Add your time, expenses, and profit to build a price that makes sense.
Built for independent contractors, self-employed professionals, consultants, freelancers, creatives, and other project-based service providers.
Use your normal hourly rate or the recommended rate from the Service Pricing Calculator.
Not sure what your hourly rate should be? Calculate it here.
Optional. Anything specific to this job that isn't covered above.
Complex projects may require additional problem-solving, coordination, expertise, or unplanned work.
Include software purchased specifically for this project or allocate a reasonable portion of software subscriptions you already use. Do not enter the full annual or monthly subscription price unless the entire cost applies to this project.
Optional. Any out-of-pocket cost unique to this project.
This calculator builds a flat project fee from the hours a job will take, the expenses it carries and the extra time revisions and scope creep usually add. It shows the fee, your profit and the effective hourly rate the fee really pays.
It suits contractors, consultants, agencies of one and creatives who quote one number instead of billing by the hour.
The suggested fee is what the described scope costs at the rate you asked for, with a buffer for the parts of a project that never go to plan. The effective hourly rate shows what you actually earn once expenses come out of the fee.
If the effective rate is well below your target rate, the expenses or the discount are eating the job. Recover big expenses separately or tighten the scope rather than absorbing them silently.
A consultant estimates 34 hours at $95, adds $400 of expenses, two revision rounds and a 15% contingency. The suggested flat fee lands near $4,200, with the client seeing one number instead of an hour count.
Illustrative example only — the numbers are fictional and not a recommendation.
Include revisions and unexpected project time before you quote. Most projects overrun on communication and rework, not on the core task.
Most underpriced projects start with one optimistic number. Instead of asking “how long will this take?”, estimate each stage on its own: discovery and planning, the primary production work, meetings and messages, admin and file handling, testing and review, then delivery and handoff.
Estimating in pieces surfaces the hours nobody bills for — the call that runs long, the file renaming, the export that fails twice. Add your own rows for anything unusual, like a shoot day or a site visit, and you have an estimate you can defend.
On an hourly contract, extra time is simply extra income. On a flat fee, extra time comes straight out of your pocket. The contingency buffer is the premium you charge for carrying that risk on the client’s behalf.
A 15% buffer on a 40-hour project covers six hours of surprises. That’s usually the difference between a project that earned your rate and one that quietly didn’t.
Hourly billing protects you and worries the client, because they can’t predict the total. A flat fee reassures the client and shifts the risk to you. Neither is automatically better — what matters is that the flat fee is calculated from hours rather than guessed at.
Name a number of revision rounds in writing, say how long each round takes, and state what counts as a new request rather than a revision. “Two rounds of consolidated feedback” is enforceable; “revisions until happy” is not.
A scope-creep allowance of 10–20% absorbs the small extras that are easier to do than argue about. Anything larger should be quoted separately — which is exactly what the client quote note says.
A deposit does two jobs: it funds the expenses you pay before you get paid, and it proves the client is committed. 50% up front and 50% on delivery is the most common split for project work.
On longer projects, break the balance into milestones tied to deliverables rather than dates — for example a third at approval of the concept, a third at first draft, and the rest at handoff. That keeps your cash flow moving with the work.
Take the sample project: a $75 desired rate, a $50 minimum, and 32 estimated hours across planning, production, meetings, admin, testing and delivery. Two revision rounds at two hours each add 4 hours, giving 36 initial hours. A 10% scope-creep allowance adds 3.6 hours, and a Moderate complexity adjustment of 10% brings the total to about 43.6 hours.
At $75 an hour that’s roughly $3,270 of labor, plus $275 of expenses for software, outsourcing and licensing — about $3,545. A 15% contingency adds roughly $532, and 10% profit adds about $408, landing near a $4,485 flat fee. The deposit is around $2,243, and the effective hourly rate stays comfortably above the $50 floor. Load the sample project above to see it live.
Break the work into the smallest stages you can picture — planning, production, communication, admin, review, delivery — and estimate each one separately. Small estimates are far more accurate than one big guess, and the contingency buffer covers what you still miss.
15% is a sensible default for familiar work. Use 25% or more for a new client, an unclear brief, or a type of project you haven't delivered before.
Usually not. A flat fee is easier for a client to approve and it stops the conversation being about hours. The Copy Client Quote button deliberately leaves your rate, profit, contingency and cost breakdown out.
Expenses are paid out of the fee, so they dilute your hourly earnings, and discounts reduce the fee without reducing the hours. Recover large expenses separately or reduce the discount.
50% up front and 50% on completion is the most common arrangement for project work. For longer projects, split the balance into milestones instead.
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