Freelance Retainer
Price a monthly retainer from your rate, hours and discount.
About Freelance Retainer
The full hourly cost is reduced by the agreed retainer discount, and the effective hourly rate is recomputed on the new total. A retainer guarantees income and smooths cash flow, but only works if the discounted rate still covers your costs.
Formula
Freelance Retainer
Retainer = hours x rate x (1 - discount%); effective rate = retainer / hours
- retainer discount
- Percent the client saves in return for committing monthly
Worked example
With the default values below, Freelance Retainer returns Retainer Amount of $2,880.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Hourly rateminimum 0
- 80
- Monthly hoursminimum 0 h
- 40 h
- Retainer discountaccepts 0–100 %
- 10 %
Results
- Retainer Amount
- $2,880.00
- Full Cost
- $3,200.00
- Client Saves
- $320.00
- Effective Hourly Rate
- $72.00
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Freelance Retainer
- 3Retainer Amount= 2,880.00
- 4Full Cost= 3,200.00
- 5Client Saves= 320.00
- 6Effective Hourly Rate= 72.00
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges 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
How is Freelance Retainer calculated?
Retainer = hours x rate x (1 - discount%); effective rate = retainer / hours The full hourly cost is reduced by the agreed retainer discount, and the effective hourly rate is recomputed on the new total.
Why does Freelance Retainer matter?
A retainer guarantees income and smooths cash flow, but only works if the discounted rate still covers your costs.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 3 inputs: Hourly rate, Monthly hours, Retainer discount. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.