How to raise your freelance rate with existing clients

The hard part is not the arithmetic. It is writing four sentences and sending them to someone you like.

The short answer

Work out the new rate from your costs and hours first. Decide the number before you decide how to say it.
Give notice that respects their budgeting cycle - a month is normal, a quarter is generous for annual budgets.
Tell them the new rate and the date, in two sentences. Do not apologise and do not justify at length.
Honour work already quoted at the old rate. The increase starts with new work.
Decide in advance what you will do if they decline, so the answer is a policy rather than a panic.

Choosing the number

Recalculate your rate from what you need to take home, the weeks you work and your unpaid admin hours.
Compare it with what you currently charge. The gap is the size of the conversation.
If the gap is large, consider two steps with dates rather than one jump, and say both dates at once.
Round to a number you can say out loud without flinching.

The message

Four sentences, no preamble:

State the change and the date: from 1 January my rate will be X.
State what is unaffected: anything already quoted stays at the agreed price.
Give one reason, briefly - your costs and the work involved have changed.
Invite the practical question: happy to talk about scope or scheduling if that helps.

When to send it

Send the message at a calm point in the relationship - after a delivered piece of work, not during a problem you are still fixing. The rate conversation should not arrive wearing the costume of a complaint.

Avoid the week a client is budgeting for something else, and avoid your own quietest month, when you will be tempted to withdraw the increase the moment someone hesitates. Decide the number when you are busy enough to mean it.

If a client says no

Offer less scope at the old total before you offer the old rate for the same scope. That keeps your rate intact.
Know your walk-away number before the conversation, and know how many months of runway you have.
Some clients will leave. Price the loss honestly against the rate rise on the work that remains.
Write down what happened. Next year's increase is easier when you have last year's evidence.

The free tool for this

What an hour has to cost to pay you - What an hour has to cost to pay you. It runs in the page, asks for your own numbers, and sends nothing anywhere.

If you would rather not build it yourself

Calc Pack holds the rate, quote and fee calculators as plain spreadsheets, so the new number comes from your own costs and hours rather than a figure you guessed. Freelance Rate & Pricing Calculators - 8 Excel Tools (Calc Pack) is $12. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.

Questions people actually ask

How much of an increase is reasonable?

There is no universal percentage. Start from the rate your costs and hours require, then decide whether to reach it in one step or two with stated dates.

Should I raise everyone at once?

A single date for all clients is simpler to administer and easier to explain. Exceptions become the rate people expect, so make them deliberately if you make them.

How to raise your rate with existing clients