Free template · raising your rates freelance

How to tell a client you're raising your rates

Your rate has been the same for two years and you've needed to move it since spring. You have a client you like and don't want to lose. Send this one to four to eight weeks ahead of the date — longer for a client whose finance team moves slowly, and the turn of the year is easiest, because that is when budgets get set.

The email

Subject: Rate change from [DATE]

Hi [NAME],

Heads up before it turns up on an invoice: from [DATE] my rate goes
from [OLD] to [NEW].

Anything already booked or in progress stays at the current rate.
Nothing else about how we work together changes.

If that doesn't fit the budget, say so now and we'll plan the last
good month properly rather than discovering it in three weeks.

[YOU]

Replace everything in [BRACKETS] before you send it. A stray [NAME] is the most expensive typo in freelancing.

Why it works

It's an announcement, not a request, which is the entire difference — you are informing them of your price the way every business they buy from does. It grandfathers the work already booked, which removes the sting and costs you almost nothing. And it names the awkward possibility out loud, so if the budget genuinely doesn't stretch you find out now instead of through a slow fade.

What most people send instead

A long paragraph explaining costs, inflation, and how hard the decision was — ending with "let me know if that works for you?" You have just opened a negotiation you did not have to open, on a decision that was yours to make.