The email says they are "pausing the project," and you can feel the month rearrange itself. You held the dates. You may have turned other work down. Now they want to walk away as if the calendar was free.
Charging a kill fee feels harsh if you have never written one down. It feels obvious the moment you look at the hours you cannot sell twice.
This page gives you the percentages to ask for, and four emails to paste, one for each stage. Before you start. After kickoff. After a midpoint. When the work is basically done.
Why a cancellation fee feels harder than the invoice
An invoice for finished work has a thing you can point at. A cancellation fee points at time, and time looks invisible in an email. The client remembers the decision to stop. You remember the week you blocked. Those are different stories, so the fee feels like a penalty unless you tie it to a stage.
The other awkward part is that you like being easy to work with. Easy people refund. Easy people say "no worries." Easy people then spend Thursday trying to fill a hole that used to be a $4,000 project. A percentage is how you stay polite and still get paid for the hole.
None of this is legal advice. A fee you wrote into the quote is simpler to collect. If you did not, you can still ask, and you should still name the stage. Inventing 100 percent on a job you have not started is how a reasonable client becomes an angry one. The ladder below is what a lot of freelancers actually use.
What percentage to charge when a project is cancelled
Use this ladder unless your contract already names a different one. If the contract names one, use that and skip the debate.
- Before any work, dates held: 25 percent of the project fee. If they paid a deposit that is already 25 percent or more, and you called it non-refundable, keep the deposit and do not add a second fee.
- After kickoff, before a draft or first delivery: 50 percent. Invoice within 2 business days. Stop work the day they cancel.
- After a midpoint, a draft, or a first approval: 75 percent, minus what they have already paid.
- After final delivery, or once you are in the last stage: 100 percent of what is still owed. They are paying for a finished job, not cancelling one.
Send the cancellation invoice the next business day. Do not wait a week to see if they "unpause." A pause with no restart date is a cancellation. Ask, in the same email, whether they have a date to restart. If they do not, bill the stage you are in.
Subtract money you have already received. A $4,000 project with a $2,000 deposit, cancelled after a draft, is a 75 percent fee, which is $3,000. They owe $1,000 more, not another $3,000. Say the arithmetic in the email so nobody has to guess.
Email template when they cancel before you start
Use this when you have held dates and have not kicked off. The ask is 25 percent. If a non-refundable deposit already covers that, this email confirms you are keeping it, and it says what you will return.
Hi [Client name], I have your note. I will take [project name] off the calendar. I had held [start date] through [end date] for this work. The cancellation fee at this stage is 25 percent of the [project fee], which is [amount]. You have already paid [deposit amount]. I will keep [amount you keep] and return [amount you return] by [date, within 7 days]. If the deposit was less than the 25 percent, the invoice for the difference is attached and due on [date]. If you want to restart, write to me with a new date. The fee above still stands for the dates I released. [Your name]
Why it works: You tie the fee to dates you held, which is something they can understand. You show the deposit math instead of saying "non-refundable" like a slammed door. A restart is possible, and it does not erase the fee.
If you never took a deposit, this is the moment you feel it. The next project should not start that way. What freelance deposit percentage to ask for is the decision, and the deposit invoice calculator turns it into the first bill instead of a sentence you forget.
Email template when they cancel after kickoff
Kickoff means you started. A call happened, research started, or you turned down other work because the dates were real. The fee is 50 percent. Stop the same day.
Hi [Client name], I am stopping work on [project name] today, as you asked. We kicked off on [date]. I have not delivered a draft yet. At this stage the cancellation fee is 50 percent of [project fee], which is [amount]. You have paid [amount already paid]. The attached invoice is for the remaining [balance], due on [date]. I will not send further files, and I will not keep the dates. If you restart later, we will write a new quote for whatever is left. [Your name]
Why it works: You name the stage, the percent, and the balance in three short lines. You also stop the work in writing, so a later "but you kept going" does not appear. The restart is a new quote, not a revival of the old price.
