What a PEO actually costs at your headcount.

How this calculator works

Every rate in the tables above is a provider’s own published figure, re-verified against the provider’s pricing page on October 15, 2026. Only providers that publish a rate appear in the modeled rows. TriNet, Insperity, ADP TotalSource, and Paychex PEO quote per client, so they are listed by name and never priced by us. Inventing a plausible number for a quote-only provider is exactly the kind of figure that makes a comparison page worse than no page.

The employer payroll tax row uses the statutory employer share of FICA, which is the same in every model. The Social Security portion is capped at the 2026 wage base, so it stops growing once an employee passes it. State unemployment insurance is listed but not modeled, because it varies by state and by experience rating, and a co-employment arrangement can move it.

The in-house comparison prices one Human resources specialist at the federal median wage plus employer payroll taxes. It is not a like-for-like substitute for a PEO and it is not meant to be. It exists because “do nothing” is almost never the real alternative, and a PEO compared against nothing always looks expensive.

What the fee does not tell you

A PEO administrative fee buys co-employment, payroll administration, compliance support, and depending on the plan, benefits administration. It does not buy the health premiums, the workers’ compensation, or the payroll taxes. Those exist in both models. What changes is the group you are buying through and the rate you get, and neither of those can be read off a published price list.

Three cost lines still need a written quote before you can compare total employer cost: benefits premiums under the new group, workers’ compensation at your industry class and claims history, and unemployment insurance at your experience rating. Ask for all three in writing during evaluation, not after signing.

Read the exit before the entry. Notice period, data export format and timing, benefit transition, benefit runout, and whether renewal obligations survive termination are all contract terms. Cheap entry pricing with an expensive exit is not cheap.

Where the decision usually turns

Below roughly ten employees, payroll software plus a good advisor usually covers the work, because there is not enough administration or census to justify a co-employment fee. Between about ten and fifty, the answer usually turns on benefits buying power and how much HR work the founder is still absorbing at eleven at night. Past roughly fifty, plan design, employer contribution, and manager-facing service move enough money to justify a full evaluation of a PEO, a senior internal hire, or both together.

That is a starting heuristic, not a rule. A fifty-person company with one office and no benefits strategy has a different problem from a thirty-person company with employees in six states.

Sources and verification

All provider rates re-verified October 15, 2026. Report a correction to editorial@hrpair.com with the page URL and a primary source.

Keep reading

• PEO cost, explained — the fee structures, the cost lines the fee excludes, and the comparison model to run with your own census.
• Payroll vs. PEO by company size — where payroll software stops fitting and a PEO or senior HR hire starts to make sense.
• PEO cost — why the fee is the visible part of a much larger comparison.
• PEO vs. payroll service — the structural difference between buying administration and buying co-employment.
• The PEO evaluation scorecard — twelve questions that expose the differences a rate card hides.
• Leaving a PEO — notice periods, benefit runout, workers’ compensation, data export, and employee communication during an exit.

Frequently asked questions