CDP cost in 2026: £2,450 Foundation, £5,985 Enhanced

The CDP admin fee, by region — 2026

CDP is a not-for-profit — a registered UK charity — and charges disclosing companies an annual administrative fee to maintain the CDP Portal^[4].

Disclosure itself is voluntary, driven by investor and customer requests rather than a UK statutory requirement^[2]; the admin fee is a separate, mandatory condition of using the Portal once a company chooses (or is asked) to disclose.

For UK-headquartered organisations, the 2026 fee is £2,450 for the Foundation tier and £5,985 for the Enhanced tier, both exclusive of applicable taxes^[1].

The cheaper Essential tier is not available in the UK, North America, Europe, Japan and several other regions — it is aimed at SMEs in other markets^[1].

Fees rose by roughly 5% globally in 2026, which CDP attributes to inflation and operational costs^[3].

The fee is payable before submission — CDP will not accept a questionnaire response until the fee (or an exemption) is settled in the Portal^[3].

CDP publishes the exact current amount, by headquarters region, on its own FAQs page — that is the number to work from each cycle, not a figure repeated secondhand on a guide like this one^[1].

Who pays — and who discloses free

Not every discloser pays.

The fee primarily applies to companies requested to disclose by CDP’s Capital Markets Signatories, to Self-Selected Companies that volunteer to disclose, and to Public Authorities^[3].

Organisations requested only by Supply Chain Members, banks, Private Markets requesters or the RE100 initiative are generally exempt^[3].

Cities, states and regions never pay the admin fee^[3].

The fee — or the exemption — must be settled in the CDP Portal before a response can be submitted^[3].

Exempt organisations see a single “No fee payable” option^[3].

One nuance catches companies out: an organisation that previously disclosed free under a supply-chain request may become fee-paying in a later year if CDP’s investor signatories add it to the Letter to the Board request list^[1].

What each tier actually buys

Both tiers buy the same core thing: the ability to submit a response and receive a CDP score.

The Enhanced tier adds wider data access — up to 100 other disclosers’ data, against 20 on Foundation — priority registration for CDP regional events, and a tailored analysis report comparing the company’s disclosure against ten peers^[5].

Whether the extra £3,535 (UK, 2026) is worth paying depends on how the company uses CDP.

For a business that treats its score as a procurement credential, Foundation does the job.

For one that benchmarks itself against competitors or feeds CDP data into investor relations, the Enhanced peer comparison is inexpensive competitive intelligence relative to running the same analysis independently.

The real cost of a credible response

The questionnaire asks for activity data across the prior year — emissions, energy, targets, governance and risk processes — much of it owned by finance rather than the sustainability team.

Assembling that inside the disclosure window is the most common cause of weak scores, not the size of the admin fee.

The efficient route is reuse.

The Scope 1 and 2 figures a UK company already prepares for SECR flow directly into CDP, energy audits under ESOS generate the underlying data, and preparation for UK SRS covers most of the governance, strategy and metrics content — CDP’s questionnaire is aligned with IFRS S2, which UK SRS S2 endorses.

For the calendar the fee sits inside — including the scoring deadline and the final amendments window — see our CDP reporting timeline 2026.

For how the fee connects to what you actually receive, see CDP scores & scoring methodology 2026.

CDP cost: frequently asked questions