How much to charge for graphic design, without guessing or grovelling.
To work out how much to charge for graphic design, count every hour a project takes, multiply by an hourly rate built from the income you need, and add any direct costs. This guide walks through it with a worked example: £36,000 a year of income and costs, 880 billable hours, about £41 an hour, and a 23 hour logo project that comes to about £950.
Price the hours behind the design
The design the client sees is the last 10% of the work. Behind it sit the brief, the research, the routes that did not make it, the rounds of changes and the file pack. Price all of it.
So the honest answer to “how much should I charge for graphic design?” is a sum: every hour the project takes × your hourly rate + direct costs. The rate comes from what you need to earn, not from a marketplace race to the bottom.
Find your hourly rate
Add the income you want before tax to your yearly business costs: software, fonts, hardware, insurance, accounting. Divide by the hours you can really bill.
Example only: you want £30,000 before tax and your business costs £6,000 a year, so the business needs £36,000. If you bill 20 hours a week for 44 weeks, that is 880 hours. £36,000 ÷ 880 = about £41 an hour. Your numbers will differ, which is the whole point.
Count every hour: a logo project
Write every stage down. Concepts and changes are where the hours hide.
| Stage | Hours |
|---|---|
| Discovery and brief | 2 |
| Research and moodboards | 3 |
| Three initial concepts | 8 |
| Two rounds of changes | 4 |
| Final files and mini guidelines | 4 |
| Admin and handover | 2 |
| Total | 23 |
At £41 an hour, 23 hours is £943, so about £950. If the client wants to own the logo outright, price the copyright assignment as its own line. If £950 feels high, remove a concept or a round, do not cut the rate. Cheap logos are how designers end up redrawing them at midnight.
Turn hours into packages
Offer two or three versions of the same sum: a logo only, a logo with a colour and type system, and a full identity with guidelines. Each is simply a different number of hours.
Price the extras that eat time: extra rounds per hour, rush delivery, extra file formats, social templates and copyright assignment. Write them into your graphic design contract.
The free pricing calculator does the sum for you. It was built for photographers, but it only asks for hours, costs and a margin, so it works for design jobs too.
VAT and paperwork
Once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12 months, you must register for VAT and add 20% for most clients. Check with the UK VAT threshold checker, then bill on a proper graphic design invoice.
When you want briefs, proofs, rounds and invoices on one record, the graphic designer CRM runs it from £0.
Questions people ask
How much should I charge for graphic design in the UK?
Work it out from the hours a project really takes, an hourly rate built from the income you need, and any direct costs such as fonts or stock. Quote per project, but build every quote from hours so it pays.
How much should I charge for a logo?
Count the hours: discovery, research, concepts, rounds of changes, final files and admin. In the worked example on this page a logo takes 23 hours, which at about £41 an hour is roughly £950 before any copyright assignment fee.
Should graphic designers charge per hour or per project?
Per project for the client, per hour for you. Clients want one clear price; you need the hours behind it so the project does not quietly halve your rate.
Should I charge extra for copyright in a logo?
Many designers price the assignment of copyright separately, because ownership is worth more to the client than a licence. Whatever you charge, transfer it only in writing and on full payment.