Price the result,not the hours.
Cost plus pricing asks 'what does it cost me?' Value based pricing asks 'what is it worth to them?', and the gap between those two numbers is enormous. Enter the measurable value your work creates for a client and the share you aim to capture, and this gives you a defensible price range plus the return the client still walks away with. The number that makes 'too expensive' disappear.
Your numbers
Revenue gained or cost saved for the client, annually, from your work.
The conservative slice of that value you'd charge.
The ambitious slice, your premium anchor.
The verdict
Conservative
$12,000
Anchor
$18,000
Premium
$24,000
Client's return at anchor
6.67×
Value ÷ your price.
Value captured
15.0%
Your share of the upside.
Who keeps the value (at anchor)
Why this sells
At the anchor price the client keeps roughly 6.7× their investment. Lead with that return, not your fee — the price becomes the cheap part of an obvious deal.
Sensitivity · the capture dial
Price & client return by the share you take
| Capture | Your price | Client's return |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | $6,000 | 20.0× |
| 10% | $12,000 | 10.0× |
| 15% | $18,000 | 6.7× |
| 20% | $24,000 | 5.0× |
| 30% | $36,000 | 3.3× |
| 40% | $48,000 | 2.5× |
Even at a 30% capture the client still triples their money — so the ceiling on your price is usually their belief in the value, not the value itself. Prove the outcome and the capture share can climb.
Your move
Value based pricing only works if you can create the value. That's the part I do.
On $120,000 of value, price $12,000–$24,000 — the client still keeps ~6.7× their money.
Charging on outcomes means you have to deliver outcomes, measurable revenue, not just deliverables. That's exactly the bar I work to. If you want to price on value but need the results to back it, book the call and I'll show you, free, where the biggest, most provable wins are hiding.
Plain English
The client doesn't buy your time. They buy the outcome.
Value based pricing sets your fee as a share of the value your work creates, not as a multiple of the hours it takes. If a project will make a client an extra $120,000 a year, charging $12,000 for it isn't expensive. It's a 10× return they'd be foolish to turn down. The hours you spent are irrelevant to that decision. This is how the highest paid freelancers, agencies, and consultants escape the ceiling that hourly billing bolts onto their income.
The mechanics are a conversation before they're a calculation. You quantify the outcome with the client, more revenue, lower costs, time saved, risk avoided, then price a fraction of it. Capturing 10 to 20% of the value created is a common, defensible band: generous enough that the client keeps the lion's share (and an obvious ROI), rich enough that your fee reflects the result rather than the effort. The anchor is always the value, so the price feels like a smart investment, not a cost.
This calculator turns that into three numbers: a conservative price, a mid anchor, and a premium, plus the multiple the client still earns at the mid price. Use it to set tiered options and to walk into pricing conversations grounded in their economics, not your insecurity. The work that follows is the hard part: proving you can actually create the value you're pricing against. But once you can, value based pricing is the single biggest lever on what you earn.
The formula
Price = value created × capture share (typically 10 to 20%)
Your work will earn a client $120,000 a year. Capture 10% and you charge $12,000; capture 20% and you charge $24,000; the mid anchor is $18,000. Even at the top of that range, the client keeps $96,000, a 5× return. The hours you spent never enter the conversation, because the value does all the talking.
How much value to capture
Common capture shares by how directly and certainly your work drives the outcome. The clearer the line from your work to the result, the larger the slice you can defend:
| How direct your impact | Capture share |
|---|---|
| Clear, attributable revenue / savings | 15 to 25% |
| Strong influence, shared credit | 10 to 15% |
| Indirect or uncertain | 5 to 10% |
Source: Value-based pricing practice (capture share) · 2025
Read your price
The price feels uncomfortably high.
Check the client's ROI multiple. If they still keep 4 to 9× their investment, the price isn't high. It's a bargain. Your discomfort is the old hourly anchor talking, not the math.
You can't quantify the value.
Then you can't price on it yet. Do the discovery: pull the numbers on revenue, cost, or time with the client. No value figure, no value based price, fall back to a strong fixed fee.
Capture share above ~25%.
You're taking too much of the upside. The client needs to win clearly for the deal to feel good and renew. Pricing to leave them a big ROI is what makes value based pricing durable.
Client ROI multiple under 3×.
The value isn't strong enough, or your share is too big, to be an easy yes. Either find more value to attach or lower the capture so the return is obvious.
One off value vs. recurring value.
If the value repeats every year, price the annual value and consider a retainer, you're creating it again and again, so capture it again and again.
How to price on value
01Quantify before you quote
Run discovery to put a number on the outcome, revenue, savings, time, risk. The price conversation is impossible without it and easy with it.
02Anchor on their ROI, not your fee
Lead with the value and the return they keep. '$120k in new revenue, your investment is $18k' reframes the price as the cheap part of the deal.
03Offer three tiers
Good/better/best options let the client choose their level of ambition and pull the average price up. The premium tier also makes the middle look reasonable.
04Leave generous value on the table
Capturing 10 to 20% means the client keeps 80 to 90%. That lopsided win is exactly what makes them say yes fast and come back.
05Price recurring value as recurring revenue
If the outcome compounds yearly, don't sell it once. Capture the annual value through a retainer so your pay tracks the value you keep creating.
06Be able to deliver before you price it
Value based pricing is a promise. Earn the right to it with proof, case studies and results, so the value figure is credible, not hopeful.
The vocabulary
- Value based pricing
- Setting price as a share of the financial value your work creates for the client, rather than from cost or hours.
- Capture share
- The percentage of the created value you charge as your fee, commonly 10 to 20%.
- Client ROI
- The return the client earns on your fee: value created ÷ price. The higher it is, the easier the yes.
- Cost plus pricing
- Pricing by adding a markup to your costs. Simple, but ignores what the outcome is worth and caps your earnings.
- Price anchor
- A reference number that frames how expensive a price feels. In value pricing, the anchor is the value created.
Value based pricing questions, straight answers
It's pricing your work as a share of the value it creates for the client, extra revenue, cost savings, time, or risk avoided, instead of from your costs or hours. If your work makes a client $120,000, you might charge a fraction of that, say 10 to 20%. The hours you spend become irrelevant; the outcome sets the price.
Keep going
A calculator tells you what. A call tells you what to do about it.
Send me the account behind these numbers. I'll tell you straight where the money's leaking and what I'd fix first — free, and you keep it whether you hire me or not.