Executive macroeconomic cognition is an important channel through which macroeconomic policies are transmitted to microenterprises. Executive macroeconomic cognition is at the center of all types of executive cognition, and its impact on stakeholder decision making deserves attention. Based on this, this paper explores the impact of executive macroeconomic cognition on audit fees from the perspective of auditor decision making. It is found that executive macroeconomic perceptions can reduce audit fees, i.e., auditors effectively identify the information value of executive macroeconomic perceptions and reflect it in audit pricing decisions. Based on audit cost theory, although executive macroeconomic perceptions cannot reduce the length of audit work, they can reduce audit fees by mitigating the firm’s inherent and control risks and reducing audit risk. Heterogeneity analyses show that the role of executive macroeconomic cognition in reducing audit fees is more pronounced in firms with lower auditor busyness, lower business efficiency, poorer firm growth, and higher macro and micro environmental uncertainty. In addition, executive macroeconomic cognition improves audit quality while reducing audit fees. The findings of this paper not only expand the spillover effects of executive macroeconomic cognition, but also provide useful lessons for enhancing firms awareness of macroeconomic risks, improving the quality and efficiency of audit decision making, and improving investors decision making performance.