Build a price for one article, a content package, or a monthly retainer using your own time, costs, responsibility, and client context.
Worked pricing worksheet
Price the deliverable, not the prompt
AI may reduce first-draft time, but professional content still includes source review, structure, editing, fact-checking, original examples, formatting, communication, and accountability. A faster draft does not automatically mean a low-value deliverable.
Three content scope levels
Client supplies an approved brief and sources. You draft, edit, format, and complete one revision. Lower research risk; suitable for predictable work.
You research, structure, draft, verify claims, add internal or external links, format, and handle one or two revisions.
Requires interviews, product testing, technical review, legal or compliance input, original data, or extensive verification. Price and qualification requirements rise sharply.
The eight-part pricing worksheet
- Research: source discovery, interviews, product review, and competitor reading.
- Strategy: audience, search intent, angle, brief, and outline.
- Production: drafting, rewriting, examples, and formatting.
- Verification: names, numbers, claims, quotations, links, and dates.
- Client management: kickoff, questions, approvals, and administration.
- Revisions: define included rounds and consolidated feedback.
- Operating cost: tools, research access, and allocated overhead.
- Risk and value: urgency, complexity, rights, visibility, and consequences of error.
Somez AI Lab Example: a 1,500-word article
The point is not the exact rate. Replace every input with your actual workflow. If the real project takes 10 hours rather than 7.5, the quote must reflect that.
Compare the writing example with the broader pricing model
The article example above is content-specific. For a wider view, the Somez AI Service Pricing Benchmarks holds the pricing assumptions constant and compares project hours and labor values across multiple scenarios. Use it to test whether your writing quote is being driven mainly by time, labor value, revision allowance, risk, or target margin.
Choose the pricing unit
Use when scope, length, research depth, format, and revisions are predictable.
Use when an article, newsletter, social assets, metadata, or upload work belong together.
Use for predictable recurring volume with a capacity limit, workflow, and approval schedule.
Use for uncertain editing, research, interviews, or rescue work where the final scope cannot be known.
Package example: one article into four assets
Retainer capacity example
Suppose a monthly package includes four standard articles and eight derivative posts. Estimate the full recurring hours, then reserve a small capacity buffer. Do not simply multiply a discounted article rate. A retainer also covers scheduling, coordination, recurring meetings, and reserved availability. Define whether unused capacity expires, rolls over, or can be exchanged for another deliverable.
When the price should rise
- Technical, financial, medical, legal, or regulated claims require stronger expertise and review.
- The client needs interviews, original research, or access to paid sources.
- Turnaround is urgent or approvals are fragmented.
- The work includes strategy, upload, CMS formatting, image sourcing, or analytics.
- The client requests exclusivity, ghostwriting, broad reuse rights, or public authorship.
- Several stakeholders or revision rounds are expected.
Content-pricing mistakes
- Charging per word when research and risk drive most of the effort.
- Counting drafting time but not verification and client management.
- Offering unlimited revisions or undefined “SEO optimization.”
- Discounting a retainer without reducing scope or gaining operational efficiency.
- Using market-rate lists without checking whether your deliverable is comparable.
Frequently asked questions
Should AI-assisted writing cost less?
Not automatically. The price depends on the complete workflow, quality, responsibility, complexity, and value.
Should I charge per word?
It can work for standardized production, but project pricing usually captures research, strategy, formatting, and revisions more accurately.
How do I price fact-checking?
Estimate the actual verification time and the expertise required. Avoid high-risk topics outside your qualifications.
When should I use a retainer?
When volume, workflow, capacity, and approval responsibilities are predictable enough to define clearly.
All calculations are illustrative and are not market-rate guarantees. Adapt them to your experience, location, taxes, scope, and client requirements.
Written and reviewed using the standards in our Editorial Policy.