What to include in your costs as a copywriter
- Research and SEO tools, swipe files and industry subscriptions
- Portfolio site with results-focused case studies
- Laptop and home office
- Time spent on discovery calls, briefs and pitching — unpaid but essential
How freelance copywriters usually price their work
Copy is bought for what it does — sales pages, emails, ads and landing pages that bring in revenue — so copywriters usually price per project or per asset rather than per word. For high-impact work (a launch sequence, a sales page) many move to value-based fees once they can point to results.
Tip: A short sales page can take longer than a long blog post: research, voice-of-customer interviews, headline testing and stakeholder feedback. Estimate the whole process, not the word count, and use the value-based pricing calculator for revenue-driving work.
How the calculation works
Your rate = (profit needed for your take-home after tax + business expenses) × (1 + buffer) ÷ billable hours. Tax is estimated with your country's 2026 rules (US, UK, Canada, Australia) or a rate you enter. Billable hours are your working weeks × hours per week × the share of time you can actually bill. More about the method →
Worked example
A US-based copywriter who wants $80,000 a year after tax, with $3,500 of business costs, 40-hour weeks, 6 weeks off and 55% billable time:
- Profit needed: about $109,244 (about $29,244 of federal, self-employment and 4% state tax).
- Revenue needed with a 10% buffer: ($109,244 + $3,500) × 1.10 ≈ $124,018.
- Billable hours: 46 × 40 × 55% = 1,012.
- Minimum rate: $122.55 an hour, or $980 for an 8-hour day.
Change the country, costs or hours above to get your own number.