Bug Bounty Calculator: Maximize the business value of your bug bounty program

Introducing Intigriti’s enhanced Bug Bounty Calculator! In a rapidly expanding bug bounty marketplace, staying competitive is key. Our free-to-use tool empowers bug bounty program owners to set optimal payout rates with confidence. 

Why have we released a Bug Bounty Calculator?

With the rapid growth of the bug bounty marketplace, fueled by both an increase in ethical hacking activity and a surge in organizations embracing cybersecurity measures, the importance of setting competitive payout rates can’t be overstated.  

Ethical hackers have more options than ever before, with a plethora of bug bounty programs vying for their attention. If your bounties are perceived as inadequate relative to other choices, unfortunately, your program may not capture their interest. 

Alongside this marketplace growth comes another challenge; inflation—a phenomenon that has notably pushed up the medians of bounties across multiple industries. Even bug bounty programs aren’t immune to the effects of inflation, so it’s important for organizations to periodically review and adjust their payout rates to ensure they remain attractive and competitive. 

We’ve created the Bug Bounty Calculator to solve these issues and ensure that companies don’t end up dissatisfied with the number of reports being submitted. 

The Bug Bounty Calculator allows you to compare your bounty rates to the industry average 

What does the Bug Bounty Calculator do?  

The Bug Bounty Calculator is a dynamic tool to help organizations optimize their bug bounty payouts. The calculator serves up anonymized data from over 640 public bug bounty programs across 18 industries. By submitting relevant details about their own program, such as industry and assets into the tool, organizations can quickly determine whether their bounties surpass or lag behind industry averages. 

Developed by hackers at Intigriti, the tool is regularly updated to account for market fluctuations. 

How do you use the Bug Bounty Calculator? 

1. Choose your industry: Begin by selecting your industry sector from a list of options provided by the Bug Bounty Calculator. 

1. Describe your assets: Provide details about the assets covered by your bug bounty program, such as level of maturity and risk. 

1. View the results: Once you’ve inputted your industry and asset descriptions, the Bug Bounty Calculator swiftly generates results, providing insights into the competitiveness of your bounty offerings. 

Fire up the Bug Bounty Calculator and see how your program fares 

Extracting actionable bug bounty insights  

Intigriti’s Bug Bounty Calculator offers real-time, actionable insight into the global bug bounty marketplace. 

For example, did you know: 

• The blockchain industry currently has the best average bug bounty payout rates across all sectors. 
   

• The average payout for critical vulnerabilities in public sector bug bounty programs is around €3,348. 
   

• The payout for medium risk vulnerabilities in the manufacturing industry has more than doubled in the past year, rising from €440 in 2023 to €1,150 in 2024. 
   

Those with established bug bounty programs know that setting the optimal payout rates is crucial to their ongoing success. As with any other marketplace, these rates fluctuate, so price points need revisiting regularly. 

The Bug Bounty Calculator as a community tool 

Inti de Ceukelaire, Head of Hackers at Intigriti and creator of the Bug Bounty Calculator, says the tool allows organizations to solve the important issue of setting their bounties correctly. 

“Anyone can set up a bug bounty program, but if you aren’t sure what you’re doing, you may pay too much for vulnerabilities,” he said. “Even worse, set your bounties too low and you may not attract any researchers at all.” 

The Bug Bounty Calculator has other applications besides helping program owners—hackers themselves can make use of the tool to find out how a program fares against the industry average. 

“Our experience as a leading crowdsourced security platform shows us that researchers are highly tuned to payments,” Inti said. “It’s important to find the sweet spot to ensure your program remains an attractive proposition.” 

He added: “If you pay under market value, you will not attract the top hackers.” 

Why not try the Bug Bounty Calculator for yourself? It’s free!