Project Pricing Calculator
Price a fixed-fee project from estimated hours, expenses and risk.
About this calculator
Fixed-price projects reward accurate estimating and punish optimism. This calculator builds a defensible project price from four ingredients: your estimated hours, your hourly rate, any project expenses (stock photography, plugins, travel, subcontractors) and a contingency percentage for the things you cannot foresee. Quoting without contingency means every surprise comes straight out of your profit.
The formula
Worked example
A website build estimated at 40 hours at £65/hour, with £150 of expenses and 15% contingency:
- Labour = 40 × £65 = £2,600
- Subtotal = £2,600 + £150 = £2,750
- Price = £2,750 × 1.15 = £3,162.50
Common mistakes
- Estimating only the build time and forgetting meetings, revisions, testing and project management.
- Quoting your best-case hours instead of your realistic hours.
- Absorbing scope creep instead of re-quoting when requirements change.
Frequently asked questions
Assumptions & limitations
Assumes your hourly rate already covers overheads and profit (use the Freelance Hourly Rate calculator to set it). VAT is excluded.
Sources & verification
This calculator applies the standard formula published above to the figures you enter — it relies on no external statutory data. The formula and the worked example were checked by hand against each other.
Spotted an error or an out-of-date figure? Report it — corrections are prioritised over all other work (see our corrections policy).