This study examines the structural determinants of institutional cost in AICTE-approved autonomous management institutions in India, shifting the analytical lens away from student fee structure and toward the internal cost architecture that fee decisions merely respond to. Using primary data collected from 107 autonomous management institutes spread across 19 Indian states, the study decomposes Total Institutional Cost (TIC) into six heads – personnel, infrastructure, administration, marketing, accreditation and development, and technology – and tests five hypotheses concerning the influence of autonomy duration, NAAC/NBA accreditation status, regulatory compliance burden, and technology adoption on cost outcomes. Multiple regression, one-way ANOVA and correlation analyses reveal that personnel and infrastructure costs jointly account for the majority of institutional expenditure, that years of institutional autonomy and faculty strength are strong positive predictors of Total Institutional Cost, that accreditation grade significantly shapes accreditation-related spending, and that technology adoption – more than regulatory burden per se – drives the escalation in technology-related cost. Institutional tier, rather than geographic region, explains most of the variance in cost and fee-coverage outcomes, pointing toward economies of scale rather than location as the operative mechanism. The findings extend cost-driver scholarship in Indian management education and offer institutions, regulators and accreditation bodies an evidence base for cost-conscious quality investment.