How to charge for revisions: count what a round really takes

11 October 2026 · 7 min read

Include a set number of revision rounds in your price, define what a round is, and charge for each extra round at a figure based on the hours a round really takes you. The first two parts are a matter of wording. The third is where most freelancers guess, and guess low. Measure two or three rounds on your Mac and you will have a number you can defend.

The three ways to charge for revisions

Almost every revision policy is one of these.

• Included rounds, then a flat fee per extra round. “Two rounds are included. Further rounds are billed at a fixed amount each.” Easy for the client to understand and to approve.
• Included rounds, then hourly. “Two rounds are included. Further changes are billed at my hourly rate.” Safer for you when rounds vary a lot in size.
• Unlimited revisions, priced into the fee. Attractive to clients and risky for you, unless you know how many rounds your projects usually run to and have priced them all in.

All three depend on the same figure: how long one round takes. Without it, the flat fee is a guess and the included rounds are an unknown cost inside your price.

What a revision round really contains

When you picture a round of revisions, you picture making the changes. That is only the middle of it. A full round usually includes:

• Reading the feedback, which may be spread across an email, a chat thread and comments in the file.
• Working out what the feedback means, and asking questions where it is unclear.
• Making the changes themselves.
• Fixing the things the changes broke: the layout that reflowed, the paragraph that no longer follows.
• Exporting, uploading and naming the new version.
• Writing the note that explains what changed and what did not.
• A call to walk through it, if the client likes calls.

The changes may be the smallest part, which is why a price built on how long a round felt runs short.

Count a round on your Mac

You do not need a timer for this, or to count every project. Two or three rounds are enough to set a price.

1. Note when the feedback arrives. One line in any notes app: the date, the time, the project.
2. Work the round as you normally would. Do not rush it or pad it. You are measuring a real one.
3. Note when you send the revised version. Same line, second time.
4. Read the record for those days. Add up the time in the apps the round used: the design or writing app, mail, chat, the call.
5. Repeat on two more rounds, on different projects if you can.
6. Take the average, and note the longest one as well.

Punchcard keeps the record for step 4. It notices which app is in front through the day and prints a receipt at the closing time you set: the top five apps with a time on each, the rest as MISC, and a day total. If a round fills most of a day, the receipt is close to the answer already.

Be clear about what it does not do. Punchcard records the app in front, not the client or the project. It has no per-project tracking, no manual timers and no billable rates. If you worked for two clients in the same app on the same day, the receipt shows one line for that app. Your two noted times separate them: the CSV export has one row per session with a start and an end, so you can add up the sessions between “feedback arrived” and “revision sent”. If you need a tool that assigns every minute to a client and produces the invoice, this is not it.

Tracking is free and does not expire, the CSV export works without a license, and the first two receipts are free. Printing receipts after that needs the license, $9 once.

Turn the hours into a price

Here is the arithmetic with made-up figures. Put your own in their place.

Say your three measured rounds took 2 hours, 2.5 hours and 3.5 hours. The average is a little under 2.7 hours, and the longest is 3.5. Say your rate is $80 an hour.

• A flat fee per extra round. Average hours times rate comes to about $213. Round it up to $225 or $250, because the long rounds exist and the flat fee has to cover them too.
• The cost of included rounds. Two included rounds are about 5.3 hours of work inside your project price. If your quote did not allow for those hours, you are giving them away. Add them to the estimate before you send it.
• Unlimited revisions. Only offer this if your own history shows how many rounds a project usually takes, and price in that many plus a margin. Without the history, it is a bet.

Look at the spread as well as the average. If your rounds are all about the same length, a flat fee is fair to both sides. If one is 45 minutes and the next is six hours, bill extra rounds hourly.

How to calculate your effective hourly rate on a fixed-price project shows what unpriced rounds do to the rate you really earned.

Write it into the agreement before the work starts

A price for extra rounds only works if the client saw it before the first round. Put four things in the proposal or contract, in plain words:

1. How many rounds are included.
2. What counts as a round. One consolidated list of changes to the agreed work, sent by one person, within a set number of days of delivery.
3. What is not a revision. A new direction, extra pages, or a change to something already approved is new work, quoted separately.
4. What an extra round costs, and that you will confirm before starting one.

The definition does the most work. Feedback that arrives in five messages over a week costs you five restarts, and “one consolidated list” prevents it.

When the extra round arrives, say so before you begin, without apology: “This would be a third round, which is $225 under our agreement. Shall I go ahead?” Some clients say yes, and some decide the change was not so important. Both outcomes are fine. Fixing your own errors is different: that is not a revision, and you should not charge for it.

This is general guidance on pricing, not legal advice. For the contract wording itself, have someone qualified read it.

If rounds keep multiplying on a project, the cause may be changing requirements, not revisions. How to spot scope creep in your hours before the project ends covers that case.

Questions

How many rounds should I include?

Two is a frequent choice, because it allows one round of real feedback and one of final corrections. Your own record is a better guide: if your projects usually settle in two, include two.

Should a small tweak count as a full round?

A typo should not trigger a fee. The usual answer is batching: a list of small tweaks sent together is a round, and you can choose to wave a single one through as goodwill.

Is a flat fee or an hourly rate better for extra rounds?

A flat fee is easier for the client to approve, and it works when your measured rounds are similar in length. Hourly is safer when they vary widely.