How to Raise Your Rates as a Freelancer: Name the Price, Stay Quiet, Say No

If you're wondering how to raise your rates as a freelancer, the short answer is this: decide the new number on your own, announce it to clients in writing with a date, say it once without apologising, and stop taking work below it. The part most people skip is the first one. They ask the client, in so many words, whether an increase would be okay. That turns a business decision into a favour, and favours get negotiated down.

So make the decision before anyone else is in the room. Open a blank page and answer four things. What do you charge now, and when did you last change it? What has changed since then: skills, results, turnaround, demand for your time? What do people doing similar work charge, based on sources you can actually point to, like rates other freelancers share openly, posted project budgets, or what agencies bill for the same deliverable? And what do you need to earn to cover taxes, unpaid admin hours, software, and time off, since no employer is paying for any of that?

From those answers, write one number. Not a range. A range is an invitation to pick the bottom of it. If a single figure feels too scary, that's normal; it doesn't mean the number is wrong. It usually means it's new.

New clients are the easy part: they simply get the new rate on your next quote. No announcement needed. Existing clients deserve notice, in writing, with an effective date far enough out that they can plan. A common approach is 30 to 60 days, or tying the change to the start of a new quarter or a new project.

Keep the email short. Long explanations sound like you're asking for permission. Something like: "Hi Dana, a quick update: from 1 March, my rate for new projects will be [new rate]. Anything we've already scoped stays at the current rate. I've really enjoyed working together and I'd love to keep going. Let me know if you'd like to plan the next project before or after the change." That's it. No "I hope this is okay", no list of your rent and food shopping. The same rule applies to employees asking for more; see our affirmations for salary negotiation for the in-person version.

If you'd rather say it on a call, say the sentence exactly as you'd write it, then stop talking. Rehearse it out loud a few times first. Record yourself on your phone and listen back. If you hear a laugh at the end, or a "but I'm flexible" sneaking in, record it again until it sounds as plain as giving your address.

These seven sentences come from the Money & abundance theme in Unsorry. They're in the first person because you're the one who has to believe them when you hover over the send button. Don't try to use all seven. Pick the one that answers your particular doubt: that you're being greedy, that clients will leave, or that you should take whatever comes. If you're looking for more money sentences beyond pricing, our money affirmations guide goes wider.

How to use them: write your chosen affirmation at the top of your rate-increase email draft, then delete it right before you send. Or read it out loud once, then say your new number right after it in the same tone. The point is to connect the sentence to the action, so the calm you practise is the calm you use.

Whether it's on a call or in an email thread, there's a moment right after you name the price. The client goes quiet, or replies "hmm, that's more than we expected". Every part of you wants to fill that space with a discount. Don't. Silence often means they're thinking or checking a budget, not that you've made a mistake. On a call, count three slow breaths before you say anything. In email, wait until the next morning before you answer.

When they do push back, you have options that don't involve lowering your rate. You can reduce the scope to fit their budget: fewer revisions, a shorter deliverable, a longer timeline. You can offer a smaller first project so they can see the value. Or you can simply say, "I understand. That's my rate for this kind of work. If the budget changes, I'd be glad to talk again."

Some clients will leave. That's part of the plan, not a failure of it. Every underpaid project takes up a slot that a better-paying one could have filled, and it also takes the energy you'd have used to find that better client. Before you say yes to anything below your floor, ask yourself one question: if a new client offered this exact rate today, would I take it? If the answer is no, the answer to the old client is no too, kindly and without a long explanation.

Sooner or later, someone says yes to the new number without blinking. Write it down that same day: who it was, the rate, the project, and how you felt when you sent the quote. This isn't about bragging. It's about having evidence the next time your voice wants to shrink. In Unsorry, that's what Proofs is for: a place to write down, in your own words, what you did and what happened, so you can reread it before the next quote. The Money & abundance theme itself unlocks at level 4 as you keep up the daily rituals, or right away with Unsorry Plus.

Then treat that yes as your new floor. Update your rate on your website, your proposal template, and any profile where clients find you. Put a reminder in your calendar six or twelve months from now to go through this whole process again. Raising your rates isn't a one-time act of courage. It's a habit you build, one calm sentence at a time. For the rest of the business side, from quotes to follow-ups to slow months, see our affirmations for entrepreneurs.