How Much to Charge for Freelance Graphic Design

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably looking for the answer to, “How Much To Charge For Freelance Graphic Design?” When you’ve decided to go freelance with your craft, one of the most daunting tasks is deciding on your rates. You wouldn’t want it too low that you’d be underpaid, but you also don’t want to go way above your skill. So how do you set your rates for your future clients?

Before we start telling you on how much you should charge your clients, remember one thing: There are no formulas. You can’t really put a price on your skills, your experience, and even the quality of work. Moreover, as a freelancer, there are other factors that you have to consider such as taxes, healthcare, business expenses, bills etc.

While there are no formulas in determining your rate, here are some things you can do and ponder on to know how much you should charge for your work.

Talk and Compare

When deciding your rates, one of the best things you can do is to actually talk to fellow freelancers. By asking them how much they charge for their work, you get an idea – or a base price – how much things should be priced. Moreover, if you talk with fellow freelancers, not only are you able to get a base price for your rates, you’ll also have a standard you can follow and compare to. If you talk with someone who has more experience that offers a greater scope of work, you’d know that you should have lower rates than them.

Another way you can check graphic design rates is through websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Payscale. These websites show you the average salary of freelancers (depending on the work). By using these tools, you get a pretty good idea of how much you should be charging clients. You can also check job sites like Upwork, Freelancer, or even LinkedIn where employers post a salary range for graphic designers. This way, you can expect how much people are willing to pay for graphic design services.

Hourly-based vs Project-based

Most people who start freelancing go the hourly-based approach in pricing. They do so because it’s much easier, and the pricing is, in a way, objective, since there is a set price based on something you can count – which is time. The more you work, the bigger you earn.

This kind of pricing is alright, but it does have its limitations. As your skill improves and you gain more experience, the amount of time you spend on a project gets shorter. You can increase your hourly rate, but there will come a time when you can finish a project in an hour that could be worth more than $60 an hour or something. Giving your client a project-based pricing will be much better in the long-term future.

At the end of the day, future clients wouldn’t care how much time you’ll spend on your project. As long as it is high quality and done on time, your client will be happy.

Who is Your Client?

Another thing you have to consider in setting your price is knowing who your client is. Like we mentioned before, there is no formula in determining your rate. This is why most of the time, how much you should charge for your work depends on the scope of work, and who your client is.

This is mostly subjective, but who the client is actually plays a big role in determining your rate. If the client is a startup business, or is an organization that advocates for something you are passionate about, you may be inclined to give them a lower price – or throw some add-ons to the work. If your client is a corporate one, or an established company, you can charge much higher.

Another factor that you should consider is a client’s budget. If, for example, two clients come to you with the same scope of work however, one has a smaller budget than the other. If you really want to work on the project of the one that has a smaller business, you can adjust your price based on their budget.

You can even take on the client with a bigger budget and give a higher rate. You have to remember that this is how much they are willing to pay. If you quote something that is way lower than their budget, this may affect future projects with them (or their future projects with other freelancers).

Update Your Skills

Remember that it doesn’t mean that once you start working, you don’t need to constantly update your skills anymore. Having relevant skills in an ever-changing world is very important. Moreover, if you continuously improve and upgrade your skills, it can act as a leverage in making your rates higher. This does not only make you marketable, but it can also open doors of opportunities for you as a freelancer. Moreover, being versatile also makes your skills on par with design agencies.