How much does it cost to verify a Chinese supplier?

On publicly listed prices checked 8 August 2026: one-off desk reports run from about US$49 to US$199 with turnarounds from 24 hours to a few days; on-site verification runs from about US$149 to US$398 per visit or man-day; agent-bundled verification with consultation sits around $249. Scoped single-record checks can start under US$5, and a first-pass read of a licence you already hold can be free.

Is the cheapest China verification report good enough?

It depends on the decision in front of you, not on the price. A $49 registration check answers whether the entity exists and its status — enough before a small first deposit. It does not answer whether the factory floor is real, whether the beneficiary account belongs to the contracting entity, or whether the certificate covers your product. Match the route to the decision, and read any report for sources and query dates rather than a safe-or-not verdict.

When is an on-site factory audit worth the price?

When production capability itself is the question and the order justifies it — typically before tooling payments or first bulk orders where a wrong answer costs multiples of the audit fee. Records answer who the counterparty is; only site evidence answers what the factory can actually do.

Buyer questionPublic prices, dated

What China supplier verification costs — and which route fits which decision.

Prices in this market are public but scattered, and most comparisons are written by whoever is selling. This one states its method instead: every figure below comes from the provider’s own public page, checked on 8 August 2026, with the check date shown — including the rows where our own desk is not the cheapest or the fastest.

Published 8 August 2026 · 7-minute read · Prices re-checked when this page is updated.

1. The four routes, and what each actually buys

Self-serve database subscriptions. Monthly plans for repeat queriers. Cheap per lookup, but you interpret the Chinese-record fields yourself, and a subscription is the wrong shape for checking one supplier once.
One-off desk reports. A fixed-price report on one company, delivered in one to a few days. The mainstream choice before a deposit. Differences that matter: whether sources and query dates are shown, and whether the report issues a “safe supplier” style verdict or leaves the decision with you.
On-site verification and audits. A person at the factory. The only route that answers capability questions; priced per visit or man-day.
Agent-bundled verification. Verification sold alongside sourcing, negotiation and follow-up consultation. You get a person to talk to; the structural trade-off is that verifier and deal-facilitator sit in one house, so ask how those roles are separated.

2. Publicly listed prices, checked 8 August 2026

Each row is from the provider’s own public page on that date. Prices and promises change; treat this as a dated snapshot, not a live feed, and confirm on the provider’s site before relying on any figure.

Provider	Product	Listed price	Stated turnaround
MSA Advisory	Company verification report	US$49	24 hours
ChinaCheckup	Essential verification report	US$129	1 working day
NBNQC	On-site supplier verification	US$149 / supplier	On site ≤36 h of booking; report ≤18 h after visit
ChineseCheck	Company credit report (states 24+ databases)	US$199	Instant (automated)
Epic Sourcing (AU)	Verification report + consultation	$249 (currency not stated on page)	Under 48 hours
V-Trust	Factory audit	US$398 / man-day	Report ≤2 days after audit
Currawong (this site)	Scoped record lines / theme packs	Single lines from US$4.90, packs from US$26.55	Within 72 hours of payment confirmation
Currawong (this site)	L3 human record check	US$149, priced by scope	3 business days
Currawong (this site)	L4 on-site verification	From US$169 / man-day	Visit ≤7 business days of payment; report ≤2 business days after

Also in this market: subscription query platforms (one we attempted to check rate-limited our requests, so its prices are not listed here rather than quoted from memory), and a 2026 wave of new online verification sites whose public track records are still thin. Absence from this table is a data-collection limit, not a judgement.

3. Choosing by the decision, not the price

“I just got a licence photo — is this even a real factory?” Free first: validate the code and read the scope text in your browser. Spend nothing until this raises a question.
“I’m about to wire a deposit.” The decisive checks are identity and money-path: registration status, and whether contract seller, invoice issuer and beneficiary line up. A $49–199 desk report answers the first; only your own name-matching answers the second.
“I’m paying for tooling / a first bulk order.” This is where on-site earns its price — capability is a physical fact. Records first (cheap), then a structured capability check, then eyes on the floor.
“I check suppliers every month.” Subscriptions or scoped per-line buying beat full reports — you rarely need all 150+ fields on every counterparty. Buy the lanes the risk points at: the four evidence lanes.

4. Where we sit in this table — honestly

We are not the cheapest full report (MSA lists $49; our L3 is $149) and not the fastest (ChinaCheckup lists 1 working day; our L3 is 3 business days). What we price differently is scope: you can buy a single record line for under $5 instead of a bundle, start with a free in-browser read of documents you already hold, and every delivered line names its source, query date and limits — with no “safe supplier” score anywhere. If a cheaper or faster route above fits your decision better, use it; the table is here to make that call easy.

Method: all third-party figures from providers’ public pages on 8 August 2026; no reports were purchased for this comparison, so delivery quality is not assessed — only published price and promise. This page is not an endorsement of any provider and providers change prices without notice. Our own scope and template, for comparison.