Consulting Retainer Pricing Calculator

How it is calculated

The monthly retainer is the standard price of the scoped hours reduced by the retainer discount: gross = hours × rate, retainer = gross × (1 − discount / 100). Hours are per month, rate is your normal hourly rate in dollars, and discount is a percentage between 0 and just under 100. The tool also reports the effective rate retainer / hours, the yearly value retainer × 12 (twelve equal months, no extra months or price rises), and the savings, gross − retainer, which is the money the client keeps in exchange for committing. Hours and rate must be above zero, and hours cannot exceed 744 (31 days of 24 hours), because a retainer is monthly; anything above that shows no result. The discount field must be filled in: leave it empty and you get no result, so type 0 for no discount.

Common mistakes

• Entering the discount as a decimal (0.1) instead of a percentage. 0.1 means a 0.1% discount, so the price barely moves; type 10 for ten percent.
• Treating the discount as a markup or as the new rate. It is taken off the gross price, so 10 does not mean $10 an hour.
• Entering annual hours. The hours field is for one month (a value above 744 is rejected); the tool multiplies by 12 itself for the annual figure.
• Judging the offer by the retainer alone. The effective rate shows what each hour really earns, and 20 hours at a 10% discount is $15 less per hour than the standard rate.
• Assuming the client uses every hour. The calculation prices the full scope, so unused hours that are not billed or rolled over cut the real hourly income further.