Article Processing Charge (APC) Costs by Publisher 2026: What Open Access Really Costs

Open access publishing has a price — and for most researchers, discovering that price comes as a shock. The article processing charge costs by publisher vary from zero at some fully funded diamond journals to $12,850 USD at Nature’s flagship journal. Between 2019 and 2023, global APC spending nearly tripled from $910 million to $2.538 billion annually, a trend driven by funder mandates, transformative agreements, and the continued dominance of a handful of commercial publishers. Whether you are a PhD student submitting your first paper or a postdoc navigating Plan S requirements, understanding exactly what each publisher charges — and under what conditions — is now a core research skill.

This data roundup provides a publisher-by-publisher APC comparison for 2026, sourced from live publisher price lists, OpenAPC, and cOAlition S reporting. Prices reflect standard list rates effective at the time of writing; always verify on the journal homepage before submitting.

Key findings at a glance

• Global APC spending reached $2.538 billion in 2023 across six major publishers, up from $910 million in 2019 — a 179% increase in four years (OPUS/arXiv, 2024).
• The top three APC earners in 2023 were MDPI ($681.6 million), Elsevier ($582.8 million), and Springer Nature ($546.6 million).
• Nature charges the highest list APC of any general journal at £9,390 / $12,850 / €10,850.
• The median gold open access APC in 2023 was approximately $2,000; the median hybrid APC was approximately $3,230 — confirming that hybrid open access routinely costs more than gold.
• IEEE offers one of the most consistent flat-rate structures: $2,160 for most fully open access journals, with a 20% discount for society members.
• PLOS ONE charges $2,477 for standard research articles in 2025–2026.
• Low- and lower-middle-income country authors often qualify for full waivers at PLOS, MDPI, Frontiers, and Elsevier under geographic pricing schemes.
• Wiley has 125 open access agreements worldwide as of mid-2025 that partially or fully cover APCs for participating institutions.

Publisher-by-publisher APC comparison table 2026

The table below shows representative or typical APCs in USD. For publishers that charge in CHF (MDPI, Frontiers), USD equivalents are approximate at a rate of CHF 1 ≈ $1.10 USD and should be treated as indicative. Always check the individual journal page for exact current pricing.

Sources: Elsevier support page; Springer Nature support; MDPI APC page; Frontiers fee policy; PLOS fees page; IEEE Open APCs. Prices as of 2025–2026; subject to change.

Elsevier

Elsevier operates one of the most complex APC structures in scholarly publishing. Its list price range — $150 to $10,100 — spans a vast portfolio of over 3,000 journals, of which more than 960 are fully gold open access. The extreme lower bound reflects legacy or subsidised niche titles; mainstream biomedical and social science journals typically sit in the $3,000–$5,000 range for hybrid open access. In 2023, Elsevier earned $582.8 million in APC revenue, second only to MDPI.

For authors in lower-income countries, Elsevier’s Geographical Pricing for Open Access (GPOA) initiative expanded in 2025 to cover around 300 gold journals, with fees set on a sliding scale based on World Bank country classification. Authors from Group A countries (low-income) pay nothing; Group B (lower-middle-income) receive substantial discounts.

Notably, Elsevier’s waiver program does not apply to hybrid journals — only to its gold open access portfolio. This distinction matters when navigating Plan S compliance, where hybrid publishing is permitted only under a transformative agreement.

Springer Nature

Springer Nature has arguably the widest reputation range of any publisher in this table, from the Nature flagship at £9,390 / $12,850 / €10,850 down to Scientific Reports at £2,290 / $2,850 / €2,490. These figures are sourced directly from Springer Nature’s official support documentation.

Nature Communications, the high-volume sibling to the flagship, charges $11,690 USD — still eye-wateringly expensive compared with fully gold alternatives. The rationale Springer Nature provides is that these prices reflect editorial, production, and reputational infrastructure. Researchers evaluating cost-per-citation or cost-per-visibility metric, however, find this justification contested.