Email template when they cancel after a draft
A draft, a midpoint approval, or a first round of revisions puts you at 75 percent. Send this the next business day. Attach the invoice. Mention the draft date so the stage is a fact.
Hi [Client name], Understood. I will not continue past the work already done. I sent the draft on [date], and that puts the cancellation at 75 percent of the [project fee]. Seventy-five percent is [amount]. You have paid [amount already paid], so the balance is [balance]. The invoice is attached, due on [date]. It covers the draft and the time booked after kickoff. It does not include a finished delivery, and I will not complete the remaining stage unless we agree a new price. [Your name]
Why it works: The percent is translated into dollars, then into a balance. You say what the fee covers and what it does not, so they are not paying 75 percent and also expecting the final files.
If they say they cannot pay the balance in one go, that is a dates problem, not a reason to drop the fee to whatever they offer first. The arrangement only works with dates, which is the whole subject of what to do when a client can't pay the full invoice.
Email template when they cancel at the end
If the work is delivered, or you are in the last stage and the files are ready, this is not a partial fee. It is the rest of the invoice. "We have decided not to use it" does not unwind a finished job.
Hi [Client name], I am sorry the project is stopping. The work is already in the last stage, and the fee for that stage is the full remaining balance. The project fee was [project fee]. You have paid [amount already paid]. The attached invoice is for [balance], due on [date]. That is 100 percent of what is left, because the delivery is done or ready. I will not be refunding earlier payments. If you do not want the final files, the invoice still stands. Tell me where to send them if you do. [Your name]
Why it works: You separate "we changed our mind" from "the work was not done." The balance is stated as a remainder, not as a surprise new fee. You still offer the files, because withholding them out of irritation is a different fight. If your agreement says files move when the balance is paid, follow that, and say so. The guide on holding work until you are paid is the rule to have written before this email, not during it.
What to do when they refuse the cancellation fee
Restate the stage and the math once. Do not re-argue your feelings about the calendar. If your quote included the ladder, quote that sentence. If it did not, say what you already delivered and what you are prepared to accept in writing.
A reasonable reduction is one step down the ladder, once, if you had no written fee and you want the relationship or a clean end. Fifty percent becomes a negotiated 25 only if you choose it, and you write "this closes the project." Do not slide a little every email.
If they go silent, the invoice is still due. Follow up on the date you named. If the amount is large and the silence holds, you are in the same place as any other unpaid invoice. Do not keep producing work to "earn" a fee they already triggered by cancelling.
Give the refusal one reply, then the due date. A week of back-and-forth about fairness usually ends at a worse number than the one you would have accepted on day one.
How to put a kill fee in the next agreement
Add the ladder, in percents and in plain words, under the price. Read it out loud once before you send the quote. If you would be embarrassed to enforce a line, delete it before they accept, not after they cancel.
Take a deposit that matches the first step. Twenty-five to fifty percent before you start means a cancellation on day two is mostly already paid. A deposit you call "to get going" and then refund in full is not a kill fee. It is a loan they gave you.
When they cancel, send the matching email the next business day. The template works because the percentage was never a surprise. If this is the first time you are using it, say that in one honest line, bill the stage, and put the sentence in every quote after this one.
Tone rules for a cancellation email
Wish the project a clean end. Do not diagnose their business, their budget, or their cold feet. You do not know, and the fee does not need their motive.
Use "cancellation fee" or "kill fee" once, then talk in dollars. Percentages without dollars make people argue about the percent. Dollars make them look at the invoice.
Do not threaten court in the first note. Do not apologize for the fee in the same sentence you charge it. You can be sorry the project stopped and still be clear about the balance.
Send it the next business day, while the stage is still obvious to both of you. A fee that arrives three weeks later feels like a grudge. A fee that arrives with the draft date in it feels like the bill for a decision they made.