Freelance project price calculator

The calculator Hours and rate into a fixed quote

Pricing a fixed job so it still pays is the money discipline in AI for Your Business: Basics →

How to read it A quote is your floor, not a market price

A fixed-price quote feels like a single number, but it's really three: the labour you're actually selling, a buffer for the work that always runs longer than you planned, and any hard costs the job forces on you. This calculator adds them up so the number you send isn't a hopeful guess — it's the point below which the job stops being worth doing.

Read the project price as your floor. It's the least you can charge and still come out whole if the estimate holds and the overruns stay inside the buffer. Whether the market will pay it is a separate question this box can't answer — but knowing your floor stops you from quoting under it by accident.

The formula, in full

Labour = estimated hours × your hourly rate. Buffer = labour × (buffer% ÷ 100) — the cushion for scope creep and overruns. Project price = labour + buffer + fixed costs. The buffer exists because fixed-price work carries the overrun risk you'd otherwise just bill by the hour; on a quote, that risk is yours, so you price it in up front.

A worked example

Say a job looks like 20 hours at a $75 rate — that's $1,500 of labour. Add a 20% buffer and you set aside $300 for the overruns that always turn up. The project also needs $100 of stock images, so that goes straight on top. The quote you send is $1,500 + $300 + $100 = $1,900. If the work comes in on estimate you keep the buffer; if it runs 20% long, the buffer is exactly what covers it — and you're still whole.

Edge cases the calculator handles

• A 0% buffer quotes labour plus fixed costs with no cushion at all — every extra hour then comes straight out of your pay. Real fixed-price work rarely survives at zero.
• $0 fixed costs is the common case for pure services — no assets, no subcontractor — so the price is just labour plus buffer.

Common questions

What buffer should I use?

Enough to cover the overruns you actually see, not a round number that feels safe. If your last few fixed-price jobs ran 15–25% long, that range is your buffer. The tighter your hours estimate, the smaller the buffer you need — the two work together.

Is the project price the price I should charge?

No — it's your floor, not a market price. This box tells you the least you can accept and stay whole; what a client will actually pay depends on the value of the work, who you're quoting, and what else they can buy. Quote at or above the floor, never below it.

Is this financial advice or a guarantee?

No. It's arithmetic on numbers you enter, and it guarantees nothing about what you'll earn. Under-scoping is the number-one way fixed-price jobs lose money: estimate the hours honestly first, then add the buffer. A cushion on top of a fantasy estimate is still a loss.