What does email archiving cost a small RIA in 2026?

XYPN Archive Basic is included with membership (nine sources; fee separate) and Archive+ is $150 a month for members (26 sources), per XYPN’s October 2025 pricing page. Turret is $99 a month for 5 mailboxes. Neither Smarsh nor Global Relay publishes a core archive price on the vendor pages we could open; third-party figures are estimates.

What this means for your firm

• Compare like with like: Turret counts monitored mailboxes; Google, Microsoft and Vendr’s Smarsh estimate count users; XYPN counts sources.
• Ask each vendor for a written quote stating the unit, one-time fees, import and export terms, minimum term and inclusions.
• If you already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, confirm what your edition retains; a license is not an archiving price.

Turret's price covers sent and received mail, a website archive and a reviewer queue for flagged outbound mail, counted per monitored mailbox.

Try your own mailbox count: use the archiving cost calculator.

No setup fee

$99 a month covers 5 mailboxes, then $25 a month for each extra mailbox, before tax.

Turret email archiving price by number of mailboxes

Mailboxes	Monthly	Annual
3	$99	$990
5	$99	$990
10	$224	$2,240
20	$474	$4,740

Retention floor

Five years from the end of the fiscal year of the last entry, the first two in an appropriate office of the adviser (Rule 204-2(e)(1))

Vendor required

The rule names none; paragraph (g) sets conditions for electronic storage, including indexing, prompt production, a separate duplicate, and procedures to safeguard the records and limit access (Rule 204-2(g)(2) and (g)(3))

XYPN Archive

Members only; Basic is included with membership

Smarsh and Global Relay

Neither publishes a core archive price on the vendor pages we could open; estimates are third-party

Turret Email

$99 a month for 5 mailboxes, $25 a month for each additional one, no setup fee

Rule 204-2 sets no price and names no vendor. For email, the operative text is paragraph (a)(7):

(7) Originals of all written communications received and copies of all written communications sent by such investment adviser relating to:

(i) Any recommendation made or proposed to be made and any advice given or proposed to be given; […]

17 CFR 275.204-2(a)(7), lead-in and (i); eCFR text as of October 15, 2026.

Paragraph (g) then says what electronic storage has to allow:

(2) General requirements. The investment adviser must:

(i) Arrange and index the records in a way that permits easy location, access, and retrieval of any particular record;

(ii) Provide promptly any of the following that the Commission (by its examiners or other representatives) may request: […]

(iii) Separately store, for the time required for preservation of the original record, a duplicate copy of the record on any medium allowed by this section.

17 CFR 275.204-2(g)(2)(i) to (iii), with the sub-items of (ii) omitted; eCFR text as of October 15, 2026.

Those clauses are what you pay for: a copy of the communications the rule covers, sent and received; a way to search it; a way to hand it to an examiner quickly; and a second copy kept separately. Paragraph (g)(3) adds procedures to safeguard electronic records from loss, alteration or destruction and to limit access to authorized personnel and the Commission. Retention is “not less than five years” under paragraph (e)(1) (more on the retention period). Whether a given setup meets these conditions is a judgment for your CCO and counsel. The tool’s price is one input, not the test.

What we found, checked October 17, 2026

Each figure is published by the vendor named or labeled a third-party estimate. A missing vendor price means none on the pages we could open. Turret’s prices are tax-exclusive.

A Google or Microsoft license is what many firms already pay for mail and documents, not the cost of archiving. Google’s pages differ on which Business editions include Vault, so confirm yours in your Admin console. Vault and Purview retain, hold and search mail; whether a license also covers reviewing outbound mail is a separate question to check with Google or Microsoft.

The unit. Turret charges per monitored mailbox, whether or not it sends mail. Google, Microsoft and Vendr’s Smarsh estimates are per user. XYPN counts sources. Count your own mailboxes, users and sources before you compare quotes.

One-time implementation. The Smarsh adviser and SMB pages we checked neither list a setup fee nor say there is none. Vendr, a third party, says Smarsh pricing “is not published transparently”. Vendr listing

Turret charges no setup fee. Ask every vendor about setup in writing.

Contract term. Smarsh’s posted services agreement renews in successive 12-month terms, with the initial term set by the order form. Global Relay’s Master terms say an Order Form sets the initial term and renews in two-year terms. Turret bills monthly or annually and can be canceled at any time, effective at the end of the paid period; annual billing charges 10 months for 12. Ask any vendor for the minimum term, the renewal terms and what happens to the archive at the end.

What is included besides storage. Search, a review queue, reports, a website archive and imports are sometimes in the price and sometimes separate lines. Ask each vendor what is included, and ask for export terms before you sign; the records must stay retrievable for the whole retention period.

Turret’s Email price is flat for the first 5 monitored mailboxes and linear after that. Monthly, it is $99 plus $25 for each mailbox above 5. Annually, it is $990 plus $250 for each mailbox above 5. There is no setup fee.

There are three honest paths, and the right one depends on what you already have.

You are an XYPN member. Check whether the sources included with your plan cover the channels your firm uses, and whether you need Archive+. See XYPN’s membership pricing and Turret vs XYPN Archive.

You already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Confirm what your edition or license includes for retention, and whether it meets your policies and 204-2(g). See Is Google Vault enough for SEC Rule 204-2?, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

You are buying a vendor. Ask for a written quote that states the unit, one-time fees, import and export terms, minimum term and inclusions. Compare quotes over the full term each vendor quotes. See Turret vs Smarsh and Turret vs Global Relay.

When not to buy a vendor: if the tools you already pay for retain sent and received mail, you have checked that they meet the conditions quoted above, and your supervision program covers the review step some other way, you may not need one. For a firm of one or two, see does a solo or small RIA need email archiving.

Turret is one of the options in the table, not a different category. It archives sent and received mail from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, including Trash, and reviews outbound mail only. Retention is a policy of 7 years while you subscribe. There is a 15-day free trial, and the card is taken at the end of setup.

Full prices are on the pricing page. If you would rather ask a person first, Talk to us.

Checked October 17, 2026.

1. 17 CFR 275.204-2, eCFR (text as of October 15, 2026)
2. Turret pricing
3. XY Archive help center, pricing article (page last updated October 1, 2025)
4. XYPN help center, "XYPN Archive" (page last updated August 12, 2026)
5. XYPN Emerald membership pricing and FAQ
6. Google Workspace pricing (workspace.google.com)
7. Google Workspace Admin Help, "Understand Google Workspace bills and charges"
8. Google Vault product page (workspace.google.com)
9. Google Workspace Admin Help, "Compare Business editions"
10. Microsoft security pricing for small and medium business (microsoft.com)
11. Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Purview service description (dated August 3, 2026)
12. Smarsh (Vendr listing; per-user estimates, not published by Smarsh) (updated February 2026)
13. Global Relay (SelectHub listing) (third-party)
14. Global Relay Master terms of service
15. Smarsh Services Agreement (posted PDF, file v0124)
16. Smarsh, RIA Compliance Software & Solutions (smarsh.com)
17. Smarsh, Compliance Solutions for SMB (smarsh.com)
18. Global Relay Archive (product page)
19. Global Relay solutions for finance
20. Smarsh, Email channel page (smarsh.com)
21. Global Relay for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online connector
22. Global Relay Google Workspace connector