer requirements.
• Number of third-party vendors and processors involved.
• Chosen certification type and compliance scope.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the GDPR certification costs and general compliance readiness expenses that will help you plan for budgeting and resource allocation:

Internal costs ($10,000 - $32,000+)

Understanding and meeting GDPR’s requirements are time-consuming and resource-heavy activities. This includes the time and effort of not only dedicated compliance teams but also of every other team that handles personal data.

Small businesses may not even have a GDPR data protection officer (DPO) or a dedicated compliance team in place. This transfers the entire compliance burden to security and other teams.

Internal costs are often the biggest and most underestimated. It eats into your teams’ time—your most valuable resource—that they could otherwise spend on innovation and business growth.

When budgeting, you must factor in the hundreds of staff hours spent on:

• Holding internal meetings.
• Implementing and monitoring controls.
• Preparing mandatory audit documentation.
• Conducting company-wide employee training sessions.

External consultants or legal help ($5,000 - $40,000+)

Consulting external GDPR experts or law firms also incurs substantial costs. Consultancy fees cover activities such as gap assessments, policy drafting, process mapping, and assistance with audit preparation.

The consultancy cost of GDPR certification may vary depending on the required expertise, data processing needs, and the consultant’s experience, but typically ranges from $2,500 to $15,000+. For larger or more complex organizations, costs may even exceed this range if extensive legal or technical support is required.

Typical consultant or legal cost ranges by organization type:

• Small (1-49 employees): $5,000 - $10,000
• Medium (50-249 employees): $10,000 - $25,000
• Large (250+ employees): $25,000 - $40,000+

The catch is that consultants only act as strategic or legal advisors. Their fees do not include the endless hours spent by your team on the groundwork, including implementing controls, collecting evidence, and contributing to internal audits. Nor do they include expenses for continuous monitoring, certification audits, surveillance audits, and preparation for recertification.

GDPR certification audit cost ($5,000 - $25,000+)

These costs apply to organizations seeking a formal, third-party certification such as the Europrivacy seal or ISO 27701. Fees vary based on the certification type and the issuing organization. Some certification bodies charge a flat fee, while others employ a tiered system where fees depend on the organization's size and complexity.

Overall, the fees for audits by certification bodies range from $5,000 to $25,000+. These do not include costs for preparation, technology, and external consultants/legal help, which can be substantial if done manually.

Tools/platforms for compliance management ($5,000 - $50,000+, or custom)

These costs do not directly relate to certification costs; rather, they primarily help you maintain compliance with GDPR and other relevant regulations or frameworks.

Manually performing every compliance task is inefficient, error-prone, and time-consuming. Several tools—from basic software to advanced compliance automation platforms—can make your life easier.

These platforms not only streamline your GDPR compliance efforts but also enable you to become quickly audit-ready for multiple compliance frameworks.

Typically, partnering with these platform providers can cost:

• A few thousand dollars per year for startups.
• $15,000 - $50,000+ annually for mid-sized companies requiring multiple frameworks.
• Custom fees for large enterprises.

Surveillance audits and recertification ($10,000 - $35,000)

Achieving certification is not a one-time event; it requires ongoing effort. You must maintain compliance for the entire three-year validity period of your certificate.

This involves continuous monitoring and annual surveillance audits to ensure the effectiveness of your security and privacy controls all year round. Surveillance audits are less intensive than the initial certification audit and can cost between $3,000 and $10,000.

At the end of three years, you will also need to undergo the recertification process. Its costs are similar to the initial audit fees, assuming you’ve maintained compliance throughout your current certification period.

[Note: These are vendor-estimated costs and may vary significantly by country, certification body, and compliance scope.]

Options for demonstrating GDPR compliance and their pricing

While the EU doesn’t directly issue a GDPR certificate, you can demonstrate compliance with it through several other frameworks or standards. The path you choose will significantly impact your final cost of GDPR certification.

Here are all the alternatives to display your adherence to GDPR:

Option 1: ISO 27701 certification

ISO 27701 is one of the many extensions of ISO 27001, focusing on protecting personal identifiable information (PII), similar to the GDPR. However, both are distinct: adhering to GDPR is mandatory, while ISO 27701 is a voluntary standard. It is also noteworthy that ISO 27701 certification is not equivalent to GDPR certification and is not officially recognized under Article 42.

Although obtaining an ISO 27701 certificate does not automatically make you GDPR-compliant, it offers practical guidance on meeting GDPR’s requirements.

