How much does a SIEM cost in 2026?
The SIEM cost calculator and pricing reference built on published list prices, with the source beside each figure. Model your log volume against Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, IBM QRadar, Elastic, Sumo Logic, and LogRhythm side by side. No email gates. Just the cost data so you can build a defensible business case.
A SIEM typically costs $30,000 to $150,000 per year for a small organisation, $150,000 to $500,000 for mid-market, and $500,000 to $2M+ for an enterprise. Licensing is rarely more than 40 percent of that total; staffing, storage, integration, and tuning make up the rest, pushing real total cost of ownership to 2x-6x the headline licence price depending on staffing. Use the free calculator below to model your own log volume against six vendors, with 22 more priced on their own pages, no email gate.
Sentinel, Blumira, or Wazuh dominate this band. Often a single analyst plus part-time MSSP coverage.
Sumo Logic, Sentinel commitment tiers, or Elastic Cloud. Two to four FTE analysts is the typical floor.
Splunk, QRadar, or Sentinel commitment. Five to ten analysts plus an in-house engineering lead.
Multi-Vendor SIEM Cost Calculator
Vendor pricing overview
Nineteen SIEM platforms in this table, and 26 vendors priced on their own pages (22 SIEMs and four telemetry pipelines). Each row links to a deep-dive page with cost scenarios and optimisation tips.
| Vendor | Pricing model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Splunk | Per GB ingested | $765-$2,049/GB/day/yr (filed list; $1,265 at 50 GB) | High-value SecOps, mature SOC |
| Microsoft Sentinel | Per GB (commitment tiers) | $2.96-$4.30/GB | Microsoft / Azure shops |
| IBM QRadar | Per EPS + FPM | Quote-only; $12,074.40/yr per 500 EPS unit | Compliance-heavy, on-prem |
| Elastic Security | Resource-based | $0.55-$1.10/GB | Engineering-strong teams |
| Datadog Cloud SIEM | Per analyzed event (+ logs) | $5/1M analyzed events + Logs | Existing Datadog shops |
| Sumo Logic | Credits (Flex or Cloud Flex) | $0.25-$1.50/credit; Cloud SIEM 40 credits/GB | Selective search, short retention |
| LogRhythm | Self-hosted, True Unlimited | $65/MPS/yr (Dec 2022 price book) | On-prem estates |
| Google Chronicle | GB data cap | $1.95-$4.60/GB/yr (Google's G-Cloud 15 list) | High log/employee ratio |
| Exabeam | Per GB/day | Fusion $51K at 50 GB/day (2023 list) | Insider threat, UEBA-led |
| Securonix EON | Per GB/Day capacity | Quote-only; BYO Snowflake or AWS, or hosted | Snowflake or AWS shops |
| Devo | Daily ingest tiers | $90K list (100 GB/day) | Long-retention compliance |
| Rapid7 InsightIDR | Per asset / year | From $70.40/asset/yr | Mid-market consolidation |
| CrowdStrike LogScale | Indexing-free per GB | $5.95/GB PAYG | Existing Falcon shops |
| Panther | Per TB/month | $50K per 1 TB/month | Detection-as-code SOCs |
| Blumira | Per employee / month | $12-$21/employee/mo | SMBs, MSP-bundled |
| ManageEngine Log360 | Per log source | $1,095-$24,995/yr (Cloud) | SMB / AD-heavy compliance |
| FortiSIEM | Per EPS / device | Quote-only; base SKU $19K perpetual (reseller list) | Fortinet Security Fabric shops |
| Graylog | Consumption / open-core | Free; Ent $15K, Sec $18K/yr | Log-management-first SOCs |
| Wazuh | Open source (self-host) | Free; Cloud from $571/mo | Cost-conscious, eng capacity |
Ranges are published list prices from vendor pricing pages, AWS Marketplace and Azure retail listings and filed UK G-Cloud 15 price lists, re-verified October 2026, or labelled estimates where a vendor publishes none. Negotiated agreements typically deliver 25-40 percent off list (our estimate; no vendor publishes a discount). Always obtain a vendor quote.
See all 22 SIEM vendors in the full side-by-side pricing comparisonWhere the money actually goes
Licensing is rarely more than 40 percent of total SIEM spend. The other 60 percent splits across staffing, storage, integration, tuning, and threat intelligence. Understanding the full split is what separates a credible business case from a finance-rejected one.
The licensing illusion
Vendor pricing pages quote licensing alone. Year-two costs drop sharply as integration and initial tuning roll off, leaving licensing plus staffing as the steady state.
Which SIEM fits your situation?
Five common buyer profiles with the SIEM that genuinely fits each. Click any card for the deep-dive pricing and TCO breakdown.
Microsoft 365 / Azure shop
Sentinel almost always wins. Free Microsoft 365 ingest, native AAD and Defender integration, and commitment tiers from $2.96/GB at 100 GB/day (lower at larger tiers) make it the lowest-friction option.
Compliance-driven enterprise
QRadar still wins long-tail compliance audits. PCI, HIPAA, and FedRAMP packs ship in-product. Splunk Enterprise Security is the alternative if log volume is the bottleneck.
Cloud-native startup
Sumo Logic Flex or Sentinel PAYG. Both keep ops overhead near zero. Avoid Splunk and on-prem QRadar unless you have a security engineer free to operate them.
High-volume enterprise
Splunk Cloud or Splunk Enterprise on a multi-year EA. Negotiated discounts of 25-40% are normal at 500 GB/day plus. Workload pricing softens the per-GB hit.
Engineering-heavy team
Self-managed Elastic Security or Wazuh. The licence is cheap or free, but expect to spend about $166K per dedicated engineer ($130K plus 28 percent benefits, Robert Half 2026) plus infrastructure.
SIEM cost FAQ
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Building a full security stack?
SIEM rarely lives alone. Endpoint detection, managed response, and extended detection all carry their own pricing structures. The same approach, published list prices with the source beside each figure, applies on every site.