What should a copywriter in UK charge?
Start from the income you want to take home. We add taxes, expenses, holidays and unpaid admin time, then tell you the hourly, daily and project rate that gets you there.
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Quote a fixed project: add a 15% buffer for scope creep. For a 40-hour project that is –.
Copywriter rates in other countries
Other professions in UK
Guides to price with confidence
How to Calculate Your Freelance Hourly Rate, Step by Step
A five-step method to turn the income you want into an hourly and day rate, including tax, costs, time off and unpaid admin hours.
Read the guideHow to Quote a Fixed-Price Project Without Losing Money
Estimate hours by task, add a buffer, apply your hourly rate and protect the price with scope and change rules. Includes a worked example.
Read the guideHow Much Should a Freelancer Set Aside for Tax?
A simple system to reserve tax money from every invoice, with a worked example and what to check with your tax authority.
Read the guideFreelance Payment Terms: Deposits, Due Dates and Late Payments
How to set deposits, invoice due dates and a late-payment process so you get paid on time, with wording ideas for your proposals.
Read the guideCopywriter rates in UK: what to include
The starting figures are placeholders, not market data: a take-home goal of £32,000, business costs of £1,600 and 65% billable time. Change them to match your situation.
Typical business costs for a copywriter include writing and SEO tools, a website and professional memberships.
Worked example for a copywriter in UK
With the starting figures above (£32,000 take-home, £1,600 costs, 22% tax, 65% billable, 40 hours a week, 6 weeks off), you would need about £42,626 in revenue a year. Across roughly 1,196 billable hours, that is about £36 an hour or £185 a day. If your billable share fell to 50% the hourly figure rises to about £46; at 80% it falls to about £29. These are illustrations of the formula, not market rates: replace every input with your own.
How copywriters usually price work
Copywriters often price per word, per page or per project, with day rates for retainer or in-house stints. Per-word pricing can punish you for editing tightly, so many writers price by deliverable and check the result against an hourly target.
Where copywriters lose money
- Research time that was not included in the quote.
- Rounds of stakeholder edits from people you never meet.
- Pricing per word for work that is mostly strategy or interviews.
Agree word count ranges, interviews included, sources the client supplies and the number of review rounds.
Tax and admin in UK
UK sole traders pay income tax plus Class 4 National Insurance on profits, filed through Self Assessment. Once turnover passes the VAT registration threshold (check the current figure on GOV.UK) you must charge VAT.
Remember to set aside money for the payment on account that can arrive in your first full tax year.
- Register as self-employed with HMRC and file a Self Assessment return each year.
- Payments on account can double your bill in the first year you owe tax, so a tax pot matters early.
- If you work through a client's systems, check IR35 rules for off-payroll working on GOV.UK.
Tax year: 6 April to 5 April. Authority: HMRC. Rules and thresholds change: confirm on the official site.
Questions
Is it better for a copywriter to charge per word or per hour?
Per-word pricing is simple to quote but ignores research and rewrites. Many copywriters quote per project and use an hourly figure to check they are not underpricing the work.
When do UK freelancers have to register for VAT?
When taxable turnover passes the VAT registration threshold. The figure changes, so read the current number on GOV.UK rather than relying on a copy elsewhere. You can also register voluntarily below it.
How the rate is calculated
Revenue needed = take-home income ÷ (1 − tax rate) + business costs. Billable hours = weekly hours × weeks worked × billable share. Hourly rate = revenue needed ÷ billable hours.
Why not just divide a salary by 2,080 hours?
An employee is paid for holidays, admin and downtime. A freelancer is not. Those hours still need to be covered by the hours you do bill.
Is the tax rate accurate?
No. It is a single flat estimate, because rules differ by country and income. Check with an accountant before you set prices.