Value-Based Pricing Calculator

Price on the value you create for the client, not the hours you spend — then cross-check the fee against an implied hourly rate to keep it grounded.

Currency

Value to the client

Revenue gained, costs saved, or risk avoided — over a sensible period.

Your share of the value

Often 5–20%.

Estimated hours

For the implied-rate cross-check.

Your fee

$10,000.00

$125.00 implied hourly rate

Value to client$100,000

Your share10%

Your fee$10,000.00

Implied hourly rate(floor check)$125.00

Client keeps$90,000

Price the outcome, not the hours

Hourly and cost-plus pricing tie your fee to how long the work takes — which quietly punishes you for being fast and experienced. Value-based pricing flips that: you start from the financial value the work creates for the client (revenue gained, costs saved, risk avoided) and charge a fair share of it.

Enter the value the client expects to gain and the percentage of that value you capture as your fee. A share of 5–20% is common for project work: large enough to reward the result you deliver, modest enough that the client keeps the lion's share and still says yes. On a £100,000 expected gain, a 10% share is a £10,000 fee.

Why the implied hourly rate matters

A value-based fee can look abstract, so this calculator divides it by your estimated hours to show the implied hourly rate it works out to. That single cross-check keeps you honest in both directions. If a £10,000 fee lands at £500 an hour for 20 hours of work, you can price with confidence; if it lands below your normal rate, the value is too thin or the hours estimate too high.

Treat the implied rate as a floor check, not the price itself. The client is buying the outcome, not your timesheet — but you should never accept a value-based fee that pays you less per hour than charging by the hour would have.

Frequently asked questions

What share of the client's value should I charge?

There is no fixed rule, but 5–20% of the value created is a common range for project work. The client should always keep most of the upside — that is what makes the deal easy to say yes to. For a £50,000 expected gain, a 20% share is a £10,000 fee, leaving the client £40,000 of value.

How do I estimate the value to the client?

Quantify the concrete outcome: extra revenue, costs removed, time saved, or risk avoided over a sensible period (often the first year). Ask the client directly where you can — a number they helped build is one they will defend. When value is genuinely unmeasurable, value-based pricing is the wrong tool and an hourly or fixed quote fits better.

Why show an implied hourly rate at all?

To sanity-check the fee. Dividing the value-based price by your estimated hours shows what you would effectively earn per hour. If that figure sits well above your normal rate, the pricing is healthy; if it dips below, reconsider the share, the value estimate, or the hours. It is a floor check, not the price you quote.

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Last updated 2026-06-02.