PeoplePerHour does not charge one flat fee. What you pay depends on how much you have billed that client over your whole relationship with them: 20% while your lifetime billings with the buyer are under £250, 7.5% between £250 and £5,000, and 3.5% once you pass £5,000. That makes the fee on your next project a moving target — especially when the project straddles a threshold and part of it is billed at each rate.

This calculator handles the straddle for you. Enter the project value and what you have already billed this client (lifetime, before this project), and it applies each tier to the correct slice of the project, shows the total fee and what you keep, and gives you the blended effective rate — the single number that tells you what share of the project the platform really took.

Key takeaways

  • PeoplePerHour charges 20% on lifetime billings under £250 per buyer, 7.5% from £250 to £5,000, and 3.5% above £5,000 — tracked separately for each client.
  • A project that crosses a tier boundary is split: only the slice below the threshold pays the higher rate, the rest pays the lower one — this is why the blended effective rate matters.
  • New clients always start at the 20% tier; the fee drops only as your lifetime billings with that specific buyer grow.
  • Fees are quoted excluding VAT — VAT is added on top of the service fee for sellers it applies to (see PeoplePerHour's fee article), so the headline rate is not the final rate everywhere.
  • There is a £1 minimum service fee per invoice (excl. VAT) — not modeled here, so very small projects may cost slightly more than shown.

Value of this project, in your selected currency.

Total you have already billed THIS client, lifetime (before this project). Each new buyer starts a fresh counter at 0.

GBP thresholds (£250/£5,000) are from PeoplePerHour's official fee article; USD ($350/$7,000) and EUR (€300/€6,000) equivalents are reported by third-party reviews — verify on peopleperhour.com.

Platform fee—PeoplePerHour's cut of this project — service fee only, VAT excluded.
You receive—Project value minus the platform fee — before any withdrawal or currency-conversion fees.
Blended effective rate—Total fee ÷ project value — the real percentage the platform took across every tier your project touched.
Tiers applied—Which fee tier(s) this project falls across.

How it works

  1. Enter the project value in your chosen currency, and how much you have already billed this client over your lifetime on the platform (before this project).
  2. The calculator checks where you sit on the tier ladder — below £250, between £250 and £5,000, or above £5,000 of lifetime billings with this buyer (thresholds scale for USD and EUR).
  3. If your project crosses a threshold, it is split: the slice below the threshold is charged at the higher tier rate and the rest at the lower rate — never the whole project at one rate.
  4. The tiered fees are added up (20% × tier-1 slice + 7.5% × tier-2 slice + 3.5% × tier-3 slice), subtracted from the project value for your take-home, and divided by the project value for the blended effective rate.

Worked example

Worked example 1 — a brand-new client: You quote a £1,000 project and have billed this client £0 so far. The first £250 of the project falls in the 20% tier (£250 × 20% = £50), and the remaining £750 falls in the 7.5% tier (£750 × 7.5% = £56.25). Total platform fee: £106.25. You receive £893.75, and the blended effective rate is £106.25 ÷ £1,000 × 100 = 10.63%. The calculator shows "20% tier + 7.5% tier".

Worked example 2 — straddling the first threshold: You have already billed this client £100 and take on a £300 project. The first £150 of the project (up to the £250 lifetime mark) is charged at 20% (£150 × 20% = £30); the remaining £150 is charged at 7.5% (£150 × 7.5% = £11.25). Total fee: £41.25. You receive £258.75, and the blended effective rate is £41.25 ÷ £300 × 100 = 13.75%.

Worked example 3 — straddling the £5,000 threshold: Lifetime billings stand at £4,900 and the new project is £300. The first £100 of the project (up to £5,000 lifetime) pays 7.5% (£100 × 7.5% = £7.50); the remaining £200 pays 3.5% (£200 × 3.5% = £7.00). Total fee: £14.50. You receive £285.50, and the blended effective rate is £14.50 ÷ £300 × 100 = 4.83%.

Frequently asked questions

How does PeoplePerHour track lifetime billings?

Per client — PeoplePerHour's fee article defines the tiers as "lifetime billing per buyer", based on the paid invoices you have raised with that buyer over the life of the relationship. That running total decides which tier your next project with them is charged at. Enter that total (before the new project) in the "lifetime billed to this client" field.

Is the fee tier per client or account-wide?

Per client. Every buyer has their own counter, and every new buyer starts at £0 — which means the 20% tier. This is the single most important thing to understand about the structure: a freelancer earning well overall still pays 20% on work for each brand-new client until their lifetime billings with that buyer pass £250.

Do the fee tiers ever reset?

No — the counter is lifetime per buyer and does not reset for that buyer. Once you pass £5,000 in lifetime billings with a client, every subsequent project with them is charged at 3.5%. Only a new buyer starts a fresh counter. This is exactly why repeat clients are so valuable on PeoplePerHour: each one is a fee tier you climb once and keep.

What happens when a project crosses a tier threshold?

The project is split. Only the portion below the threshold is charged at the higher rate; the rest is charged at the lower rate. For example, with £100 already billed to a client and a £300 project, £150 of the project (up to £250 lifetime) pays 20% and £150 pays 7.5%, for a total fee of £41.25 — a blended 13.75%, not 20% of the whole project. The calculator does this split automatically.

Is VAT added on top of the service fee?

PeoplePerHour quotes its fee tiers "excl. VAT", and its own fee article includes a section on how to claim the VAT back — so yes, VAT is applied on top of the service fee for sellers it applies to (for example UK-based freelancers, where it is 20%). The calculator shows the pre-VAT fee; if you are liable, add your VAT rate to the platform fee to get the true cost. PeoplePerHour provides a monthly statement in your Payments section showing your net effective commission.

Is there a minimum fee per invoice?

Yes — PeoplePerHour's fee article states a minimum service fee of £1 per invoice (excl. VAT). The calculator does not model this minimum, so on very small invoices the real fee may be a little higher than shown. There is also a minimum payment of £6 (excl. VAT) for auto-pay or per-hour contracts.

What are the thresholds in USD and EUR?

PeoplePerHour's official fee article is written in GBP only (£250 and £5,000). Third-party reviews widely report the equivalents as $350 and $7,000 in USD and €300 and €6,000 in EUR. The calculator uses those reported equivalents when you switch currency, but they are not confirmed on the official GBP-only article — check peopleperhour.com before quoting a client.

Can I invoice a client outside PeoplePerHour to avoid the fee?

Taking a relationship you found on the platform off the platform to dodge fees is what marketplaces call circumvention, and it typically breaches the terms of service — risking account suspension and the loss of the relationship. You also give up payment protection: on-platform, the client's payment sits in escrow until the work is accepted. The honest route is to price the fee into your quotes and climb the tiers with repeat clients instead.

How do PeoplePerHour fees compare with Fiverr and Upwork?

Fiverr charges freelancers a flat 20% on every order — no tiers, no way down. That makes PeoplePerHour cheaper on almost any project where your blended rate lands below 20%, and far cheaper with long-term clients at 3.5%. Upwork's freelancer fee structure changed to a flat rate in 2023; use our Upwork and Fiverr fee calculators in the related tools below to compare the same project side by side.

Does the calculator include proposal credits or withdrawal fees?

No — it covers only the service fee. Proposal credits (you get a limited number of free proposals per month; extra credits cost extra) and withdrawal fees (which vary by method — PayPal, Payoneer, or bank transfer) are separate costs. Budget them on top of the platform fee shown here.

How do I lower my PeoplePerHour fees?

Concentrate your work with repeat clients: every buyer is a separate tier ladder, so one £5,000 relationship beats ten £500 ones. Price the fee into your quotes rather than absorbing it, and use the blended effective rate from this calculator to see exactly what each new project will really cost you before you accept it.

Sources

Last verified: 2026-09-25 Platform fees and rates change frequently. Verify the current fees on the official platform before relying on these estimates.

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