Short answer: In Ontario, a private investigator is usually billed by the hour, per investigator, plus mileage and travel, not by a single flat fee. What you pay is driven by how many hours of surveillance the case needs, whether one or two investigators are required, how far the subject travels, and the reporting and equipment behind the evidence. A realistic surveillance engagement is commonly quoted in blocks of hours rather than a lump sum. The most important thing to understand is what the number is built from: you are not paying for video, you are paying for lawfully obtained, court-ready evidence. And the cheapest quote almost always costs you the most.
This is a straight look at pricing from the firm’s side of the invoice: what goes into the number and why.
How do private investigators in Ontario bill?
There are two common structures, and most agencies use both depending on the work.
Hourly, per investigator. This is the standard for field surveillance. You are billed for the investigator’s time in the field, and if the assignment requires two investigators, you are billed for both. On top of the hourly time, expect mileage and travel charges, because surveillance frequently means following a subject across a city or a region. Everything is itemized on the invoice so you can see exactly where the hours and kilometres went.
Flat fee or retainer. Some assignments have a more predictable scope: a single locate, a records-based background check, a service of documents. Those can be quoted as a flat fee or handled on a retainer. A retainer is essentially a deposit against hours that will be billed and reconciled as the work is done.
Field surveillance resists flat pricing for an honest reason: nobody can tell you in advance how long a subject will stay home, how far they will drive, or how many days of observation it will take to document the behaviour you need. An agency that promises a firm flat price for open-ended surveillance is either overcharging to cover its own risk or planning to cut the work short. Hourly billing, with itemized invoicing, is the transparent way to do it.
What drives the price of a surveillance investigation?
The quote you receive is assembled from a handful of concrete cost drivers. Understanding them tells you why two apparently similar cases can be priced very differently.
- Surveillance hours. The single largest driver. More hours in the field means more billable time. A case that needs three full days of observation costs more than one that needs a single morning.
- Number of investigators. Mobile surveillance often needs two people (more on that below). Static surveillance of one fixed location can sometimes be done with one.
- Travel and mileage. If the subject lives an hour from our Hamilton head office, or drives across the region during observation, that distance is billed. Ontario is 1.076 million square kilometres, so coverage across it is a real cost, not a rounding error.
- Reporting. A court-ready report with organized digital exhibits takes time to produce properly. That work is part of the deliverable, not a freebie.
- Equipment. Specialized capability costs money to own and maintain. Night-vision and distance surveillance equipment that can resolve fine detail, such as a licence plate at 500 metres in darkness, is a different tier of tool than a phone camera, and cases that require it reflect that.
- Difficulty and remote locations. A subject in a dense downtown core, a rural property with long sightlines, or a subject in a remote or hard-to-reach location each changes the time, staffing, and travel a case demands. Difficulty is a legitimate line item.
Why might I need two investigators?
This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is practical, not upsell.
In mobile surveillance, where the subject moves and you need to follow, a single investigator is at a serious disadvantage. One investigator has to hold the “eye” on the subject and simultaneously be positioned to follow the moment the subject drives off. Through real traffic, that is a losing proposition: a single car following another car gets caught at lights, loses the subject on a highway merge, or becomes noticeable by staying too close for too long.
Two investigators solve this. One holds the eye; the other is positioned to pick up the follow. They can hand off, rotate, and keep the subject covered without any one vehicle becoming familiar. This does two things for you: it keeps the evidence continuous (a gap in the footage is a gap in your case), and it dramatically reduces burn risk, the chance the subject notices the surveillance and changes their behaviour. Once a subject is burned, the intelligence value of the operation drops sharply.
Not every case needs two investigators. Watching a single fixed location where the subject is not expected to move can often be handled by one. A responsible agency staffs the case to the work, not to the invoice, and explains which you are getting and why.
What does a typical surveillance case cost?
Here is where I will be careful, because precise dollar figures quoted online are usually either marketing bait or misleading. What I can give you honestly is how to think about it.
Surveillance is commonly quoted in blocks of hours: a minimum engagement of a certain number of hours, billed per investigator, plus mileage and travel. The total for a given case is a function of the drivers above: hours multiplied by investigators, plus distance, plus reporting. A short, single-investigator observation near our office sits at the low end. A multi-day, two-investigator mobile case involving significant travel and specialized equipment sits well above it.
When you call for a quote, expect a real conversation about scope: what you are trying to document, where the subject is, and how much observation the objective realistically requires. That is followed by an estimate framed as a range. Be skeptical of anyone who quotes a hard, precise price sight unseen. They either do not understand your case yet or they are not being straight with you.
The right question is not “what is the cheapest hourly rate” but “what does it actually take to get admissible evidence in my situation, and what will that cost.”
How do I avoid overpaying, and why is “too cheap” a red flag?
Overpaying and underpaying are both real risks, and they look different.
Overpaying usually comes from vague scoping. If nobody defines what “done” looks like, hours accumulate with no clear stopping point. Protect yourself by insisting on: a clear objective for the surveillance, itemized invoicing so you can see hours and mileage, and regular check-ins rather than a bill that only arrives at the end.
