Hourly rate calculator for copywriters and editors
Work out what to charge per hour of writing from your own numbers — even if you're paid per word or per article. No sign-up.
Three mistakes that pull your income down
1. Research outside the price. Sources, interviews and fact-checking often take longer than the writing itself. With a per-word price, that work isn't paid at all.
2. Approvals with no limit. A piece that goes through five approvers gets rewritten five times. Name the number of revision rounds up front.
3. A per-word price instead of a rate. A per-word price says nothing about hours. Convert it into hours — otherwise you can't see what you actually earn.
Words aren't hours
Writing is often priced per word or per article. But the same thousand words can take an hour or a day: interviews, research, approvals, edits.
An hourly rate is a check on any such price. Estimate how many hours the whole piece will take, multiply by your rate and compare it with the offer.
If the per-word price comes out below your rate, you see it right away, before you sit down to write.
Working out your rate is half the job
The calculator tells you what to charge. The timer shows what you actually get: how many hours you worked today, how many of them are paid, and how much is left until your daily target.
A rate without tracked hours is a promise to yourself that nobody checks.
Five of your numbers, not someone else's median
Going by someone else's rate makes no sense: it's built from someone else's life — another city, another tax, another share of paid hours. Yours comes from five numbers, and all of them are about you.
Common questions
How much does a copywriter earn?
As much as they sold hours at their rate, minus costs and tax. Two copywriters can differ several times over: because of hours, costs and clients. So it's more useful to work out your own rate than to look for someone else's. More in what others earn.
How do I turn an hourly rate into a per-word price?
Track how many hours a typical piece takes from start to finish, research and edits included, and divide by its length. Rate × hours ÷ words is the per-word price below which you're working at a loss.
Charge per article or per hour?
Per article is easier for the client; per hour works when the amount of research and edits is unclear. How to choose — see hourly or fixed price.
What counts as hours sold?
Only the ones that go on an invoice. Finding work and test assignments are unpaid time — the calculator has a separate field for it.
Why not go by marketplace prices?
A marketplace price is built from other people's speed and other people's costs. First work out what you need, then decide whether the job fits.
Rate, hours and projects in one place
A minute on how it works day to day.
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