Margin

Freelance Retainer Calculator

What is that retainer actually paying you?

A retainer that reads as $150 an hour on the contract can pay $91 in practice. Price one properly here, then watch what scope creep does to it before you sign.

Free · No signup · Nothing leaves your browser · Every number explained below

The deal on paper

$

What you'd charge a project client. Everything on this page is measured against it.

The hours written into the agreement.

Padding in the fee so a small extra ask doesn't need a renegotiation. Roughly 10–20% is normal.

Slide left for a premium. Guaranteed work is worth a discount; guaranteed availability is worth a premium. Both are defensible — see below.

$

What you charge for being available. An access retainer sells response time, not hours — price it on what that's worth to the client, then check the effective rate here.

Four articles, two campaigns, one report — whatever the promise is.

$

What one of them is worth on its own, before any bundle discount.

What actually happens

Including the calls, the "quick question" emails and the revisions nobody logs. If you've never tracked it, assume 20% more than the contract says — that's the honest starting guess.

A multiple of your undiscounted rate, billed once the commitment is used up. Agreeing it in the contract turns an awkward conversation into a clause.

Unused hours are a liability, not a saving. Expiring them is the safe default.

How long you're locked into this price if it turns out to be wrong.

Is the discount worth it?

A discount buys utilisation. That's a good trade when you have gaps to fill and a straight giveaway when you don't.

Of the hours you work, how many you currently invoice.

Where the month goes

Every hour past the commitment is worked at zero. This is the part that never shows up on an invoice.

Hours delivered this month

Worth knowing

    What creep does to the rate

    Same fee, more hours

    Effective hourly rate as delivered hours rise above the agreed commitment, holding the fee constant.
    Hours delivered Effective rate Lost per hour Lost per year

    Nothing in the contract changes down this table. Only the hours do — which is why an unmeasured retainer drifts without anyone deciding to make it worse.

    Not sure your hourly rate is right to begin with?

    Every number here is measured against it, so it's worth getting that one straight first.

    Freelance Rate Calculator →

    Put it in writing

    Everything this page measures is a failure of something nobody wrote down. Here are your numbers as the terms to agree — and what each one is actually protecting you from.

    Your terms

    A plain-language summary of your own commercial terms, not legal advice and not a contract. It exists so the numbers above survive contact with a real client — for anything binding, use your own agreement or a lawyer's.

    How this works

    No black box. The numbers below are your numbers and update as you change the inputs.

    1. Step 1

      Price the commitment

      —

    2. Step 2

      Count the hours honestly

      —

    3. Step 3

      Divide

      —

    4. Step 4

      Then check the liability

      —

    Assumptions worth knowing: a month is treated as typical rather than seasonal, and the hours you enter are taken at face value — a retainer that swings between five hours and forty needs the average and the worst month, because the worst month is the one that decides whether you resent the client. Rollover is modelled as a cumulative liability across the minimum term, not as a forecast of when it gets used. Fees are gross: tax and business costs come out of them afterwards.

    Questions freelancers actually ask

    How much should I charge for a monthly retainer?

    Start from your hourly rate, multiply by the hours you'll commit, then add a buffer of 10–20% to the price so small extra requests don't need a renegotiation. Whether you then discount or add a premium depends on what the retainer is actually worth to you. The number to check afterwards is the effective rate — the fee divided by the hours you realistically end up delivering, not the hours in the contract.

    Should I give a discount for a retainer?

    Only if the guaranteed work actually fills time you would not otherwise have sold. A discount buys utilisation, so it pays for itself when you are at 50 or 60% billable and it is a straight giveaway when you are already at 90%. There is a serious argument in the other direction too: reserving capacity for one client has a real cost, and charging a premium for guaranteed availability is defensible. This calculator lets you model either.

    What should happen to unused retainer hours?

    The safest policy is that they expire at the end of the month, because unused hours are a liability you carry rather than money you have earned. If you allow rollover, cap it — commonly at around 25% of the monthly commitment — and cap how long banked hours stay valid. Unlimited rollover is the trap: a client who goes quiet for three months can return holding a claim on a full month of your time, in a month you have already sold.

    How do I stop scope creep on a retainer?

    Track hours even when you are not billing hourly, because you cannot defend a boundary you cannot measure. Write the overage rate into the contract before it is needed — usually your undiscounted rate plus 25% — so extra work triggers a clause rather than a confrontation. Send a monthly summary showing hours used against hours committed, which makes the overrun visible to the client while it is still small.

    What is a good minimum retainer?

    Low enough that the client says yes, high enough that the mental overhead is worth it. Any retainer occupies a slot in your calendar and your attention whether or not the client uses it, so a very small one costs more than the fee suggests. A common floor is around ten hours a month at your normal rate. Below that, project work usually pays better for the same disruption.

    More money tools

    Same approach — real numbers, shown working, nothing gated.

    Freelance Rate Calculator

    What to charge per hour, day, or project.

    Contract vs Full-Time

    Salary to contract rate, and back again.

    Quarterly Tax Set-Aside

    How much of each invoice to park for tax.

    Day Rate Calculator

    UK/EU day rates, inside vs outside IR35.

    Freelance Runway

    How long your savings really last.

    Side Hustle Profit

    What your side gig really pays per hour.

    S-Corp vs Sole Prop

    When the election actually pays.

    Fixed Price vs Hourly

    Quote projects without eating the overrun.
    Effective rate —