Hourly rate calculator for illustrators

Work out what to charge per hour of illustration: from your living budget, hours sold, tax and margin. Sketches and revisions count too. No sign-up.

Three mistakes that pull your income down

1. Sketches as a gift. Three sketches to choose from are work, even if two end up in the bin. Count them in the project's hours.

2. Rights folded into the work price. If the price is the same for any use, you lose out where the picture is used more widely. Work at your rate, rights separately.

3. A style the price has no room for. A detailed style takes more hours for the same brief. If the price doesn't change with it, your real rate drops.

An illustrator's hour is longer than it looks

A finished picture means sketches, composition searches, references, colour tests. The client sees the final piece and usually pays for that alone.

Second — rights. A picture for an ad campaign and one for a single post can't cost the same, even though the hours are the same.

The calculator gives you the floor — the rate for the work. Rights and usage go on top, as a separate line.

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 an illustrator earn?

As much as they sold hours at their rate, minus costs and tax. Two illustrators 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 price per illustration?

Estimate the hours for the picture including sketches and revisions, and multiply by your rate. Log the hours on your first few jobs — the estimate gets accurate fast.

How much are illustration rights worth?

The calculator won't tell you: rights depend on where and for how long the picture is used. It gives you something else — the line below which the work doesn't pay for your life.

How many hours a month should I enter?

As many as go into paid jobs, without personal work and portfolio pieces. Personal work is an investment, but it's still paid hours that cover it.

Rate, hours and projects in one place

A minute on how it works day to day.

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