What should your retainer cost?
List what the client gets each month. Add your costs and the margin you want, and get a retainer price that still holds up after the “quick requests” start.
Updated November 9, 2026 · By Mo Arfaj, founder of Creepless
Price a retainer from the hours it takes, not from what competitors charge. Add up monthly delivery hours, add 10–20% for account management and a buffer for small extra requests, multiply by your cost per hour, then divide by (1 − target margin). With 35 hours of production, a $45 cost per hour and a 50% margin, the retainer comes to about $4,000 a month.
Retainer Pricing Calculator
What the retainer includes
35 production hoursCosts and margin
The retainer pricing formula
Start from real hours, load them with the time that never shows up in a deliverables list, then price for margin.
- Cost per hour
- What an hour of delivery costs you: (pay + benefits + share of overhead) ÷ billable hours a year. A $60,000 salary loaded to $78,000, plus $12,000 of overhead, over 1,500 billable hours is $60.
- Account management
- Emails, calls, reporting and project management around the deliverables. 10–20% of production time.
- Scope buffer
- The small requests that will happen anyway. Pricing in about 10% means you can say yes to minor asks and quote the rest.
- Term adjustment
- Month-to-month carries a 10% premium for the risk; a 12-month commitment earns a 5% discount.
A content marketing retainer
Each month: 4 blog posts at 4 hours, 12 social posts at 45 minutes, 2 newsletters at 3 hours and a report with a strategy call at 4 hours = 35 production hours.
Add 15% account management and a 10% buffer: 35 × 1.15 × 1.10 = 44.3 hours. At $45 an hour that costs $1,992 to deliver. At a 50% margin: $1,992 ÷ 0.5 = $3,985, rounded up to $4,000.
The same maths gives a Lite tier at 60% of the hours ($2,400) and a Premium tier at 160% ($6,400).
$4,000 a month: a $90 effective hourly rate and $2,008 gross profit.
Turn a target margin into a price
Multiply your cost by the factor for the margin you want. Markup is shown so you can see how far apart the two numbers are.
| Target margin | Price = cost × | Same as a markup of | $2,000 cost becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | 1.43 | 43% | $2,857 |
| 40% | 1.67 | 67% | $3,333 |
| 50% | 2.00 | 100% | $4,000 |
| 60% | 2.50 | 150% | $5,000 |
| 70% | 3.33 | 233% | $6,667 |
Factor = 1 ÷ (1 − margin). Adding a 50% markup to cost only gets you a 33% margin.
How to price a monthly retainer
- 1
List the deliverables
Everything the client gets each month: posts, pages, reports, campaigns, calls. Be specific about quantities.
- 2
Estimate hours for each
Use time-tracking history if you have it. If not, estimate, then add 20%: first guesses run short.
- 3
Add account management
Communication and project management sit on top of production. 15% is a sensible default.
- 4
Add a scope buffer
Price in a small allowance for minor requests so you aren’t quoting every five-minute tweak.
- 5
Enter your cost per hour
Use the loaded cost of the people who will do the work, not your sell rate.
- 6
Pick margin and term, then tier it
Set the margin, choose the contract term, and offer the Lite, Core and Premium tiers.
Keep the retainer profitable after it’s signed
Write inclusions and exclusions
List what is included and name the common extras as not included. Vague scopes are where margin leaks.
Cap revisions and hours
“Two rounds of revisions” and “up to 10 hours” make the next request clearly extra.
Put an out-of-scope rate in the contract
If the rate is agreed upfront, quoting extra work is routine, not a negotiation.
Compare hours to fee every month
If a client keeps using 130% of the priced hours, they need a bigger plan.
Reprice at renewal
Review each retainer every 6–12 months against actual hours and adjust.
Avoid open-ended rollover
Unused hours that roll over forever become a debt you owe in your busiest month.
How do you calculate a retainer fee?
Estimate the hours each deliverable takes per month and add them up. Add time for account management (10–20%) and a buffer for small extra requests (around 10%). Multiply by what an hour costs you to deliver, then divide by (1 − your target margin). Round up to a clean number.
How much should I charge for a monthly retainer?
Enough to cover the real hours at your target margin, which this calculator works out. As a sanity check, divide the retainer by the hours: the result is your effective hourly rate, and it should be at least what you charge for one-off project work.
What profit margin should a retainer have?
Agencies commonly target 40–60% gross margin on retainers, meaning delivery costs are 40–60% of the fee. Below 30%, one demanding month or a few unbilled requests can wipe out the profit.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of cost. A $1,000 cost sold for $2,000 is a 50% margin and a 100% markup. Confusing them is a common way to underprice: a 50% markup is only a 33% margin.
Is a retainer better than hourly billing?
For ongoing work, usually yes. Retainers give predictable revenue and let clients budget, and you profit from getting faster. The risk is scope creep: without written limits, clients treat a retainer as unlimited. Define what’s included, cap revisions and hours, and quote anything beyond.
Should unused retainer hours roll over?
Most agencies say no, or allow a one-month rollover at most. Indefinite rollover turns a retainer into a prepaid bank of hours that comes due all at once. State the rule in the agreement.
How should I charge for work outside the retainer?
Set an out-of-scope rate in the agreement, usually your effective retainer rate or 10–25% above it, and quote each extra request before starting. Clients accept a clear price far more easily than a surprise invoice.
Keep running the numbers
Keep the retainer to what you priced
Creepless checks every client request against what the retainer includes and turns extras into quotes the client approves. Free for two clients.
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