Brand deals
Creator effective hourly rate calculator.
The fee on the contract is not your hourly rate. Add the revision rounds, calls and shipping, take off the fee, and see what an hour of this job actually paid.
Net per hour = (fee x (1 - fee %) - expenses) / (shoot + edit + revision rounds x hours per round + calls). A $600.00 job with 10 hours of work, 10% off the top and $40.00 of costs pays $50.00 an hour.
Your numbers
Result
Worked example
The brand pays $600.00. A 10% agency fee leaves $540.00, and $40 of shipping and props leaves $500.00. The work took 2 hours to shoot, 4 to edit, two revision rounds of 1.5 hours (3 hours) and 1 hour of calls: 10 hours. That is $50.00 an hour.
At a $35 target the job breaks even at 14.3 hours, so it can absorb about 4.3 more hours before it pays less than you wanted, for example another unpaid revision round or two.
How it works
Most creators price a job at the start and never check what it paid at the end. Revision rounds and calls are the hours that hide: a brief that allowed one round and received three turns a decent fee into a thin one. Entering rounds and hours per round makes that visible.
Fees are subtracted before expenses are, because the platform or agency takes its share of what the brand pays, while shipping and props come out of what is left. Set the fee to 0 if you invoice directly.
The headroom line divides your profit by the hourly rate you want. If the job has 4 hours of headroom, you know how much extra revision work you can accept before the deal stops being worth it, which is a useful number to have before you agree to a change request.
Results vary. This model uses the assumptions you type in; it is not a prediction, a quote anyone has agreed to, or a promise of earnings. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.
Methodology
hours = shoot + edit + revisionRounds x hoursPerRound + calls; received = fee x (1 - fee%); net = received - expenses; net per hour = net / hours; hours at target = net / target; headroom = hours at target - hours. Zero hours, a zero fee, a fee percent of 100 or more, and negative or non-numeric input are rejected; a negative net result is shown as a negative hourly rate.
What this does not cover
- Tax on the income, or the cost of your equipment and software over time.
- The value of future work a deal may lead to.
- Late payment or a cancelled deal; see the contract terms page for kill fees and payment terms.
- Comparing different income types side by side; use the comparison calculator for that.
Sources
Arithmetic on the numbers you enter. No external rate is applied, and no rate benchmark is stated as fact.
FAQ
How do I work out my real hourly rate on a brand deal?
Add every hour, including revisions and calls, take off platform or agency fees and expenses from the fee, then divide by the total hours. That is the effective hourly rate.
Why does the fee come off before expenses?
The platform or agency takes its share of what the brand pays, so the fee percent applies to the full amount. Your own expenses are then deducted from what you receive.
What are hours of headroom?
It is how many more hours the job can take before your net pay per hour drops to the target you entered.
Should unpaid revisions count?
Yes. They are time you spend on the job, so counting them shows what the job really paid.
Does this include tax?
No. The result is before income tax and self-employment tax.