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What should your monthly retainer cover?

Build a monthly fee from the delivery you plan to provide. Make room for internal effort, contractors, tools and your chosen margin.

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Private by design. Your inputs and comparisons stay in this tab.

How to use the agency retainer pricing calculator

Add monthly internal delivery costs, contractors, engagement-specific services and allocated overhead. Divide that cost by one minus your target margin to estimate a cost-based monthly fee. The hours describe this scenario; they do not establish an automatic client entitlement.

Make the assumptions yours

A clearer decision
starts with your numbers.

The starting values are an example, not industry benchmarks. Use a consistent currency and cost basis.

Use fees excluding separately collected sales tax or VAT. Include pass-through amounts in both fees and costs, or exclude them from both.

Monthly delivery costs

Monthly contractor costs

Monthly service and tool costs

Monthly allocated overhead

Enter zero if overhead is already included in your hourly costs.

Monthly delivery roles 1

Role name

Use a role or responsibility, such as design or development.

Monthly hours

Hours planned for this role each month.

Internal hourly cost

Cost to your agency, including employer costs where applicable. This is not your client rate.

Up to 50 roles. Each row is assessed separately.

Your target

Target margin (%)

Use a percentage below 100. Margin is profit divided by revenue, not a markup on cost.

Display currency

Formatting only. No currency conversion or exchange-rate lookup. Hours are unchanged.

Nothing hidden in the math

How the calculation works

Calculations use unrounded values. Results are rounded for display only.

Monthly cost

Sum of monthly hours × internal hourly cost + contractors + services + allocated overhead

Every cost here is monthly. Avoid double counting overhead already included in an hourly cost.

Monthly fee

Monthly cost ÷ (1 − target margin ÷ 100)

A 30% margin requires dividing cost by 0.70. Adding 30% to cost would give a lower margin.

Effective hourly fee

Target monthly fee ÷ planned monthly hours

This describes revenue per planned internal hour. It is unavailable for contractor-only delivery with zero internal hours.

Before you decide

Common questions

Does this set the retainer scope?

No. Agree deliverables, revisions, exclusions, rollover, availability and commercial terms separately. Planned hours do not automatically become a client entitlement.

Can I price contractor-only delivery?

Yes. Enter zero internal hours and include contractor or service costs. The target monthly fee remains available; the effective hourly fee is unavailable.

Does recurring invoicing make a retainer profitable?

No. Billing frequency does not establish profitability. Review actual effort and costs. This calculator does not create a retainer budget or recurring agreement in the CRM.

One decision leads to the next

Keep your planning connected.

Scope change request template Agency project profitability calculator

Prepared by ClientCee. Details checked 21 October 2026. Examples are illustrative.

Put it into practice

Time tracking Project management Invoicing & payments

Useful next reads

From project kickoff to invoice: a clearer agency workflow How to manage scope changes in an agency project

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