Springer Nature’s broader journal portfolio (BMC, SpringerLink) offers lower APCs, and the publisher has signed transformative agreements with institutional consortia in Germany (DEAL), the UK, Sweden, and elsewhere, allowing researchers at participating institutions to publish open access at no direct cost.

Wiley

Wiley publishes over 1,700 journals across every major discipline. Its APC pricing varies significantly by journal and is published in downloadable spreadsheets from Wiley’s author resources page. Representative figures illustrate the range: the Journal of Adolescence lists at $3,310 USD, while the global average APC paid across Wiley’s portfolio hovers around $1,600 USD — pulled down by transformative agreement prices negotiated below list rate.

As of mid-2025, Wiley has 125 open access agreements worldwide, including coverage across Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Most include a discount on the APC; many cover both hybrid and fully gold journals for researchers at member institutions. Authors should check whether their university library holds a Wiley Read-and-Publish deal before paying out of pocket.

MDPI

MDPI is the world’s largest APC earner by volume, collecting $681.6 million in 2023. It operates on an all-gold model: every journal in its portfolio is fully open access, with no hybrid option. Prices are set in Swiss Francs (CHF) and updated annually. As of 2026, representative APCs include:

• Sustainability: CHF 2,400 (~$2,640)
• Applied Sciences: CHF 2,400 (~$2,640)
• Nutrients: CHF 2,900 (~$3,190)

Sources: MDPI Sustainability APC page; MDPI Nutrients APC page.

Institutional members of MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) receive a 10% discount across all journals. Authors from low- and lower-middle-income countries may apply for full or partial waivers. MDPI’s model has attracted scrutiny for its high publication volumes and the question of whether peer review quality is maintained at scale — a concern also flagged in research on the overlap between high-volume publishers and predatory practices.

Frontiers

Frontiers operates an entirely gold open access portfolio and charges in Swiss Francs. Its flagship journals carry among the highest APCs of any purely gold publisher. Frontiers in Psychology lists at CHF 3,150 (~$3,465 USD), according to the Frontiers in Psychology fee page.

Frontiers offers institutional partnerships that can cover or reduce APCs, and in 2025 the publisher waived over $9 million USD in fees across approximately 11,300 articles — an average waiver of roughly $800 per article — for authors without sufficient funding. Authors and institutions can check whether their affiliation carries a Frontiers membership that unlocks discounts before submitting.

PLOS

PLOS (Public Library of Science) is a nonprofit publisher and one of the original champions of open access. Its fee schedule as of 2025–2026, sourced from plos.org/fees/, covers a wide range depending on journal tier:

• PLOS ONE (all article types): $2,477
• Specialty journals (PLOS Genetics, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Computational Biology, etc.): $3,165
• Mid-tier journals (PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health): $2,596
• PLOS Medicine: $6,460 (Community Action Publishing Model; fees only for non-member institutions)
• PLOS Biology: $3,150–$5,500 (same model)
• PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: $2,670

PLOS approves most waiver requests for authors without institutional support and charges APCs at the submission-date rate — meaning price increases after you submit do not affect your article. Multiple institutions (including MIT, via an agreement running through December 2026) have institutional deals that eliminate APCs entirely for their researchers.

IEEE

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers publishes over 200 journals and runs one of the most transparent APC structures of any major publisher. According to IEEE Open’s APC page:

• Fully open access journals (including IEEE Access): $2,160 USD
• Hybrid journals: $2,800 USD
• Open access magazines: $2,995 USD

IEEE society and council members receive a 20% reduction; general IEEE members receive 5% off. Discounts cannot be combined. APCs are set at the submission date, and local taxes may apply. For engineering and computer science researchers weighing cost against journal prestige, IEEE’s flat-rate structure makes budgeting straightforward.

Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis publishes more than 2,800 journals and maintains both fully gold and hybrid options. APCs vary by journal and are updated at least annually. The publisher does not disclose a standard global average; instead, authors must use the Taylor & Francis Open Access Cost Finder to see the current APC for a specific journal. Fully gold Cogent-series journals typically carry lower APCs than the flagship hybrid portfolio. Taylor & Francis has signed transformative agreements with institutions in the UK, Netherlands, Australia, and elsewhere, with APC costs covered under those deals for eligible corresponding authors.

Average APC by discipline

APC costs are not uniform across research fields. Biomedical and life sciences journals — where open access mandates from funders such as the NIH and Wellcome Trust are most established and where citation counts drive high impact factors — carry the highest median APCs. Humanities and social sciences journals remain cheaper on average, partly because fewer funders require OA and the commercial incentive to charge premium APCs is lower.

Note: These figures are indicative ranges based on publisher list prices and OpenAPC aggregates. Actual median paid APCs — net of transformative agreements and waivers — are typically lower than list prices.

Waiver and reduction policies

Every major publisher in this roundup offers some form of waiver or discount. The key variables are eligibility criteria and how transparently those criteria are published.

• PLOS: Fully needs-based; approves most requests. Authors self-report financial need without mandatory documentation.
• MDPI: Geographic waivers for low-income countries; institutional 10% discount via IOAP; additional waivers at editorial discretion.
• Frontiers: Institutional partnerships and a dedicated fee support programme. In 2025, $9 million+ was waived for approximately 11,300 articles.
• Elsevier (GPOA): Automatic for Group A countries; tiered discount for Group B; applies only to gold journals, not hybrid.
• Springer Nature: Low- and middle-income country waivers for BMC and some Nature Portfolio journals; varies by title.
• IEEE: Member society discount (20%) rather than needs-based waivers; no country-level geographic waiver scheme.
• Wiley / Taylor & Francis: Primarily managed through institutional transformative agreements rather than individual waivers.

Researchers navigating APC decisions should also check the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which flags journals with zero APCs (diamond open access) — a growing segment, particularly in European and Latin American research communities.

Transformative agreements and what they mean for APC costs

Transformative agreements (also called Read-and-Publish or Publish-and-Read deals) are institutional contracts that bundle journal access with open access publishing rights. Under these agreements, corresponding authors at member institutions can publish open access without paying an APC directly — the cost is absorbed into the library’s annual contract.

By mid-2025, Wiley alone held 125 such agreements worldwide. Springer Nature’s DEAL agreements with German institutions, and similar deals in the UK through Jisc, cover thousands of researchers. cOAlition S — the funder consortium behind Plan S — confirmed it ended direct financial support for transformative arrangements after 2024, but the deals themselves continue as commercial contracts between publishers and institutions.

The practical implication: before paying a list-price APC, check whether your institution has an active transformative agreement with the target publisher. Library open access teams typically maintain dashboards or eligibility checkers. Many researchers pay APCs unnecessarily because they are unaware their institution qualifies for full coverage.

For related data on how journal reputation interacts with publishing costs, see the full dataset on journal acceptance rate statistics by field for 2026, which covers acceptance benchmarks alongside the cost landscape.

The growth of APC-funded publishing has also created fertile conditions for exploitation. For a data-backed analysis of how predatory publishers monetise APC pressure on early-career researchers, see predatory journal statistics for 2026.

Peer review governance is directly entangled with APC economics. Publishers charging high APCs often argue that fees cover robust editorial processes. For comparative data on how long peer review actually takes across publishers, see journal peer review time statistics for 2026.

Open peer review is an increasingly discussed reform in the same landscape — transparent review reports may justify higher APCs at some journals. Data on adoption rates is available in the open peer review adoption statistics for 2026 roundup.

And for the broader picture of what academic publishing competition looks like across journals, academic publishing statistics for 2026 covers submission trends, rejection rates, and the overall difficulty of getting research into print.

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