How to Raise Your Rates as a Freelancer (+ Email Template)

How to raise your rates as a freelancer. Here is the plan: email existing clients first, give them about two months, and quote new clients the new rate today. Here's when to raise, how much, and the exact email to send. Five signs: you're booked weeks ahead, most proposals get a quick yes, it's been a year, your costs went up, or your work got better. Two or three of those at once?

You're probably undercharging. A yes to every quote is a warning sign, not a compliment. If you're turning work away, that's the clearest sign of all. Pick one date a year for raises, so it's routine, not a crisis. January works well.

Many clients set new budgets then. Late payers or scope creep are a different problem. A raise won't fix those. First, keep up with prices. US consumer prices rose 3.

4 percent in the year to August. Keep your rate flat, and every year it buys a little less. For existing clients, a raise of 5 to 10 percent is easier to accept. So $95 an hour becomes about $105. New clients never saw $95, so quote them $110.

Round to a clean number. $105 looks like a decision. $104.50 looks like a formula. Added skills or bigger results?

A jump of 20 percent or more can work. Just expect a client or two to move on. Then check it against your floor: costs plus pay, over billable hours. Stay above it. The free rate calculator in the description does that math for you.

The fear is losing clients. So run the numbers first. Say five clients bring $1,000 a month each. That is $5,000. Raise 15 percent and lose one: four bring $4,600.

That is 8 percent less money for 20 percent less work. Those freed-up hours can go to better-paying clients. Decide in advance which clients you'd be fine letting go. A raise doesn't mean doing more. It means charging for what you already do.

Start with new clients: quote $110 from today, with no old rate to compare. It's the safest test. If new clients still say yes, the rate works. Update your website, your rate sheet and your proposal templates the same day. Sending options?

Mark your floor, raise every option, so the smallest one still clears it. On a discovery call, say the new rate plainly. No pause, no apology. Watch how many proposals still get a yes. If nothing changes, the raise may be too small.

Give it a month or two of yeses before you move existing clients. Existing clients get notice first, about two months ahead. Then $110 starts on the date you named. Thirty days is the minimum. Sixty is kinder.

Check your contract too: its notice period, any terms on price changes, and the renewal date. Your biggest clients: call first, email the same day, and $110 starts on the date. On the call: the new rate, the date, one reason, then stop talking. For everyone else, the email on its own is fine. Send it on a normal weekday morning, not late on a Friday.

Keep it short. The longer the explanation, the more it sounds like a request. And never change the price of work that's already agreed. Finish it at the quoted rate. Clients on a monthly package need the most notice, because their budget is already set.

Give them two to three months, and change the price at a renewal date. In that email, name the new monthly price, the date it starts, and what the package still includes. If the work grew over the year, that's your case for the new price. Say what grew, in one line. That makes a bigger step easier to accept.

The email has a clear subject and the new rate, one reason and what changes, then a next step and a thank-you. Line one is the news: the new rate, the old rate, and the date. No warm-up. Then one reason. Not a list of your costs, and no apology.

Next, what changes for them: work booked before December 31 stays at $95. Give them a reason to act: book more at the current rate by December 31. Subject lines that work: 'New rates from January 1', 'Updated pricing for 2027', or 'A change to my rates'. Keep the whole email short enough to read on a phone. Close with a thank-you, and send it one to one, from your own email.

Read it once and check the date, then send it. The full email is in the description. Some clients will push back. That's normal, and it isn't a no. You have three good answers: keep the rate and restate what they get, offer a smaller scope at the new rate, or phase it in.

Phasing in suits big clients: $102 in January, then $110 in July. If they ask why, repeat your one reason. Don't add new ones. A good reply thanks them, offers two choices and keeps the date, then asks which one works. Don't discount the new rate on the spot.

A smaller scope protects it. If a client can't pay above your floor, refer them to someone else. Grandfathering means a long-time client keeps $95 until a set date, like July 1, then moves to $110. Save it for clients who send steady work, or who've been with you for years. Always give it an end date.

Without one, the old rate is permanent. A common middle ground: hold the old rate for six months, then switch. It's a thank-you, not a discount. Tell them that. Write the deal down: the old rate, the end date, and what it covers.

Put that end date in the email too, so July doesn't surprise anyone. Here's how a raise looks in Workspace369, the tool we use to show it. Change the price once in your catalog, to $110, add what it costs you, and the margin updates. Charge by the project? Update each package price the same way.

Add that service to a proposal or an invoice, and it pulls the new price. On Specialist, the proposal goes out at $110 an hour, your new client opens it, signs it, and pays the deposit. Proposals and invoices you already sent keep their own prices. Nothing changes behind a client's back. Hourly work on Voyager: run the timer, stop it, bill the hours, and they land at $110.

Six design hours later, the invoice at $110 opens, they pay by card, paid in full, and it's marked paid. Grandfathered client? Type the old rate on their line until the end date. The catalog, proposals and invoices are on every plan. Cadet is $29 a month.

Time tracking starts on Voyager, $74. Four mistakes: apologizing, raising mid-project, grandfathering forever, and waiting years for one big jump. An apology invites a negotiation. A plain date doesn't. And don't let the invoice be the first place they see it.

A raise with no notice is the fastest way to lose a good client. Small, regular raises are easier to accept than one big jump. So: new clients first, notice in writing for the rest, and end dates on any old rates. Then do it again next year, on the same date. When did you last raise your rates?

Tell me in the comments. The rate increase email is in the description, ready to copy.