It provides the framework for implementing a privacy information management system (PIMS) and managing privacy risks within your organization. A functional PIMS enables you to align your privacy practices with several data privacy and protection regulations, including GDPR.

So, saying you’re ISO 27701 certified is an effective way to demonstrate that you manage personal data in line with GDPR’s principles. However, you must still ensure that you meet all the legal GDPR requirements.

Additionally, obtaining an ISO 27701 certificate requires that your organization is already ISO 27001 certified.

Estimated cost: Anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000+ each. These costs only include the certification audit fees. Implementation, continuous monitoring, and audit preparation costs are additional.

Best for: Growth-stage companies (75-500 employees) that need to demonstrate compliance with multiple regulations and standards—including ISO 27001/27701, CCPA, SOC 2, and GDPR—with overlapping requirements.

Option 2: Europrivacy™ seal

The Europrivacy seal is the first scheme officially approved by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) under Article 42 of the GDPR. Since it’s recognized in all 27 EU member states, this certification carries significant weight in the EU.

Whether you’re a data controller or processor, the Europrivacy seal allows you to:

• Demonstrate that your business is compliant with GDPR and other non-EU data protection laws.
• Reduce legal and financial risks by enabling the identification and remediation of potential compliance gaps.
• Shift GDPR compliance from a burdensome liability into a growth-inducing asset by enhancing trust and competitive advantage.

This is reflected in the statement of Dr Sébastien Ziegler, President of Europrivacy International Board of Experts: "Europrivacy's ambition is to build trust and confidence in data protection, and to make data protection compliance as easy and natural as breathing air."

Cost savings example: Let’s say you are in the tech or SaaS industry and your company’s valuation is US$50 m, with an annual turnover of US$7.5 m. Considering you don’t have a GDPR certification and a 10% probability of being fined over 3 years, your risk of fines amounts to a staggering US$1 m per year (that’s 13.33% of your annual turnover). Conversely, if you have a GDPR certification, its impact will be a net cost savings of US$2.35 million on risks and a 1175% ROI. (All calculations are based on this cost-saving estimator.)

Estimated cost: Varies by organization’s size, accredited certification body, and country, but is typically similar to other major certifications. Costs include certification body fees, implementation expenses, and subscription fees for compliance automation software.

Best for: Companies of all sizes seeking a purely GDPR-focused certification with strong European recognition.

Option 3: Sector-specific codes of conduct + certification

Another route to demonstrating GDPR compliance is to follow the sectoral codes of conduct (CoCs) approved under Article 40 of the GDPR.

Compliance with CoCs does not result in GDPR certification by itself. Rather, they are voluntary protocols developed by associations representing data controllers/processors.

CoCs enable you to ensure compliance with data privacy laws applicable to your specific sector or data processing needs, thereby simplifying your compliance tasks.

Examples of CoCs: EU Cloud Code of Conduct (cloud service providers), EUCROF GDPR CoC (service providers in clinical research), AutoControl CoC (advertising sector), etc.

CoCs are more than just best practices. They help you:

• Apply GDPR more effectively in specific situations, including fair processing, personal data collection, security measures, and breach notifications.
• Provide a legal basis for international data transfers.
• Ensure you’re following the rules when operating in multiple member states.

Add a GDPR certification to CoCs, and you have the perfect recipe for success. While adhering to CoCs helps you enhance compliance at the organizational level, certification enables you to demonstrate it to external stakeholders and win new business.

Estimated Cost: Typically ranges from $20,000 to upwards of $100,000, depending on the company’s size. Includes CoC scheme owner fees, certification body audit fees, implementation fees, and audit preparation costs.

Best for: Companies operating in heavily regulated sectors with unique data processing challenges, such as SaaS, fintech, healthcare, and cloud infrastructure.

Option 4: The platform-supported approach

Using a compliance platform is a cost-saving method rather than a certification type. While you don’t get a GDPR certification just by implementing one, it heavily supports your compliance efforts. It’s the cheapest and most efficient path to achieving and maintaining compliance for fast-growing companies with limited resources.

You no longer need to spend a fortune on extensive internal staff hours and external consulting fees. An automation compliance platform like Scrut can help you get there faster and much more affordably.

With the platform, you can save substantial manual efforts, reduce errors, and get expert support bundled with the subscription. The software:

• Automatically maps your existing controls to GDPR requirements.
• Automates evidence collection from your existing tech stack.
• Provides a single dashboard to manage the entire process.

