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A client asks "how much?" and most freelancers either blurt out hours × rate or pick a number that "feels right." Neither protects you. This builds a defensible quote the proper way — your time, your costs, a buffer for scope creep, and the deposit — and shows what you'd really earn per hour.
Nothing you type leaves your browser. This is a pricing aid, not tax or legal advice — confirm sales-tax rules for your work with a professional.
A project quote isn't a single guess — it's a small stack of decisions, and the freelancers who get paid well make each one on purpose. The foundation is always the same: the hours you think the work will take, multiplied by an hourly rate that already reflects what your time is worth. Everything else is built on top of that floor.
From there you add the costs you'll carry on the client's behalf, a buffer for the things that never go exactly to plan, and — if it fits your business — a markup. Here is the exact build-up this calculator uses:
Because each line is shown in the ledger, you can hand the number to a client and actually explain it — which is exactly what turns a quote from a haggling starting-point into a professional figure people accept.
This trips people up. A contingency buffer exists because your hour estimate is a guess: on a fixed-price project, if the work runs 15% longer than you thought, the buffer is what stops that overrun from coming straight out of your pay. Markup is different — it's deliberate extra margin for overhead or profit, the way an agency adds a multiple on top of a contractor's cost. Most solo freelancers already bake their profit into their hourly rate, so they set markup to zero and rely on contingency alone. Adding a big markup on top of a rate that already includes profit means you're charging for the same profit twice — sometimes that's fine, but do it knowingly.
The deposit line is small but it's doing the heavy lifting. Collecting 30–50% before you start does three things at once: it confirms the client is real, it funds the early work so you're not financing the project out of your own pocket, and it means that if a client vanishes mid-job you're not left completely unpaid. The calculator splits your quote into the deposit due up front and the balance due on completion, so both numbers are ready to drop into your contract and invoice.
The "effective rate" figure is the reality check. It takes the price the client actually pays, strips out the pass-through costs and any sales tax (neither is your earnings), and divides by your hours — so you see what this specific quote really earns you per hour. If a discount or an optimistic hour estimate has quietly dragged that number below your target rate, you'll see it here before the quote leaves your outbox, not after the project is done.
Start from the hours you expect the work to take and your hourly rate, then add the costs you'll pass through, a contingency buffer for scope risk, and — optionally — a markup. That build-up gives you a number you can defend, rather than a figure you picked because it "felt right." If you don't have a reliable hourly rate yet, the Rate Calculator works it out from your target take-home first.
Clients usually prefer a fixed price because it's predictable, and fixed pricing stops you being penalised for working fast. The risk is that you eat any overrun — which is exactly what the contingency buffer is for. Quote a fixed price built on an honest hour estimate plus a 10–20% buffer, and keep your hourly rate underneath as the floor the project must clear.
Contingency is a cushion against your own estimate being too low — it protects your pay when a fixed-price job runs long. Markup is deliberate extra margin for overhead or profit, added on top. Solo freelancers usually fold their profit into their hourly rate and leave markup at zero, using contingency alone; agencies more often add a markup. The calculator keeps them as separate lines so you don't accidentally charge for profit twice.
For most freelance work, 30–50% up front is standard and reasonable. A deposit confirms the client is committed, funds your early work, and limits your loss if the project falls apart. For long or expensive projects, milestone payments (for example 40% to start, 30% at the midpoint, 30% on delivery) spread the risk further. The calculator shows the deposit and the remaining balance from whatever percentage you choose.
Only if you're registered to collect it on the services you sell. Many US freelancers selling pure services aren't required to charge sales tax, so they leave that field at zero; others — and most freelancers selling into VAT regions — must add it. Tax rules vary by location and by what you sell, so confirm your situation with an accountant. The field is there for when you need it.
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 as you change the numbers so you can bookmark or share a quote, but it only contains the figures you chose.
Keep going
Set the hourly rate this quote is built on — taxes, time off, and expenses included.
Pressure-test a project's true effective rate after scope creep before you commit.
Wrap your quote in a polished, sectioned proposal you can send the same day.