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Writers, editors, and translators price by the word, not the hour. This converts a per-word rate into a project total, a per-page figure, and — the number that really matters — the effective hourly rate the job earns once you factor in how fast you write. Start from whichever number you already know.
Nothing you type leaves your browser. Rates vary widely by niche, experience, and market — these are your numbers, not a recommendation. This isn't financial advice.
Most of the freelance world quotes by the hour or by the project, but writing, editing, and translation have their own currency: the per-word rate. It's clean for everyone — the client knows the price scales with the length, and you have a single number to apply across jobs of any size. The catch is that a per-word rate hides the one thing that decides whether the work is actually worth it: how long it takes you. Two writers charging the identical 15¢ a word can earn wildly different hourly rates if one drafts and polishes at 600 words an hour and the other grinds out 250.
This calculator keeps all four ways of expressing the same price in sync, so you can start from whichever you know:
The "Target hourly" mode runs that chain in reverse. Tell it the hourly rate you want and the speed you genuinely write at, and it returns the per-word rate to quote — because per-word = target hourly ÷ words-per-hour. Quote that rate and, if your speed estimate holds, the effective-hourly line lands exactly on your target. That reconciliation is the whole point: a per-word rate is only as good as the speed assumption behind it.
The single biggest mistake in per-word pricing is timing only the typing. A finished, client-ready piece includes research, outlining, drafting, self-editing, and at least one revision pass. Measure across the whole job — total finished words divided by every hour the project consumed — and the number is usually far lower than people guess. That honest figure, not the optimistic one, is what makes the effective-hourly readout trustworthy.
Quote the unit your client expects: content and copy clients usually think in per-word or per-project; book editors and academic clients often think per page; agencies sometimes want a flat project fee. It rarely matters which you put on the invoice, as long as you've checked the effective hourly underneath. Use the per-page presets to match a publishing convention — a standard double-spaced manuscript page is about 250 words — or type your own page length if your client defines it differently.
There's no universal number — it depends on the niche, your experience, the research involved, and the client's budget. General content and blog work commonly runs anywhere from a few cents to 50¢ a word; technical, specialized, or established-byline work goes higher. The honest answer is whichever rate clears the effective-hourly floor you need: enter your target hourly and your real writing speed in the "Target hourly" mode and let the tool tell you the per-word figure that gets you there.
It depends on formatting. Publishing's traditional standard manuscript page is about 250 words (double-spaced, 12pt). A double-spaced business document runs closer to 275, and a single-spaced page is often around 500. This tool defaults to 250 and gives you presets, but you can type any page length your client uses.
Because the per-word rate alone can't tell you whether a job is worth taking. A low per-word rate on something you write quickly can out-earn a high rate on a piece that needs heavy research. The effective-hourly line — project total divided by the hours the work really takes — is the apples-to-apples number that lets you compare a per-word gig against an hourly contract or your target rate.
Yes. Translators almost always price per word (usually on the source text), and many editors price per word or per page, so the same math applies — just enter your rate and the document's length. For editing, your "writing speed" becomes your editing speed: finished words processed per hour, including the read-through and the changes.
No. Every calculation runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to a server or stored. The link in your address bar updates so you can bookmark or share a scenario, but that link only contains the numbers you chose.
Keep going
Work out the hourly rate your take-home, taxes, and time off actually require — the floor your per-word rate should clear.
Turn an estimate into a defensible fixed price — hours, costs, contingency, deposit, and the effective rate it earns.
See how many genuinely billable hours your year holds — the reality check behind every rate you set.