Architecture firm benchmarks 2026

Four profit figures, four different populations

Those are the four figures most often quoted for this profession, and none of them is wrong. They describe different firms, measured differently, in different years. PSMJ and Deltek survey architecture and engineering firms that choose to benchmark, BQE reports on firms that use its software, and AIA surveys US architecture firms of every size, including sole practitioners. Averaging them would produce a number no firm has ever reported, so we show them side by side.

The benchmark table

Every figure below was checked against its source on 10 October 2026. Verified means we read the primary release or PDF, Secondary means it reached us through trade coverage of a document we could not read, and Vendor means the publisher sells the software that produced the data.

Why the figures disagree

Who answers a benchmarking survey

PSMJ’s 2026 survey covered 320 or more firms according to trade coverage, and PSMJ describes its 20.5% median as the highest in the survey’s history. Deltek’s 47th study states 896 A&E firms in its press release and “nearly 700” on its resource page. BQE’s figures come from more than 3,000 firms using its software. In each case the firm chose to benchmark, or chose to buy software that benchmarks, and that choice is itself a signal of a certain scale and discipline. AIA’s Firm Survey and its ABI panel include the smallest practices, which is one reason its profit figures sit lower.

Operating profit, pre-tax pre-bonus profit, and margin after an owner’s salary

The labels are not interchangeable. Deltek and PSMJ report operating profit on net revenue. AIA’s March 2024 special question asked for pre-tax, pre-bonus profit as a share of net service revenue, and its Firm Survey reports profitability as a share of net billings. BQE reports a profit margin and advises firms to calculate it after paying owners a market-rate salary. For a sole practitioner that last point decides everything. A 20% margin that still contains your own unpaid salary is not a 20% margin.

Architecture only, or architecture and engineering

Deltek, PSMJ and BQE all sample architecture and engineering firms together. AIA samples architecture firms only. The difference shows most clearly in Deltek’s win rates: a 50% median across all A&E firms in the 46th study (FY2024 data, 13 May 2025), against 45% for architecture firms in the FY2025 data, which is the figure this site’s calculators hold. Quote either, but say which population it covers.

Median or average

PSMJ publishes a median. BQE publishes an average with quartiles, and AIA publishes averages. In a population where a few large firms earn much more than the rest, the average sits above the median, so a BQE or AIA average and a PSMJ median are not directly comparable even where the populations match.

What a one-person or five-person firm should compare against

The 20% figures from PSMJ, Deltek and BQE describe firms that benchmark. The closer reference for a small practice is AIA’s March 2024 special question, which put average pre-tax, pre-bonus profit at 11.5% of net service revenue, 9.0% for firms billing under $250,000 and 14.1% for firms over $5 million. Those three figures are available only as a secondary summary of the AIA page, so treat them as a guide rather than a target. AIA’s Firm Survey Report 2024 gives 13.2% of net billings across all US architecture firms for 2023.

For the other metrics, the small-firm reference points are the published ranges rather than a single number.

• Utilisation: 57.5% (PSMJ, year-end 2025, secondary) to 64% (BQE, vendor), with Deltek’s 47th study just under 60% for FY2025. Close to four paid hours in ten go unbilled at the typical firm.
• Realisation: 83% average, bottom quartile below 74% (BQE, vendor).
• Collection period: 49.4 days (BQE, vendor); firms taking electronic payment collect 12.3% faster.
• Win rate: 45% for architecture firms (Deltek, FY2025), rather than the 50% all-firm median from the year before.
• Revenue per person: $143,000 net billings per employee at US architecture firms in 2023 (AIA Firm Survey Report 2024), against $171,098 at firms using BQE (vendor) and $195,224 at PSMJ’s firms (secondary). The AIA figure includes the smallest firms.

Rate and multiplier predict profit. Utilisation barely does

BQE’s 2026 Architecture Benchmarking Report, released 6 August 2026, is the one source on this page that goes beyond averages to say which metrics predict performance, and its findings are uncomfortable for anyone whose dashboard leads with utilisation. Top firms billed at an average of $290 an hour against $112 at the bottom. BQE names the billing multiplier as the strongest predictor of revenue growth. It states that utilisation and realisation show “almost no correlation” with profit margin. Firms in the top quartile for margin grew revenue 6.9% year on year against 0.3% for the bottom quartile. And the firms with the highest backlog wrote down nearly three times more billable work and ran margins 8.2 points lower than their peers.

For a small firm the practical order follows the evidence: raise the effective rate or multiplier first, protect realisation with written scope and change orders second, and collect faster third. Where an architecture firm’s margin leaks walks through the six places the fee goes, and what a fee discount really costs shows why a 10% discount at these margins removes far more than 10% of the profit.

Pipeline: more proposals, fewer wins

Deltek’s 46th study (FY2024 data, 13 May 2025) reported a median win rate of 50% across all A&E firms, with proposal volume down 38% and the value of awarded work up 52%, which describes fewer, larger bids. The 47th study reversed the pattern. Firms submitted 32% more proposals in 2026 while win rates declined, although Deltek has not published the new rate (Deltek Clarity podcast recap, 9 July 2026). For architecture firms specifically the FY2025 win rate is 45%. The same recap put staff growth at 1.2%, down from 2.9%, turnover at 13.8% and the time to fill a role at 46 days.

Read together, those figures say that business development effort per dollar won is rising. At a 45% win rate, every proposal has to carry the cost of the one that will be lost. Qualifying enquiries harder is worth more than writing more proposals, the subject of the guide on win rates listed below. Growth figures in the table describe the benchmarking population, and the market outlook page listed below covers demand.

Method

Every figure on this page appears in a primary release, PDF or page we read, or is labelled Secondary or Vendor where it did not. Figures were checked on 10 October 2026, and the date at the top changes only when a number changes; the change log records what moved. Conflicting sources are shown side by side rather than averaged, and the table above is the full dataset. The same values drive this site’s calculators, so a scorecard result and a table row come from one set of numbers. ScaleArc sells a growth system to small architecture firms, which makes us a vendor too, and that is why nothing here rests on our own estimate. Release calendar: Deltek Clarity in May, PSMJ in June and BQE in August, each inferred from the 2026 dates, and the AIA Firm Survey every two years, with a 2026 edition possible late in 2026.