How much does an SDR cost per month?
The short answer
A US SDR costs about $12,900 a month in year one — roughly $154,500 on an $85,000 OTE once benefits, tools, recruiting, turnover and management are added (Alleyoop, 2026). Salary alone is $6,700–$7,100 a month. SalesARC Perform Basic, our leadership running SalesARC BDRs on your playbook, is $2,499/mo plus BDR hours at $19.65/hr; ArcClaw™ prospecting agents start at $499/mo.
The salary is barely half the number
The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR research, drawn from 351 B2B companies, puts median on-target earnings at $80,000, split $55,000 base and $25,000 variable — a figure it notes has not moved since 2022. That is $6,667 a month before anyone else touches the budget. Alleyoop's 2026 cost model uses a slightly higher mid-market OTE of $85,000, and then does the part most founders skip: it adds everything the rep needs in order to exist.
| Line item (Alleyoop, 2026) | Year one | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Cash compensation ($85,000 OTE) | $85,000 | $7,083 |
| Benefits and overhead (25% of comp) | $21,250 | $1,771 |
| Tools and data — dialer, sequencer, data, CRM seat | $14,400 | $1,200 |
| Recruiting ($7,500 per hire × 1.4 hires) | $10,500 | $875 |
| Turnover re-ramp (0.4 replacements × ~4 months) | $11,333 | $944 |
| Management allocation | $12,000 | $1,000 |
| Total | ≈ $154,500 | ≈ $12,875 |
The recruiting and re-ramp lines look odd until you read the assumption behind them: Alleyoop prices in a 34–40% annual turnover probability, so the "one hire" you budgeted is statistically 1.4 hires. That is not pessimism. Bridge Group's own number for average SDR tenure is 1.9 years, and it flags that as the highest it has recorded since the early 2010s.
Why year one is worse than the monthly number
A monthly cost only means something if the rep is producing every month, and in year one they are not. Alleyoop's model runs a 6–10 week hiring cycle and then a 3.2-month ramp; Bridge Group's 2025 figure is 3.0 months, the lowest it has seen since 2010. Either way, about eight of the first twelve months are productive. Spread $154,500 across eight producing months and the real cost of an SDR-month in year one is closer to $19,300 than $12,900.
The other quiet number is attainment. Bridge Group reports 60% of reps at quota — the lowest on record — which means the budget assumes a full quota and the average team gets three-fifths of it. Alleyoop's summary line is the one to remember: at eight qualified meetings a month, a year-one SDR costs roughly $2,400 per meeting.
None of this is an argument against hiring. A rep who stays, learns your market and grows into an account executive is worth more than any tool. It is an argument for budgeting the real number, and for asking whether the first $154,500 should buy a person or a system the person eventually joins.
What the same money buys elsewhere
Outsourced SDR programs run roughly $3,000–$14,000 a month in 2026 (Leadium), and a dedicated offshore seat in the Philippines or Latin America runs $800–$2,500 a month before management and tooling (Remote Growth Partners). Both are cheaper on the invoice and both move cost into places the invoice does not show — onboarding, qualification disputes, your own time. The related questions below go through each honestly.
| Option | Monthly cost | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR, year one | ≈ $12,875 (Alleyoop) | One person, ramping, on your tools |
| Outsourced SDR program | $3,000–$14,000 (Leadium) | A vendor's reps, their process, usually their data |
| Offshore BDR seat | $800–$2,500 (Remote Growth Partners) | One person, your process, your management |
| SalesARC Perform Basic | $2,499 + BDR hours at $19.65/hr | Our leadership running SalesARC BDRs on your playbook, weekly reporting |
| ArcClaw™ Basic + Playbook | $499/mo + $999 once | 10–12 researched leads a week into an included CRM |
Where SalesARC fits
SalesARC does not sell SDRs. It sells the system an SDR would otherwise have to build alone: SalesARC Prospect, the CRM and warmed sending engine, from $199/mo; ArcClaw™ prospecting agents that put 10–12 researched leads a week into it from $499/mo with the CRM included; and, when you want the number owned by someone else, SalesARC Perform Basic at $2,499/mo plus BDR hours at $19.65/hr, where our leadership runs SalesARC BDRs on your playbook and reports weekly. Even with a full calling schedule, that lands well under the year-one SDR figure above — and when you do hire, the playbook, the sequences and the pipeline are already there for them.
See SalesARC Prospect or build a plan.