Freelance Money Tools
Pricing

Fixed-price quotes fail in one direction: yours.

If the project runs long, the client doesn't pay more — you earn less. This calculator builds the overrun into the price before you hit send.

Built from real freelance pricing practice
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Tax data last updated: July 2026. Sources & methodology

Scope it out

hrs

Your honest estimate — before the buffer, that comes next.

$/hr
%

Projects run over. 15–25% is the honest range; 0% is wishful thinking.

Each round is priced at ~10% of project hours.

$

Stock assets, fonts, plugins, subcontractors — things you'll pay for.

Quote this
$4,400

Works out to $110/hr if everything goes to plan — and covers you if it doesn't.

Base (40 hrs × $75)
$3,000
Scope buffer (20%)
$600
2 revision rounds
$600
Hard costs
$200
Total quote
$4,400

A quote is a business decision, not just math — anchor high for clients who haggle, and put the revision limit in writing before you start. Taxes aren't in this number; see the self-employment tax calculator for what you'll keep.

How this is calculated

Base price is hours times rate — the easy part. On top of that we add a scope buffer (a percentage for the work you didn't foresee, because there's always work you didn't foresee), a line for each included revision round at roughly 10% of project hours, and hard costs you'll pay out of pocket.

The effective hourly rate shown with the result is your sanity check. If the quote works out to less than your normal rate even beforeanything goes wrong, the estimate is too thin — pad the hours or raise the number, but don't send it as-is.

Formula
Quote = (hours × rate) + scope buffer + revisions + hard costs

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Common questions

It's pricing risk, which every business does. A fixed price transfers overrun risk from the client to you; the buffer is what that transfer costs. Contractors building houses do the same thing — nobody calls a contingency line dishonest.
Show deliverables and price, not your internal math. Line-item hours invite line-item haggling (“can we cut the testing to save $800?”). What you should put in writing: exactly what's included, how many revision rounds, and what happens when scope grows.
A change order: short written note — here's the new request, here's the added cost, reply to approve. Send it before doing the extra work, not after. Clients respect it more than you expect; it's how their other vendors already operate.
Cut scope, not price. “At $X we can do these two phases now and the rest next quarter” keeps your rate intact. A discount without removing work just announces that your first number was soft.