Keep this bid so it is still here when the customer calls back. Every number on this form is saved together, under a name you choose, along with the figure it gave you, and restoring one puts the whole job back exactly as you priced it. Mark each one won or lost when you hear — the ones you have not heard back on stay listed as waiting, with how long they have been out. Once a few have come back, this panel says how long yours actually take, and how many are still out past that. Once enough of them have been decided, it also says whether the bids you save here have been landing differently lately than they used to.
Kept in this browser only, on this site’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears it — download a backup to keep a copy or open your bids on another device. Bids are kept per tool, so these are the ones you saved here.
FREELANCE EDITOR QUOTE CALCULATOR · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · NOTHING UPLOADED
Quote an editing job: flat fee, per-word rate, and what happens if the manuscript is slower than you thought
Enter the word count, the level of edit and the hourly rate you need. You get the flat fee, the per-word and per-page equivalents clients compare, the working days the job needs, a rush surcharge, and what your fee pays per hour if you edit slower than planned.
Paces are in words per hour and you can change them. It works backwards from the income you want; it does not know market rates.
The job
Fill in the job, then click Work out the quote.
Quote
The same manuscript at each level
Level
Words/hour
Billable hours
Fee
Per word
What it does, and what it leaves to you
Counts: edit hours = words / (words per hour / condition factor of 0.85 clean, 1 average, 1.3 rough); billable hours = (edit hours + extra hours) plus the admin percentage; fee = billable hours times your rate, plus the rush surcharge when the deadline is inside your rush window.
Not decided: what the market pays, your real words per hour (time yourself on a sample), sales tax or VAT, contract terms, payment schedule, kill fees, and whether the client's text needs the level they asked for.
Common questions
How do I price an editing job?
Estimate the hours, then multiply by the hourly rate you need. Hours are the word count divided by how many words per hour you edit at that level, adjusted for how rough the text is, plus admin time and any extras such as a style sheet. Quote the result as a flat fee and state the per-word equivalent, because clients compare per-word.
What are typical editing speeds?
They vary a lot with the person and the text. The defaults here are rule-of-thumb figures: about 2,000 words an hour for proofreading, 1,000 for copyediting, 600 for line editing and 350 for developmental editing. They are inputs, so replace them with your own timed pace.
Why charge a flat fee instead of hourly?
Clients usually want a number up front. A flat fee is safe only if your pace estimate is right, so the page shows what the fee pays per hour if you work slower than planned and suggests a cap on scope or an overage clause.
When should I add a rush fee?
When the deadline is shorter than your normal turnaround and displaces other work. Enter the working days the client gives and the window below which you charge extra; the surcharge percentage is yours to set.
Does it know market rates?
No. It works backwards from the hourly income you want. Compare the per-word result with published rate surveys from editors' associations before you send a quote.
Is my manuscript or my rate uploaded anywhere?
No. Only a word count and your own numbers are entered, everything is worked out in your browser and nothing is sent; a test in the code asserts there are no network calls.