PeoplePerHour Fee Calculator

PeoplePerHour insider knowledge

1. 01

   Repeat clients are your most profitable PPH relationships

   The fee structure rewards client loyalty. Your first £250 with any client costs 20%. Everything above drops to 7.5%. A client relationship worth £2,000 total pays a blended rate of ~9.1% — less than half the starting rate. Pitch retainers and ongoing work to existing PPH clients. The economics improve with every invoice.

   Past £250 with a client: fee drops from 20% to 7.5%, permanently

2. 02

   The 3.5% tier is closer than it looks

   Once your lifetime billing with a single client passes £5,000, every further invoice to them costs just 3.5%. A client paying you £1,000 a month gets there in about five months — from then on, PPH is cheaper than Upwork's typical 10%. Concentrating work with fewer, larger clients pays off twice: less acquisition effort and lower fees.

   Above £5,000 with one client: every invoice at 3.5%

3. 03

   Non-UK freelancers: use Wise, not your bank

   PPH pays in GBP. If your expenses are in EUR, USD, or another currency, every withdrawal loses 1–2% at standard bank rates. Using Wise for the conversion typically cuts this to 0.4–0.6%. On £1,000 withdrawn monthly, that's £6–16 saved — small per transaction, meaningful over a year.

   Bank conversion: 1–3%. Wise: 0.4–0.6%. Save £10–30 per £1,000

4. 04

   Set up Houries like product listings, not pitches

   A Hourie is PPH's version of a Fiverr gig — a pre-packaged service clients can buy directly from search. Most freelancers only apply to job posts and miss this entirely. Build 3–5 Houries for your most repeatable services, write them for search intent, and update them regularly. A well-optimized Hourie generates leads for months without any active bidding.

   Houries get passive search traffic, job proposals don't

Estimates based on publicly available fee structures. Not tax advice. Adjust calculations to your specific situation.