Brazilian Architect Fee (CAU)

CAU/BR Architect Fees Calculator (Brazil)

Architectural fees in Brazil are guided by the table CAU/BR (Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Brasil) published in Resolução 95/2014. The math behind it is straightforward: fee = CUB/m² × area × service %. CUB here is the regional Custo Unitário Básico, which Sinduscon revises every month, and the percentage you plug in depends on what you were actually hired to do, anything from a preliminary study up to schematic design, the executive project, or on-site technical follow-up.

A full design package tends to land somewhere between 6% and 15% of the total construction cost (CUB × area). Small homes push toward the top of that range, since each square metre eats up more design time, whereas a big institutional or industrial job usually settles around 6–8%. To legally issue an RRT (Registro de Responsabilidade Técnica), the architect has to be registered with CAU/BR at the federal level and with a regional council such as CAU/SP or CAU/RJ.

Applications

Architects reach for this when they put together a fee proposal, and clients use it the other way around, to sanity-check the numbers they receive against the CAU/BR baseline. Court-appointed experts lean on it during disputes over what a service was worth, public agencies refer to it when running architectural contests under Lei 14.133/2021, and consultants pull it into PCMSO (occupational health programs) or ABNT NBR 12721 budgets whenever architectural coordination is one of the deliverables.

FAQ

Is the CAU/BR fee table mandatory? No. Think of it as a reference rather than a hard floor or ceiling. CAU/BR puts it forward as the ethical minimum, and the parties are free to agree on whatever value they want. That said, quoting far below the table can get you flagged for aviltamento, the devaluation of the profession.

What is RRT? The Registro de Responsabilidade Técnica is filed through CAU/BR's SICCAU system, and it ties the architect to the project in a legally binding way. You need it before a city hall will issue the building permit.

How is CUB updated? Each month the state-level construction unions (Sinduscon) publish a fresh CUB, broken down by construction standard (R1, R8, R16, PIS, PP) and finishing level (low, normal, high). Match the CUB to the real typology of your project instead of grabbing a generic figure.