Freelance Copywriting Rates UK

More than almost any other discipline, copywriting rates vary based on what you're writing and who you're writing it for. A blog post for a small business and a landing page for a funded startup are both "copywriting" — but they're not the same job, and they shouldn't be priced the same way.

The main things that move your rate up or down:

Specialism. General copywriters charge less than specialists. If you write specifically for fintech, healthcare, SaaS, or any other sector where clients need someone who already understands the context, you can charge more. The same applies to format specialists — email sequences, direct response copy, and conversion-focused web copy tend to command higher rates than editorial content.

Experience and track record. In your first year, you're building evidence that you deliver. Clients are taking a small risk on you, and your rate reflects that. By year two or three, with a portfolio and some results behind you, you have something concrete to point to — and your rate should move accordingly.

Location. London and South East rates are consistently higher than the rest of the UK, partly because London clients have higher budgets and partly because the cost of doing business is higher. Remote work has narrowed this gap somewhat, but it hasn't closed it.

Project complexity. A 500-word blog post is not the same as a full website rewrite. Anything that requires research, interviews, multiple stakeholders, or tight turnaround warrants a higher rate.

Copywriters price the same piece of work in a few different ways, and the right one usually depends on how well-defined the job is. There's no single correct model — most established writers use more than one, depending on the client.

Per project (a fixed fee). You agree a single price for a defined piece of work — a landing page, an email sequence, a set of product descriptions. This is the most common model for one-off copywriting, and often the easiest for a client to say yes to, because they know the cost upfront. It works best when the scope is clear: what you're writing, roughly how long it is, and how many rounds of changes are included. If the brief is still vague, pin the scope down before you quote — a fixed fee against an open-ended brief is where projects quietly lose money.

By the day. A day rate suits larger or less predictable work — a full website, a tone-of-voice project, or an ongoing push where the shape isn't fixed at the outset. It also fits a client who wants your time rather than one specific deliverable. The published benchmarks on this page are day rates, so they make a useful sense-check: if a project fee works out well below your day rate for the time the job actually takes, that's worth noticing before you send the quote.

By the hour. Hourly billing fits small, open-ended, or genuinely unpredictable work — edits, quick turnarounds, or a client whose requests arrive in dribs and drabs. It protects you when scope is unknowable, but many writers move away from it as they get faster, because charging by the hour quietly penalises efficiency. For a job you understand well, a fixed fee usually pays better.

Retainers, once the work is ongoing. If a client needs a steady flow of copy each month, a monthly retainer — an agreed sum for an agreed amount of work — gives both sides predictability. It's worth proposing once a one-off has turned into a regular relationship.

Whichever model you use, a few things are worth setting down in writing before you start:

The number itself matters less than agreeing it clearly, in writing, before the work begins.

The most reliable way to charge more is to make the value of your work legible to the client. "I write clear, engaging copy" is table stakes. "I write onboarding emails that reduce churn" or "I write product pages that convert paid traffic" gives a client a reason to pay more because the outcome is concrete.

A few things that consistently move rates upward: