Margin calculator
Win a project at one price, have it delivered for less, keep the spread — that is freelance arbitrage. Move the three sliders and see what a month looks like with the marketplace fee left in.
Illustrative. Freelancer.com's project fee is 10% or a small fixed minimum at the time of writing — check the current fee page. Your own time is not a line here; count it.
How to read it
The number that matters is the effective margin, not the monthly total. A high total with a thin margin means one bad vendor or one revision-heavy client wipes the month. A $650 project delivered for 28% keeps 62% after the fee; the same project delivered for 50% keeps 40%. Price the client on the outcome, brief the vendor precisely, then check all remaining costs before calling the spread profit.
The inputs are guesses until you have your own numbers. DealPrinter shows you those — bids placed, replies, awards, milestones — on your own Freelancer.com account, and the first four days of ours are public.
Questions
What does the calculator assume?
Gross revenue is project value times deals per month. Delivery is the percentage you pay a vendor. The marketplace fee is 10% of gross, which is Freelancer.com's freelancer-side project fee at the time of writing (there is also a small fixed minimum on tiny projects). The result is a spread before your own time, software, tax, refunds and other costs, not take-home profit.
Is the default a typical result?
No. The defaults ($650 projects, 6 a month, 28% delivery cost) are an illustration, the same one the landing page uses. The earlier $565 cleared claim mixed $563 of sandbox testing with $2 of historical activity. It was not earnings generated by DealPrinter. Funded milestones are not cash received, and profit is unverified until delivery costs and working time are reconciled.
Where does the 10% fee come from?
Freelancer.com charges the freelancer a project fee on awarded work. It is 10% or a fixed minimum, whichever is higher, at the time of writing. Check Freelancer's current fee page before pricing.
What about my own hours?
Count them. Briefing a vendor, reviewing the work and answering the client take real time on every project. A spread that only works if your hours are free is not a spread.
Related: freelance arbitrage — the math and the risks · choosing a bidding tool