Goldfib Key takeaways
- Salary is usually only part of the true cost. Data, overheads, attrition and senior review add the rest.
- Cost per finished report is the metric that matters, and it falls sharply with automation and a steady flow of work.
- Small desks carry fixed costs that don't shrink with output: terminals, a reviewer and hiring cycles.
- Leaner models include outsourced desks, student-led desks with senior review, and automation-first workflows.
Family offices and smaller investment teams often decide to “hire an analyst” because the salary looks affordable. The full cost of a research function is a different number, and the cost of each finished, decision-ready report is different again.
This guide breaks down the full cost and gives you a calculator to run with your own inputs.
The five cost buckets
| Bucket | What it includes | Often forgotten? |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation | Fixed pay, bonus, benefits | No |
| Data & tools | Terminals, databases, filings access, software | Sometimes |
| Overheads | Office space, hardware, recruitment fees, attrition and re-training | Usually |
| Senior review | PM or CIO time spent supervising and checking work | Almost always |
| Idle capacity | Analyst time between mandates or waiting for data | Almost always |
Senior review is the cost most teams leave out. If a CIO spends a day a week checking an analyst’s models, that is a fifth of a very expensive person’s time.
Calculate your cost per report
Where the money goes
With the calculator’s default inputs, a two-analyst desk looks like this:
At 24 full reports a year, that is about ₹3.4 lakh per report. If the desk only produces 12, because analysts are pulled into ad-hoc tasks, the cost per report doubles.
Why small desks are expensive per unit
Fixed costs dominate small teams. A reviewer is needed whether the desk has one analyst or four. Data licences are priced per seat with minimums. Each departure restarts a hiring and training cycle.
The leaner alternatives
- Broker and subscription research is cheap or free, but it is written for everyone, so it rarely fits your mandate.
- Large outsourcing firms add scale, but their pricing and processes are built for big institutions.
- Student-led desks with senior review combine motivated, recently trained analysts with a strict review process and automation. Done well, they deliver tailored work at a fraction of in-house cost. We explain how the model works in student-led equity research.
- Blended setups keep one in-house person to own the thesis and outsource the volume work.
How to decide
- Run the calculator with honest inputs, including review time.
- Count how many decision-ready reports you actually need a year.
- Compare cost per report across options, and add a penalty for any option you can’t control.
- Ask whether automation alone would change the answer. Our guide to research automation covers what is realistic.
Whatever you choose, keep the institutional-grade standard as the bar for every report you pay for.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an equity research analyst cost in India?
Compensation varies widely by city, firm type and experience, from entry-level packages at brokerages to much higher pay on the buy side. The fully loaded cost is meaningfully higher than salary once data tools, office space, recruitment, attrition and supervision are added. Use the calculator in this article with your own numbers.
Is it cheaper to outsource investment research?
Often, for teams that need research intermittently or across many companies, because outsourcing turns fixed costs into variable ones. The trade-offs are control, confidentiality and continuity. The right comparison is cost per finished, decision-ready report, not hourly rates.
What data tools does a research desk in India need?
At minimum, a source of clean historical financials, access to exchange filings, a spreadsheet modelling environment and a way to track news and announcements. Global terminals are expensive per seat; Indian database providers and filings-based pipelines can cover much of the need for domestic equities at lower cost.
How many reports can one analyst produce per year?
It depends on depth. A full initiation with a model can take two to four weeks, while updates take days. Many analysts produce roughly ten to twenty full reports a year alongside ongoing updates. Automation of data work can raise that materially.