How to Price a Freelance Retainer

Pricing a retainer well starts long before the first invoice goes out. A retainer is a promise about availability, not a discount on hours, and the figure has to hold up in a slow month as well as a busy one. Most independents underprice because they quote from last month's workload rather than the shape of the whole year.

Start With Your Floor Rate

Before quoting anything, work out the floor: the monthly figure below which the arrangement stops being worth keeping. Add fixed costs, the tax you set aside and the unbillable hours that go on admin, then divide by the days you genuinely intend to sell.

Once the floor is set, decide what the retainer actually buys. Scope written as outcomes — two campaign pages a month, a standing review call — travels much further than a bucket of hours, and it keeps