Freelance Project Quote Calculator
Turn estimated hours, your rate, and expenses into a project quote with a margin.
Every calculation runs locally in your browser. Nothing you enter here is sent to a server or stored anywhere.
Labor cost
$3,000
Margin
$480
Subtotal
$3,200
Quote total
$3,680
For informational and educational purposes only — not financial, investment, or tax advice, and not a substitute for consulting a qualified professional about your specific situation. TrueMeasureKit is not liable for decisions made based on these results. See our Terms of Service.
Why margin should apply to expenses too
A margin or contingency buffer covers the real risk that a project runs over — scope creep, revisions, unexpected complexity. Applying it only to labor and not to pass-through expenses (software licenses, stock assets, subcontractor costs) under-recovers when those costs also run over, which they often do. Adding margin to the full subtotal — labor plus expenses — keeps the buffer proportional to everything that's actually at risk in the project.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. Markup is profit as a percentage of the cost. A 25% markup on a $100 cost project prices at $125, which is only a 20% margin — the two are easy to confuse.
Should I include non-billable time in my hourly rate before quoting?
Yes — if your hourly rate doesn't already account for admin, revisions, and downtime between projects, build that buffer into the estimated hours or the margin here, or your quote will underprice the real time the project takes.