You already know the number is too low. Saying it to someone who has paid the old one for a year feels like you are about to lose them.
Raising your rates with existing clients is awkward because they remember the first price, and you remember being grateful they said yes. You rehearse the email, then book one more project at the old rate so you can put the conversation off.
This page is the conversation, already written. You get four emails you can paste: a first increase, a long standing client, a client who pushes back, and a client who decides to walk. Each one names the old amount, the new amount, and the date.
Why raising your rates with existing clients feels so hard
The old price was a promise, even if you never said it would last forever. The client planned a budget around it. You planned your month around their yes. When you change the number, both of those plans wobble, and your brain treats the wobble like a breakup.
Most clients are not shocked that prices move. They are shocked when the move arrives inside an invoice they already expected to match last month. The feeling you are trying to avoid is not "they hate me." It is "they think I snuck this past them." A dated email, sent before the next job starts, removes the sneak.
You also mix up loyalty and a discount. A client who has been with you for three years has earned clear notice and a finished project at the old rate. They have not earned a permanent freeze. If you need a number, ten percent a year is ordinary. Fifteen percent is reasonable when the price has sat still for two years. A jump of thirty percent, with no change in the work, is a new relationship. Call it that, or do not send it.
When to tell a client you are raising your rates
Send the email before you need the money, not the week a bill scares you. A rate rise that arrives with a sigh is harder to trust than one that arrives on a calm Tuesday.
Use this cadence. It is specific on purpose.
- Project clients: tell them when you send the next quote. Finish the job you already priced at the old rate. If they want to start inside the next 14 days, either hold the old rate for that one job or offer a start date after the new rate begins.
- Monthly clients: give 30 days. Name the first of a month. If you email on 3 March, the new rate starts 1 April, not "next invoice."
- A client who replies with a worry: answer within 2 business days. Do not let the thread sit for a week while you decide whether to fold.
- A client who says they are done: reply the same day. Thank them. Invoice what is finished. Do not send a discount on day 3 because the silence feels loud.
Send it on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday morning. Monday is a pile. Friday afternoon waits until next week, which means it waits forever.
Work the new number out before you write. If you have been guessing, the freelance rate calculator is the ten minutes that stops you picking a figure you cannot defend. Once you have it, the email is just the delivery.
Email template for a first rate increase
Use this when the client has had one price, the work has gone fine, and you have never raised it. Send it at least 30 days before the date you name. Keep the current project on the old rate.
Hi [Client name], I am writing before the next piece of work so this is not a surprise on an invoice. From [date], my rate moves from [old rate] to [new rate]. That is [percentage] more than the rate we have been using. The project we are in now stays at [old rate]. Anything we start after [date] uses [new rate]. If you want the next job held at the current rate, we would need to start it before [date]. Happy to look at dates if that helps. Thanks, [Your name]
Why it works: You give the old number, the new number, and the date in the first half of the email. The current job is protected, so they are not being charged a new price for a yes they already gave. The last paragraph is a real option, not a fake deadline.
If they are not in a project right now, delete the line about the current job. Do not invent a grace period you will not keep.
Email template for a long standing client
Use this when the relationship is measured in years, not jobs. The notice is still 30 days. The tone can be warmer. The numbers stay just as plain. A long memory is a reason to be clear, not a reason to blur the increase into "a small update."
Hi [Client name], We have worked together since [year or month], and the rate has stayed at [old rate]. I am changing it. From [date], new work is [new rate]. I wanted you to hear that from me, with a month to plan, rather than see it on an invoice. I will finish anything already booked at [old rate]. After [date], quotes and monthly invoices use [new rate]. If a particular job needs to stay on the old rate, tell me which one and when it would start. I can hold [old rate] for a single project that begins before [date]. Thanks for the work so far. I want to keep doing it. [Your name]
Why it works: You name the length of the relationship without turning it into a guilt trip. "I am changing it" is cleaner than a paragraph about inflation. One project can stay on the old rate. A permanent exception is not on offer.
If this client is really a monthly arrangement, the next conversation may be a retainer rather than another project rate. The note in how to move a client onto a retainer is the follow-on, after this email has landed. Do not combine both asks in one message. A new rate and a new shape of working is two decisions. People can make one of them on a Tuesday.
