$0.20/word and $500 flat both sound like reasonable prices for one article. Neither number says how many hours the job actually takes — and this calculator's own worked example shows what dividing by those hours does to both of them.
| Judged by the headline number alone | Divided by this job's actual 9 hours |
|---|---|
| $0.20/word is above the 2026 entry-level floor of $0.10/word — looks like a fair per-word rate. | $300 total ÷ 9 hours = $33.33/hr. |
| $500 for one article sounds like solid, above-average pay. | $500 ÷ 9 hours = $55.56/hr. |
| Both numbers look acceptable on their own, and neither mentions an hourly figure at all. | A $22.22/hr gap between them, and both fall short of a $75/hr target. |
| Is anything I enter uploaded anywhere? | No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser; nothing is sent to a server. |
Take this calculator's own example: a 1,500-word article, written at 500 words an hour, with 4 hours of research and two one-hour revision rounds — 9 total hours. Offered $0.20/word, that's $300. Offered a $500 flat fee instead, that's more money outright, and both numbers individually clear most writers' sense of "that sounds fine."
Neither number says what it pays per hour. Divide each by the same 9 hours the job actually takes and the per-word rate comes to $33.33/hr, the flat fee to $55.56/hr — a $22.22/hr gap that was invisible from either headline price on its own, and both short of a $75/hr target this worked example checks against. Reaching that target on this same job would take a $0.45/word rate or a $675 flat fee, not the $0.20 or $500 either quote actually offered.
A headline price and an hourly rate are different questions, and a headline number that clears your own mental bar for "seems fair" can still pay far less per hour than you'd accept if it were phrased as an hourly rate. $0.20/word is above the 2026 entry-level floor of $0.10/word, and $500 for one article sounds like solid pay -- neither number says anything about how many hours the job actually takes to reach that word count.
Because a headline price is a single number and an hourly rate is that number divided by every hour the job costs, including hours a per-word rate does not separately pay for: research, interviews, outlining, and revision rounds. Two prices that look similar side by side, or that both individually sound acceptable, can turn out to differ by tens of dollars an hour once the same total hours are divided into each -- a gap invisible from either headline number alone.
A 1,500-word article at 500 words/hour, with 4 hours of research and two one-hour revision rounds, comes to 9 total hours. A $0.20/word rate ($300 total) and a $500 flat fee both look like reasonable, similar-enough numbers for one article. Divided by those 9 hours, they are $33.33/hr and $55.56/hr -- a $22.22/hr gap, and both under a $75/hr target that neither headline number hinted at.
For the SAME job, yes -- the higher total dollar amount and the higher effective hourly rate always agree, because both prices are being divided by the identical total hours. What the headline number can't tell you is what that hourly rate actually IS, or whether it clears a target you have in mind. A $500 fee sounds bigger than $300, but only the hourly figure tells you it still falls short of $75/hr.
No. You supply the word count, your writing speed, research hours, and revision rounds; the calculator turns those into a total and divides each price by it. It does not estimate your speed or a client's revision demands for you -- see "What this does not cover" on the calculator page.