How to price a freelance project

The short answer

Start from a floor: the day rate you need to cover your income, your business costs and your tax, earned only on the days a client actually pays for. Then estimate the project in days, task by task, add a buffer for changes and unknowns, and multiply. Adjust up from there for urgency, usage rights and the value of the work to the client. Never price below the floor to win a job unless you have decided, in advance, why it is worth it.

Step 1: find your floor day rate

The most common pricing mistake is dividing the salary you want by 260 working days. (If you are comparing with a job, the freelance hourly rate calculator starts from the salary.) Nobody bills 260 days a year. You take holidays, you get ill, and a large share of your working time goes on things nobody pays for: quoting, admin, invoicing, finding the next client, learning, and the gaps between projects.

The calculation that holds up looks like this:

1. Decide the yearly income you want before personal income tax.
2. Add your yearly business costs: software, hardware, insurance, accountant, workspace, travel.
3. If you want the result to cover tax and social contributions too, gross the income up for them.
4. Work out the days you are available: working days minus holidays, public holidays and sick days.
5. Multiply by the share of those days that end up billed. For many freelancers this is somewhere between half and three quarters. Use your own numbers if you have a year of records.
6. Divide the yearly revenue you need by the billable days.

A worked example, with made-up numbers:

That 511 is the floor, not the price. Below it, every day you work makes the year worse. The day rate calculator does this sum for you with your own figures, including tax if you want it in.

Check the result against the market. If your floor is well above what clients in your field pay, either the costs are too high, the billable share is too low, or you are aiming at the wrong clients. If it is well below, you have room to charge more and should.

Step 2: estimate the project in days

Clients rarely buy days. They buy an outcome: a brand identity, a set of product renders, a website. But you still need to know how many days it will take you, because that is what it costs you.

Break the job into tasks you can picture doing, and estimate each one:

• Briefing and research.
• First concepts or drafts.
• Each round of changes, separately.
• Final production, export and delivery.
• Project management: calls, emails, file handling. People forget this one. On small projects with chatty clients it can be a fifth of the time.

Estimate in half days, not hours. Hour-level estimates look precise and are usually wrong in the same direction: too low. If a task feels like "a couple of hours", write half a day.

If you have done similar work before, look at what it actually took, not what you remember it taking. Time tracking for a few months, even rough, is the best pricing tool a freelancer has.

Step 3: add a buffer and price the risk

Every project has unknowns: slow feedback, a file in the wrong format, a stakeholder who appears in round two. A buffer pays for them so you do not have to argue about each one.

A simple approach is a percentage on top of the estimate, larger when the brief is vague or the client is new:

• A clear brief from a client you know: 10 to 15%.
• A reasonable brief from a new client: 20 to 25%.
• A loose brief, many stakeholders, or a type of work you have not done before: 30% or more, or split the job and quote the first part only.

Continuing the example: 7 days of tasks plus a 20% buffer is 8.4 days. At a floor of 511 a day, that is about 4,300. That is the lowest fixed price that does not lose money on the time.

Step 4: adjust for value, urgency and rights

The floor tells you what the job costs you. The price can be higher, and often should be:

• Urgency. A deadline that means working evenings or moving other clients is worth a rush premium, commonly 25 to 50%. Say it is a rush rate.
• Usage and licensing. A logo for a local café and a product image for a national advertising campaign can take the same time. The second is worth far more to the client, and in many creative fields the price reflects how and where the work is used. Put the usage in the quote.
• The client's size and budget. Large companies expect larger numbers and are suspicious of cheap quotes.
• What you would turn down. If this job blocks a better one, price that in or say no.

Do not discount the floor just because the client asks. If the budget is lower, cut the scope: fewer images, one round of changes instead of two, a smaller deliverable. A lower price for the same work teaches the client that your first number was not real.

Hourly, daily or fixed fee?

Fixed fees are where an experienced freelancer earns more, because you keep the benefit of being fast. They only work if the scope is written down, including what is not included and how many rounds of changes there are, and if every change request gets a price before you do it.

Hourly and daily rates are safer when you cannot see the end of the job, as long as you track hours against the budget. Many freelancers use both: a fixed fee for the defined part, and a day rate for anything added later, stated in the quote.

Present the price

How you send the number changes how it lands:

• Send a quote, not a number in a chat message. A quote with a scope, an exclusions line, a timeline and a valid-until date looks like a professional offer. A bare number invites haggling. The quote template guide covers what to put in.
• Offer options when the budget is unclear: for example a smaller version and a fuller one, each with its own scope. The client picks the scope instead of arguing about the price.
• Show the work, not the hours. On a fixed fee, list deliverables, not "38 hours at 73".
• Ask for a deposit on anything over a few days. It confirms the job and protects your time.

Raise your prices

Freelancers raise prices too rarely. Some practical rules:

• Recalculate your floor once a year, when you know last year's real costs and billable days.
• New clients get the new rate straight away.
• Existing clients get notice, a month or two, in writing, and the new rate applies to new work.
• If you are fully booked for months, you are probably too cheap.

When a client leaves because of a fair rate rise, the time you get back is the time you need to find one who pays it. My guide on how to find freelance clients is about that part.

A quick checklist before you send a price

1. Is the price at or above my floor day rate times the estimated days?
2. Did I estimate each task separately, including changes and project management?
3. Did I add a buffer that fits how clear the brief is?
4. Does the quote say what is included, what is not, and how many rounds of changes?
5. Does it say how the work can be used?
6. Is there a deposit and a valid-until date?

If all six are yes, send it and do not apologise for the number.

Questions