How Much Does a CEO Coach Cost?

What the Market Actually Charges

Coaching prices are all over the map because “coach” is an unregulated word. Anyone can use it. Widely published ranges break down roughly like this:

What you’re buying	Typical published range	What to watch for
Hourly coaches	$150 to $1,000 per hour	The low end is usually certification without operating experience. The high end is usually a big-company brand name.
Monthly executive coaching	$3,000 to $10,000 per month	The range reflects who the coach has been, not what they do in the session. Ask what they have run.
CEO peer groups	Roughly $12,000 to $30,000 per year	Vistage publishes rates around $1,460 to $1,855 per month. You are buying the room, not one-on-one attention.
Coaching wrapped in consulting	$10,000 per month and up	You are paying for deliverables plus advice. Fine if you need deliverables. Expensive if you need a thinking partner.

Notice what is missing from most coaches’ websites: the number. The industry treats price as something you earn the right to hear after a discovery call. I think that is backwards. If a coach will not tell you what they cost before they have you on the phone, you have learned something about how they will communicate when the stakes are higher.

What ProvenChaos Charges

Every price we have is published. No call required.

Executive Coaching: $3,000 per month

Weekly one-hour sessions, twelve per quarter, virtual. Month to month with no long-term commitment. If it is not working, you leave. The full mechanics are on the Executive Coaching page.

The New Mastermind: $997 per month

Ten CEOs, invitation only, a twelve-month commitment, about five hours a month plus a quarterly 1:1 with me. It is the peer-room answer at a fraction of the big-name peer-group price. Details on the Mastermind page, and an honest comparison of the whole category in the CEO peer groups guide.

Strategic Planning: $12,500 plus travel

Two days onsite with your leadership team, plus pre-offsite leader interviews and a financial review before I walk in the room. Details on the Strategic Planning page.

What Actually Determines a Coach’s Price

Three things move the number, and only one of them should matter to you.

Credentials. Certifications are the cheapest thing to acquire in this industry and the most heavily marketed. A certificate tells you someone completed a program. It does not tell you they have ever made payroll.

Brand. Ex-Fortune-500 names charge Fortune 500 prices. If you run a $500MM company, that pattern match might be worth it. If you run a $5MM company, you are paying for experience in a different job than yours.

Operating record. This is the one to pay for. Has the coach sat in your seat, carrying the payroll and the consequences? I have led five companies. I took Soccer Post from $5.9MM to $15MM in 18 months and NFFS from $7MM to $30MM in three years, and I have advised more than one hundred B2B companies since. That is what you are buying at $3,000 a month: pattern recognition from someone who has lived the patterns, not studied them.

The Math That Matters More Than the Price

Coaching at $3,000 a month is $36,000 a year. That is a real number, and you should treat it like any other investment: what does it have to return to be obviously worth it?

At a $5MM to $20MM company, one decision moves more than $36,000. One bad executive hire kept six months too long costs multiples of it. One pricing change, one killed initiative that was quietly bleeding cash, one properly run planning cycle. The question is not whether the fee is large. It is whether a weekly hour with someone who has seen your movie before changes even one significant decision a year. If it does not, fire the coach. That is why mine is month to month.

Whether coaching earns that return in practice, and when it does not, gets its own treatment in Is executive coaching worth it?

Questions CEOs Actually Ask About Price

Why do most coaches hide their pricing?

Because unpublished prices let them charge what each prospect looks like they can pay. Publishing a price costs a coach negotiating room. I publish mine because the CEOs I work best with make fast decisions with real information, and I would rather start the relationship the way I intend to run it.

Is cheaper coaching worth it?

Sometimes. A $500-a-month coach who holds you accountable is better than no accountability. But at the CEO level the constraint is usually judgment, not discipline, and judgment is exactly what the low end of the market has not earned yet. Buy the cheapest coach whose pattern library actually covers your problems. For a founder-led company doing $1MM to $10MM, that is usually someone who has operated at and beyond your size.

Are there contracts or minimums?

Coaching is month to month. The Mastermind is a twelve-month commitment, because a peer room only works when the seats stay filled. Strategic Planning is a fixed-scope project. Nothing auto-renews you into anything.

What does a first conversation cost?

Nothing, and it is not a pitch. One honest hour about how your company actually runs. If coaching is the answer, I will show you exactly what it looks like. Or I will tell you it isn’t, and point you somewhere better.