Price your freelance services with Claude

What you'll make

A pricing sheet for your freelance services — your minimum viable rate (calculated from real costs), a comparison against what others charge, and a recommendation on whether to charge hourly or per project. So you never undercharge because you guessed.

What you need

• A Claude account
• Your monthly business costs (tools, software, subscriptions, taxes)
• How many hours per week you can realistically bill (not just work — bill)
• What service you're pricing (web design, copywriting, social media management, etc.)
• 25 minutes

Steps

1. Tell Claude your numbers and ask for your minimum rate:

I'm a freelance [your service]. Help me calculate my minimum viable hourly rate.

My monthly costs:
- Software and tools: [amount/month]
- Taxes (estimate): [percentage of income]
- Other business costs: [amount/month]

I can realistically bill [X] hours per week (not total working hours — only hours I can charge clients for).
I want to take [X] weeks of holiday per year.

Calculate:
1. My annual costs (including the weeks I won't be earning)
2. My annual billable hours
3. My break-even hourly rate (the rate that covers costs and pays me nothing)
4. A suggested rate that gives me a reasonable buffer above break-even
5. What that rate means for a typical project (e.g. a 10-hour project at that rate)

Use [bracketed placeholders] for any number I haven't given you. Don't guess my costs.

2. Ask Claude to compare against market rates:

Now tell me what freelance [your service] providers typically charge. Break it down by:
1. Beginner rate range
2. Mid-level rate range
3. Experienced/specialist rate range

For each level, tell me what justifies the higher rate (portfolio, speed, specialisation, results). Then tell me where my calculated minimum rate falls — am I pricing as a beginner, mid-level, or experienced provider?

If my minimum rate is above typical beginner rates, explain why (my costs are higher, I can bill fewer hours, etc.) and what that means for positioning.

3. Ask Claude whether hourly or project pricing suits you better:

Based on my service ([your service]) and my situation:
- My typical project takes [X] hours
- I'm [new / experienced] at this
- My clients are [type — small businesses, individuals, agencies]

Should I charge hourly or per project? Explain the pros and cons of each for my specific situation:

Hourly:
- When it's better
- The risk (clients worry about open-ended costs)

Per project:
- When it's better
- The risk (scope creep, underestimating time)

Give me a recommendation and a suggested project price range for my typical project, based on my calculated rate.

4. Review the numbers. If your minimum rate feels high, it's because your costs are real — don't lower it just because it feels uncomfortable. If it feels low, you may have underestimated your costs or overestimated your billable hours.

5. Create a simple pricing sheet: your hourly rate, your typical project price range, and what's included. Use this when a client asks "how much do you charge?"

Check your result

• Your minimum rate is calculated from real costs, not a number you picked because it sounded right
• You know where your rate sits in the market (beginner, mid-level, experienced)
• You have a clear recommendation on hourly vs project pricing with reasons
• You have a project price range for your typical project
• The pricing sheet is simple enough to quote from in a conversation

If your minimum rate is higher than what you've been charging, that's normal — most freelancers undercharge because they never did the math. The calculation doesn't mean you have to raise rates overnight. It means you know your floor, and you can work toward it.