Freelance Project Quote
Free Freelance Project Quote calculator with clear step-by-step results.
About Freelance Project Quote
Builds a fixed-price quote from the bottom up. Contingency covers the hours estimates always miss, overhead recovers the unbillable side of running a practice, and the profit margin is applied as a markup on the total rather than added to the rate - which is the difference between a 15% margin and a 15% markup.
Formulas
Cost base
Base = hours x (1 + contingency) x rate x (1 + overhead) + direct expenses
Quote
Quote = base / (1 - target profit margin)
Worked example
With the default values below, Freelance Project Quote returns Price to quote of $8,750.59. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Estimated hoursminimum 0.5 h
- 60 h
- Target hourly rateminimum 0 $/h
- 85 $/h
- Scope contingencyaccepts 0–100 %
- 20 %
- Direct expenses to pass throughminimum 0 $
- 400 $
- Overhead recoveryaccepts 0–60 %
- 15 %
- Profit marginaccepts 0–60 %
- 15 %
Results
- Price to quote
- $8,750.59
- Hours to price after contingency
- 72.0 h
- Labour component
- $6,120.00
- Effective rate per estimated hour
- $139.18
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Cost base
- 3Quote
- 4Price to quote= $8,750.59
- 5Hours to price after contingency= 72.0 h
- 6Labour component= $6,120.00
- 7Effective rate per estimated hour= $139.18/h
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why divide by (1 - margin)?
A margin is a share of the final price, not of cost. Adding 15% to cost gives a 13% margin; dividing by 0.85 gives a true 15%.
How much contingency is sensible?
Fifteen to twenty-five percent for well-defined work and considerably more where requirements are vague. If contingency has to exceed 50%, the project needs a discovery phase before it can be fixed-priced.