Email template when a client pushes back on your new rate
Send this within 2 business days of their reply. Read their note once and answer the point they actually made. "We do not have budget" is a scope conversation. "This is more than we pay anyone" is still a scope conversation. It is not a cue to cut ten percent off the top and call it resolved.
Hi [Client name], Thanks for saying it plainly. I am keeping the rate at [new rate] from [date]. If [new rate] does not fit the budget you have, we can shrink the work. A version that stays inside [their budget] would cover [smaller scope], and it would leave out [what you would cut]. The current project still finishes at [old rate]. I will not change that. Tell me by [date] if you want the smaller version, the new rate, or a pause. If I do not hear back, I will assume we pause after the current work and you can reopen it when the timing is better. [Your name]
Why it works: You do not argue with their budget. You trade scope for money, and you put a date on the choice so the thread cannot drift for a month. The old project stays safe, which keeps the argument about the future.
If the gap is small and you want to be generous once, say the exception out loud and date it. "I can do the March project at [old rate]. From April it is [new rate]." An unnamed discount gets reused. A dated one expires. For the wording you put on the next agreement, the examples in payment terms wording are the place to make the new rate look like a term, not a mood.
Email template when a client walks away from a rate increase
Send this the day they say they are done. Do not wait to see if they cool off. Do not attach a new quote at a price you just abandoned. The point of this email is to end cleanly and get the last invoice out.
Hi [Client name], I understand. [New rate] does not work for you, and I am not going to pull it back. I will finish [what is already underway] at [old rate] and send the final invoice on [date]. After that I will not book more work unless we start again at [new rate]. Thank you for the projects we did get to do. If your budget changes, you can write to me and I will tell you honestly whether I have room. [Your name]
Why it works: You let them go without a counteroffer. The last sentence keeps the door open without begging. A client who hears "I can do 10 percent off if you stay" learns that walking is a pricing tactic.
Invoice the finished work within 2 business days. A farewell email with no bill attached is how the last $1,800 becomes awkward in a different way. If you take a deposit on whatever comes next with someone else, what freelance deposit percentage to ask for is the decision to make before you fill the gap with another underpriced yes.
What to do when a client will not accept your new rate
Some clients will not move. That is a result, not a failed email. You have two honest next steps, and one you should skip.
First, finish the booked work at the old rate and stop selling them the next job. Put the hours back on the market at the new rate. A week of quiet is not a reason to reopen the old price.
Second, offer a smaller scope if the work can actually be smaller. Cut a round of revisions, a meeting, a page, a report. Write the cut in the email so you are not quietly doing the full job. If the work cannot be cut, say that. "This is the job, and the price is [new rate]" is a complete answer.
The step to skip is the panic discount. Three days after they decline, you will want to write "what if I met you in the middle." Do not. The middle becomes the rate. If you want a one-time exception, it belongs in the pushback email, with a date.
How to stop dreading the next rate increase
Put the raise on a calendar, not on a feeling. Pick a month. When it arrives, you look at the rate, you add about ten percent, and you tell the clients who are still on the old number. The email is boring if you do it every year. It is a crisis if you do it every three.
New clients never hear the old rate. The day you decide, quotes go out at the new number. Existing clients get the 30 days. Mixing those two groups is how you end up with five prices and a notebook you do not trust.
Write the rate into the next agreement in dollars, with the date it applies. If you bill monthly, the first invoice after that date should match the email exactly.
Tone rules for a rate increase email
Use "my rate is changing," not "I have to raise prices, sorry." Sorry belongs to a mistake. A new rate is a decision. You can be warm without kneeling.
Put dollars in the email. "A small increase" makes them imagine the worst number, or it makes them argue about what small means. $90 to $100 is a fact. They can say yes or no to a fact.
Do not list your expenses, your rent, or a speech about the year you had. One reason, then the date. Do not compare yourself to other people.
Then send it. The draft that sits for eleven days comes out apologetic, because you have spent eleven days arguing with yourself. Your job is the date and the send button.