Freelance project price calculator
Freelance Project Price Calculator UK
Turn your hourly or day rate into a project quote that includes delivery time, meetings, revisions, expenses and contingency.
Not sure what hourly or day rate to use? Calculate your freelance rate →
£0.00
minimum working quote £0.00 + 0% contingency
- Base labour
- £0.00
- Project expenses
- £0.00
- Contingency allowance
- £0.00
- Estimated total time
- 0 hrs
- Effective hourly rate
- £0.00
- Minimum working quote
- £0.00
Your minimum working quote covers the time and direct expenses entered. The suggested quote adds the contingency/risk allowance you selected. Neither figure is a guaranteed or correct market price.
How do you price a freelance project?
A freelance project price should cover all billable and non-billable project time, direct expenses, and an allowance for scope uncertainty or delivery risk.
How project pricing works
totalTime = delivery + meetings + revisions + other
labour = rate × totalTime
minimumQuote = labour + expenses
contingency = minimumQuote × contingency%
suggestedPrice = minimumQuote + contingency
effectiveRate = suggestedPrice ÷ totalTime
The contingency is applied to the subtotal — labour plus project expenses — so the allowance scales with everything you are committing to the project, not just your time. Expenses are counted once and then carried into that single subtotal.
This is PoundKit's planning method for estimating a project fee. It is not an official or industry-mandated formula, and the output is a starting figure for your own commercial judgement rather than a correct market price.
Worked example
Illustrative example
A freelancer with a £55 hourly rate scopes a project at 30 delivery hours, 5 hours of meetings and admin, and a 5-hour revision allowance, with £100 of project expenses and a 10% risk buffer.
- Total project time: 30 + 5 + 5 = 40 hours
- Labour: £55 × 40 = £2,200
- Expenses: £100
- Minimum working quote (subtotal): £2,300
- Contingency at 10%: £230
- Suggested project price: £2,530
- Effective hourly rate: £2,530 ÷ 40 = £63.25
Illustrative figures only. Use your own rate, scope and expenses.
What time should you include?
Meetings and admin
Include discovery calls, client meetings, email/admin, handoff and project management time that is necessary to deliver the work. This is real project time and it is one of the most commonly underpriced parts of a freelance project.
Revisions
Include time you expect to spend responding to reasonable revisions — treat it as its own line, not something hidden inside delivery time. If revision scope is uncertain, define revision limits in the quote or agreement rather than assuming unlimited rounds.
Project expenses
Direct costs belong in the price: software or licences bought for the job, stock assets, travel, subcontractors, printing, hosting and domain costs, and other pass-through costs. Agree with the client whether they are included in the fee or billed separately.
Margin cross-check
If this project includes substantial direct costs, you may also want to check the resulting margin.
How much contingency should you add?
Contingency covers the difference between a tidy estimate and how projects actually run. These are planning presets, not industry-standard or mandatory percentages:
- Low risk — 5%: well-defined scope, repeat client, familiar work.
- Standard — 10%: normal project complexity.
- Higher uncertainty — 15%: unclear scope, new client, multiple stakeholders, likely revisions.
Set a custom figure whenever the project does not fit those descriptions. A larger buffer is not automatically safer — it also has to be a price the client will accept.
Hourly vs day-rate pricing
Hourly basis
Best when work arrives in smaller pieces or the scope keeps moving. Estimates are granular, and short meetings are easy to account for.
Day-rate basis
Best for blocks of focused work. Enter decimal or half days for partial days. This calculator only converts days to hours as a clearly labelled display assumption of 7.5 billable hours, and never silently assumes an 8-hour billable day.
From price to quote
Suggested workflow:
- Calculate your rate
- Price the project on this page
- Create a quote →
- Create an invoice → for the agreed work
Want to sense-check the rate itself? Check your rate against UK freelance benchmarks. Benchmarks are reference ranges, not required prices.
Related freelancer tools
Freelance Rate Calculator →
Not sure of your rate? Work out a sustainable hourly and day rate first.
UK Quote Template →
Turn the project price into a quote with scope and revision limits.
How to price freelance work →
The pricing methodology behind rate setting and project estimates.
UK freelance rate benchmarks →
Reference ranges to sanity-check the rate you priced with.
Hourly rate vs day rate →
Which basis to quote on, and how the two convert.
Questions
How do I price a freelance project?
Estimate every hour or day the project will realistically take — delivery, meetings, admin and revisions — multiply that by your hourly or day rate, add any direct project expenses, then add a contingency allowance for scope uncertainty. That gives a planning figure you can quote from; it is not a market price.Should meetings be included in a project quote?
Yes. Discovery calls, client meetings, email, project management and handoff are project time even though they are not delivery work. Freelancers commonly underprice projects by leaving this time out of the estimate.Should I charge for revisions?
Build a realistic revision allowance into the price rather than hoping revisions will be small. If revision scope is uncertain, state a revision limit in your quote or agreement so both sides know what is included.How much contingency should I add?
There is no required percentage. As a planning starting point, PoundKit suggests around 5% for well-defined repeat work, 10% for normal complexity and 15% where scope is unclear or there are several stakeholders. Choose what fits the project rather than treating any figure as a standard.Should I use an hourly rate or a fixed project price?
Hourly billing suits open-ended or shifting work; a fixed project price suits well-defined scope and lets you benefit from working efficiently. Many freelancers calculate with an hourly or day rate internally and present a fixed project price to the client.How do I turn a day rate into a project quote?
Estimate the project in days, including part days for meetings and revisions, multiply by your day rate, add expenses and contingency. Decimal days such as 0.5 are fine — a half day of calls is still billable project time.Should project expenses be included in my fee?
Direct costs such as stock assets, software, travel, printing, hosting or subcontractors need to be covered somewhere. You can fold them into the project price or list them separately in the quote, as long as they are agreed with the client in advance.What if my scope changes after the quote is accepted?
Refer back to the scope and terms you agreed. Where the new work falls outside that scope, the usual approach is to issue a revised quote or a change request covering the extra time and costs before continuing. This is general planning information, not legal advice.