Estimated Cost: Annual platform subscription fees, typically ranging from $5,000 to $50,000+. This includes a one-time onboarding fee, evidence collection, control monitoring, audit readiness, and expert help. The costs for certification and surveillance audits, legal advice, and employee training are not covered.

Best for: High-growth startups, mid-market companies, and scaling enterprises that handle sensitive data and face increasing compliance demands for multiple regulations and/or standards.

GDPR certification: The hidden costs you might overlook

Businesses often overlook the less apparent costs that accompany GDPR certification. The result? Budget overruns, delays in certification, and even failed audits.

A near-accurate budget planning requires you to consider the following hidden costs:

1. Cost of DPIAs, RoPA, vendor risk assessments

If you process high-risk personal data, you must

• Maintain records of processing activities (RoPAs).
• Conduct data protection impact assessments (DPIAs).

These activities drain considerable time and resources, whether done in-house or outsourced. Additionally, evaluating third-party vendors for their data protection practices incurs extra costs, including costs for due diligence, questionnaires, and audits.

2. Privacy awareness training

As your business grows, so does the volume and complexity of your data processing. Providing one-time, basic training to your employees isn’t enough.

To ensure that every employee stays up to date on their data handling responsibilities, you must conduct ongoing privacy awareness training. This translates to a significant financial burden on your compliance budget.

3. Opportunity costs

It’s one of the highly disregarded indirect costs. Imagine your teams chasing compliance evidence when they could be busy developing innovative products, launching new features, or acquiring clients. Why make your teams do busywork when automation platforms can do it for you?

4. Post-certification surveillance

Obtaining a GDPR certificate is just the beginning. Evolving threats and the frequently changing compliance landscape require you to remain vigilant.

Staying compliant means continuously monitoring the effectiveness of your existing controls and proactively addressing identified gaps. To retain the certificate, you must also be ready for surveillance audits, which occur at least annually.

This constant state of compliance carries its own significant costs, both in terms of internal resources and technology.

How Scrut helps reduce your GDPR certification cost?

Many businesses think they have only two choices:

1. Minimize the cost of GDPR certification by handling it all in-house manually.
2. Spend a fortune by hiring external consultants.

However, there is a third choice, too: Compliance automation platforms.

Compliance is no longer the obligation of only large enterprises. Small- to mid-sized businesses are increasingly becoming the targets of regulatory bodies. Fortunately, the democratization and increased accessibility of compliance software allow them to manage compliance cost-efficiently.

Scrut’s platform proves it by offering an affordable solution to your GDPR compliance needs. Trusted by 1000+ businesses globally, Scrut minimizes the cost of GDPR certification with a wide range of automation features and white-glove support.

Partnering with Scrut enables you to:

Automate evidence collection and monitoring

Integrate Scrut’s platform with your business apps to automatically collect evidence needed for a GDPR certification audit. Save hundreds of hours on manual efforts and the associated costs.

Scrut also runs daily control tests on on-premise and cloud systems, identifying gaps in meeting GDPR’s requirements to ensure strong data protection. This means your compliance management is “always-on” and reduces the risks of costly compliance violations.

Avoid consultant-heavy projects with pre-mapped controls

Eliminate the need to hire expensive consultants with Scrut’s comprehensive library of 1,400+ pre-mapped controls. Scrut automatically maps your controls over multiple frameworks, including GDPR, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701. You need to do the work just once and reuse it for other frameworks.

Additionally, Scrut’s subscription costs include professional guidance from its team of GDPR and InfoSec experts, which boasts over 50 years of combined experience.

Generate audit reports and manage remediation in one platform

Manage compliance risks, track mitigation actions, and become audit-ready, all from a single window. Scrut alerts you to gaps in real time so you can assign them to owners and fix them proactively.

Generate audit reports with a single click using Scrut’s user-friendly dashboard, streamlining the audit and reducing auditor time (and fees).

Reduce scope, time, and errors in your GDPR journey

Encounter fewer roadblocks on your path to GDPR certification. Scrut helps you reach your destination faster by significantly reducing manual effort and automating tedious tasks to improve accuracy and efficiency. Bottom line: lower compliance costs and higher ROI.

Get the most out of your limited compliance budget.

Book your personalized demo to see how Scrut can help you accelerate GDPR certification sustainably and scale with ease.