Underpaying is the more dangerous trap, and it is why a quote well below market should worry you. A too-cheap quote generally means one of three things:
- The operator is unlicensed. In Ontario, private investigators and the agencies that employ them must be licensed by the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s Private Security and Investigative Services Branch (PSISB), and must operate under the Private Security and Investigative Services Act and its O. Reg. 363/07 Code of Conduct. An unlicensed operator has no accountability and no standing.
- They are cutting the corners that make evidence admissible. Lawful vantage points, accurate timestamps, an intact chain of custody, proper reporting: these take time, and time costs money. Skip them and the footage may be worthless in court.
- They will pad the hours later. A low headline rate is sometimes a hook, with the real cost recovered through inflated time on the invoice.
The plainest way to say it: cheap, inadmissible surveillance is the most expensive surveillance there is, because you pay for footage a court will not accept, and then you pay again to do it properly. A licensed, insured firm that quotes a real number is not the expensive option. It is the only option that ends with evidence you can use.
What do I actually get for the money?
This is the part that justifies the number. When you hire a licensed investigator for covert surveillance, the deliverable is not raw video. It is evidence built to survive a courtroom. Admissible surveillance evidence has a specific anatomy:
- Lawfully obtained. Observation is conducted from public vantage points or property where the investigator has consent. There is no trespass; the Trespass to Property Act is respected. (On audio: Canada is a one-party-consent jurisdiction under Criminal Code s. 184(2)(a), so a party to a conversation may record it, but planting a device to intercept a conversation you are not part of is a s. 184(1) offence carrying up to five years. Ethical firms stay well clear of that line.)
- Unedited and accurately timestamped. Courts rely on timestamps, so our cameras are time-verified before every assignment. The footage is delivered uncut. Editing invites the question of what was removed.
- Intact chain of custody. Footage is recorded to designated, labelled agency SD cards and retained under a documented process (typically around seven years), so the path from lens to exhibit is unbroken and can be accounted for.
- A professional report with digital exhibits. The written report ties the footage to dates, times, and observations, and organizes the digital exhibits for use.
- A credible investigator who can testify. At the end of it, someone stands up and speaks to what they observed. That testimony is often the difference between evidence that persuades and footage that gets picked apart.
That is what the invoice buys: not a promise about the outcome (no honest investigator guarantees results, because surveillance documents what actually happens during authorized hours, and some days yield nothing) but a professional, lawful effort that produces evidence you can rely on.
Is hiring a private investigator worth it?
It depends entirely on what is at stake. For a custody dispute, an insurance matter, or a corporate concern where the facts genuinely matter, professionally documented, admissible evidence can change the entire trajectory of the case. For that, the cost is often modest relative to what turns on it. The wrong way to measure value is by the hourly rate alone. The right way is to ask what admissible proof of the facts is worth to you, and then to make sure you are paying a licensed firm that can actually deliver it.
Frequently asked questions
How do private investigators in Ontario charge, hourly or flat rate?
Most Ontario surveillance work is billed hourly, per investigator, plus mileage and travel. Some assignments, like a single locate or a records-based check, can be quoted flat or on a retainer. Field surveillance is billed by the hour because you cannot predict in advance how long a subject will stay home, how far they will drive, or how many days it takes to document the behaviour you need.
Why would I have to pay for two investigators?
Mobile surveillance often requires two investigators: one keeps the “eye” on the subject while the other is positioned to follow when the subject moves. A single investigator following a car through traffic is far more likely to be burned or to lose the subject at a light. Two investigators reduce that risk and keep the evidence continuous. Static surveillance of a fixed location can sometimes be handled by one.
Why is a very cheap quote a red flag?
A quote well below market usually means one of three things: the operator is unlicensed, they are cutting corners that make the evidence inadmissible, or they will pad the hours later. In Ontario, investigators and agencies must be licensed by the Private Security and Investigative Services Branch. Cheap, inadmissible surveillance is the most expensive kind, because you pay for footage a court will not accept.
What am I actually paying for?
You are paying for lawfully obtained, court-ready evidence: unedited and accurately timestamped footage, an intact chain of custody, a professional written report with digital exhibits, and an investigator who can testify to what they observed. The deliverable is not just video. It is video that holds up under cross-examination.
Can you guarantee results for the money I spend?
No ethical investigator can guarantee results. Surveillance documents what actually happens during authorized hours. Some days the subject does exactly what you expected; some days they stay inside and nothing happens. You are paying for professional effort, proper documentation, and admissible evidence, not a predetermined outcome.
For a sense of how surveillance actually unfolds, our companion piece on what to expect during a surveillance investigation walks through the process from the client’s side. And for the boundaries of what a licensed investigator can and cannot legally do, see is it legal to hire a private investigator in Ontario.
This article is general information about investigative practice in Ontario, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different. For advice about your specific circumstances, consult a licensed Ontario lawyer or contact a licensed investigator directly.