Your number
$5,000
Your rate card
- Day rate$950 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- A documentation set$5,000 per project
- Monthly retainer$4,000 per month
What to charge for each thing (4)
- API or developer docs$200 per page
- User guide$2,625 each
- White paper$2,800 each
- Knowledge base article$150 each
US rates for technical writers at your level, adjusted for your market. What you last got wins.
- a documentation set$5,000
For a documentation set, the quote is $5,000.
To take home $85,000 after $9,000 of costs and 30% tax you need to bill $134,286 a year. At 24 billable hours a week for 47 weeks that is $125 an hour, $950 a day. Anything under that is a pay cut you did not agree to.
Technical writers usually day at $600 to $1,200. You are above it. That is fine when the work is, and it is the reason to say it plainly and show the work.
A documentation set runs $2,000 to $10,000 and takes about 40 hours of your time; at your hourly that is $5,000. The number is the higher of the two, because the client is buying the outcome, not the hours.
A retainer is the month, not the hours: a set scope, paid up front on the 1st. It is priced about 20% under the same work bought one at a time, in exchange for the certainty; three months minimum, or it is not a retainer.