What freelance creatives are actually earning in the UK, and how they make it work

From £65 commissions to £800 day rates, freelance creatives share what they’re actually earning – with insight from writer Alex Holder, author of Open Up, whose work explores how we talk about money and why freelancers are often left to navigate rates without clear benchmarks.

Portrait of Alex Holder

Note: Names have been changed

Octavia, a senior copy-writer, was sat at her desk in a booming tech company, eating free chocolate coated rice crackers she’d picked up from the snack table, when she found herself whispering into her phone, ‘No, the job will pay £450 a day.’

On the other end of the line was a freelancer who had just proposed her corporate day rate to be £250 a day.

‘She was a sought after features writer and I knew there was £450 in the budget,’ explained Octavia. ‘It showed the disparity between client work and journalism, where the budgets are very different’. It also exposed just how often freelancers undervalue themselves, leaving money on the table.

No doubt “seeing” the tech firm's budget was invaluable for that freelancer, not just because in this instance she (of course it was a she) earned £200 more per day, but because she now had a number she could value herself at.

And that’s all any freelancer wants to know, right – how much can I ask for? 

Alex's book, Open Up – the power of talking about money

The information gap

Freelancers are regularly told to “know their worth” and “charge confidently”, but really, what's often missing is a clearer picture of what other creatives are actually earning – and how stable that income really is.

Because here’s the thing, the power in the negotiation is nearly always with the client, they know what they are willing to pay and if they have employed numerous people they have many data points to work from. The taboo that stops individuals talking about money – especially earnings – means the freelancer often doesn’t have a clear idea who is being paid what.

And in a job market where one can feel “lucky” to have any work at all, losing a job for overcharging can feel like a real threat.

Seeing the budget changes everything

Even Octavia admits, “freelancing is so much easier now that I’ve been on the client side, now that I’ve seen the budgets and know what people are asking for.”

Octavia is 31, has years of in-house experience and is now charging between £450-800 per day as a senior copywriter.

‘I still don’t always get it right though,’ she tells me, ‘I charged £5k for a tone of voice guide and put no parameters around the job, it’s been six months and I am still working on it, I joke that my day rate on this job is about £10.’

Why journalism doesn’t pay the rent

Very few freelancers are making their rent money from the work they post on social media.

“I don’t know anyone surviving off journalism alone,” Sheena, 25, a freelance writer and editor tells me. The gap between perceived freelance “success” and financial reality is a constant stress many people feel they are battling alone.

“What you don’t see on social media is the unpaid time spent pitching and the abysmal rates you are paid once you do get a commission.” At first Sheena thought she just had to pitch more, pitch harder, but soon realised she was working against an industry that does not pay enough to make it a tenable job.

Sheena recently took a three day a week contract earning £200 a day writing for a content platform. “I can pay my rent, pay my bills, buy my food. It’s taken a lot of the stress away. And it provides a routine which is incredibly important for me.”

I press Sheena on why she doesn’t apply for a permanent job if stability is so important, “the reality is, it's very hard to get perm jobs that are also creatively fulfilling, there are so few of those jobs right now. You almost have to be freelance to do interesting stuff.” She still writes as a culture journalist, but doesn’t rely on it to pay rent. “The rates vary wildly (From Polyester paying £65 per piece to Service95 paying a nice $1 per word). It affects who I will pitch to.”

Balancing stability and creative work

Melissa, a writer and poet, has found a similar set-up.

Last year she took a full time job in tech hoping for reliable income, but what she got was burnout. Since going freelance she has managed to turn an adhoc freelance gig (at £250 a day) writing content for an online platform into a three day a week retainer.

“They didn’t drop my day rate either, as they know I don’t get the benefits of a full-time employee.” The contract means Melissa can be more playful with the rest of her time. “I write poetry and fiction, I’ve just edited an anthology of working-class voices.”

The hidden costs of freelance work

Straddling industries is a skill most freelancers have to learn: moving between music and fashion, marketing and journalism, research and tech; adjusting day rates accordingly, and learning how to balance portfolio work with the days at the coalface of capitalism.

But freelancing isn’t just navigating inconsistent income. It often means working without a contract, for unverified start-ups, all while maintaining a can-do attitude.

“Gauging how legit a client is can be tricky,” says Perry, 31, an illustrator and graphic designer working out of Bristol. He works three days a week as creative director for a charity earning £38k pro-rata and freelances three days a week mainly creating album and festival artwork which brings in about £1-1.5k per month.

Perry recently worked on a festival poster charging £450. His art work is all hand-created, “it takes space and time, I’m collaging and scanning it in. Each poster can take days.” At first the feedback was okay, but soon he was put into a WhatsApp group with fifteen people all feeding back.

He’s frustrated that a lack of confidence meant he didn’t listen to alarms during initial conversations about the poster, “I could tell they were a load of posh kids and their budgets were already super tight. But they flattered me with how much they liked my work.”

This isn’t a moot point - class dynamics can often feel inflamed in client and freelance relationships. “I only have my personal experience to go on,” says Perry, “but I often find I’m working for people who don’t understand the relationship between time and money because they have never had to.”

What actually helps when setting your rate

It's why it’s so important to try to have as many conversations about what you should be charging as possible. Start with recruitment agents, that’s a relatively easy emotionally-lite conversation. Ex-boss’s can be invaluable too - ask them what they think you should charge, they tend to like to be asked too.

Then the more difficult conversation to have – but the one you will likely get the most out of – asking friends and colleagues who do the same job.

Once you have a figure - a day rate you’ve been paid before or a contextualised project fee from a friend - you can enter your next negotiation with that bit more confidence. You’re also allowed to ask the client what they would expect to pay, remember by this point the client wants you to work for them.

Going forward, Perry is putting in writing: the deliverables, a timeline and how many rounds of feedback the process will allow for. He finds drawing up a contract can feel alarming for clients, but an email can be a useful reference if the scope shifts later. He’s also going to ask that feedback be collated by one person.

All of this you learn on the job. The harsh reality being that often the freelancer learns on their own dollar. It’s why transparency feels particularly urgent for younger creatives right now. When you tell a fellow freelancer your day rate or share a hard-earned lesson in costing up a project fee, you’re making sure the power sits with the masses – not a few at the top.