Guide

What a logo should cost an Australian business in 2026

Quotes for the same job range from nothing to five figures. Here is what sits behind each number, and how to work out which band you belong in.

Short answer. Most Australian sole traders and small businesses land between $150 and $2,500 for a logo. Under $200 you are buying a template or a marketplace draft. Between $1,500 and $5,000 buys an experienced freelancer who will interview you first. Above $8,000 you are paying for strategy, naming and a full identity system, which is worth it for some businesses and wasted on many.

What you are paying for

A logo quote is mostly a quote for someone's time and judgement. The drawing itself might take a few hours. The decisions behind it take longer: what the business is called, who it is trying to reach, what its competitors already look like, and which of those things it needs to avoid resembling.

That is why the same brief produces a $90 quote and a $9,000 quote. The cheap one skips the thinking and gives you a mark. The expensive one is largely thinking, with a mark attached to the end of it. Both are legitimate purchases. They answer different questions.

The price bands

Generators: $0 to $50

Type a business name, pick an icon, download a file. The output is instant and usually competent at a glance. Two problems show up later. The first is that the icon came from a library thousands of other businesses have drawn from, so the same mark turns up on a competitor's van. The second is the files: many generators hand you a PNG and charge extra for vector artwork, and a PNG is no use to a sign writer or an embroiderer.

Reasonable when you need a placeholder this afternoon and expect to replace it.

Templates: $19 to $250

A designed layout you fill with your own name, colours and type. You are buying the composition and the typography rather than a custom mark. The good ones ship real vector artwork and print files. The weak ones are a JPEG with a text box over it.

This is the band we sell in, so treat the rest of this section as an interested party talking. A template makes sense when your name is the strongest asset you have and you want it set properly. It stops making sense the moment you need a mark nobody else can buy.

Marketplace freelancers: $100 to $800

Contest sites and gig marketplaces. You write a short brief and receive drafts, sometimes dozens. The price is real but so is the sorting: you become the art director, and most people are not equipped to be one. Check what you receive at the end. Source files and full copyright assignment are frequently an upsell rather than part of the base price.

Experienced freelance designers: $1,500 to $5,000

For most Australian businesses that want something of their own, this is the honest middle. You get a conversation before any drawing starts, two or three directions rather than forty, and a proper file set at the end. A designer at this level will push back on your ideas, which is a large part of what you are paying for.

Expect two to four weeks. Expect to be asked questions you have not thought about, particularly around what the business will be doing in five years.

Studios and agencies: $8,000 and up

At this level the logo is one deliverable inside a larger piece of work: positioning, naming, tone of voice, a full identity system, guidelines, sometimes packaging or environmental design. Businesses that need it usually know they need it, because something concrete is forcing the question. A merger, a franchise rollout, retail distribution, or investors who want the brand to look like it can carry a national campaign.

If nothing like that is true of your business, this band will not return the money.

What actually changes between bands

Four things, roughly in this order.

Exclusivity. Whether anyone else can end up with the same mark.
Thinking. Whether someone interrogated the brief before drawing.
File coverage. Whether you can hand it to a printer, a sign writer, an embroiderer and a web developer without going back for more.
Systems. Whether you get a logo or an identity that still works on a van door, an invoice and a 32 pixel favicon.

Note what is missing from that list: how good it looks. Attractive work exists in every band, and expensive work goes wrong regularly.

When a template is the right call

A template fits when your business name is doing the heavy lifting and you need it set well rather than reinvented. It fits when you are testing a business and do not yet know if it will still exist in a year. It fits when the logo is one item on a list of thirty and the other twenty nine are more urgent. And it fits when you need files today because the signwriter is booked for Thursday.

When a template is the wrong call

Buy custom work instead if any of these are true.

You intend to register the logo as a trade mark. You cannot register artwork that other people are licensed to use, and a template licence does not give you exclusive rights to the design.
Your mark needs to mean something specific: a founder's story, a place, a technique nobody else uses.
You are in a category where the identity is the product, such as fashion, hospitality groups, or anything sold on a shelf next to competitors.
You already have brand equity to protect and a redraw carries risk.
You want someone accountable for the decision. A designer will defend their choices to your business partner. A template will not.

Every one of those is a reason to spend more than we charge, and we would rather say so here than have you discover it after paying.

Questions worth asking before you pay anyone

What files do I receive, and does that include vector artwork?
Do I own the copyright outright, and is that in writing?
How many directions will I see, and how many revisions are included?
Is the typeface licensed for commercial use, and who pays for the licence?
Does it come with a version that works in one colour, for stamps, embroidery and etched glass?

The last one catches out more cheap logos than anything else. Plenty of marks look fine in full colour and turn to mud the moment a supplier needs them in solid black.

What we charge

Our logo templates are $29 to $49, and brand kits that include the logo, stationery and social artwork run to $199. You edit the design in the browser, pay once, and the files download immediately. There is no subscription and no ongoing licence fee. What you are buying is a designed composition and a correct file set, not exclusivity, and the section above on when a template is the wrong call is the part we would rather you read twice.

Common questions

How much should a sole trader spend on a logo?

Most sole traders in Australia are well served somewhere between $150 and $1,500. Below that you are buying a template or a generator, which is a reasonable choice when the business is new or being tested. Above it you are paying for a designer's time and judgement, which pays off once the logo is going on vehicles, uniforms and signage where changing it later gets expensive.

Is a $50 logo ever good enough?

For a business that is being tested rather than launched, yes. The risks are that the artwork is not exclusive to you, that you may only receive raster files rather than vector, and that copyright assignment is often an extra. Check all three before paying.

Can I trade mark a logo I bought as a template?

No. IP Australia will not grant you exclusive rights to artwork that other people are also licensed to use. If registering the mark matters to your business, commission original work and get copyright assigned to you in writing.

Do logo prices include GST in Australia?

Not always, and it is worth asking. Businesses registered for GST must charge it, so a $1,500 quote can arrive as $1,650. Our prices include GST as displayed.

How long does a custom logo take?

An experienced freelancer usually needs two to four weeks from brief to final files, most of which is scheduled time rather than drawing time. Studio work on a full identity runs from six weeks to several months.

Templates mentioned here

Written by BrandLaunch. Last reviewed August 2026.