Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For genealogists

Genealogist hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance genealogist should charge, starting from the income you need — then builds the block and project prices clients actually pay out of real research hours. Nobody books “an hour of genealogy”; they book a block of research, a birth record found, a family line taken back as far as the records honestly go. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $73 an hour, $585 for a full day — and the conversions that price is built from: research is usually sold in blocks, and a ten-hour block is $730 of research time, a single-record lookup with a written report is about two hours, $146 — with record copies and certificates billed through at cost as their own lines.

Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, sent to a server or stored anywhere except this device.

The pricing reality for freelance genealogists

Projects are bought flat and earned by the hour, and the two only agree if the project price was built from the hours in the first place. A family line that “should be quick” can run into a burned parish register, a name that changes spelling three times, and a week of proving that two men with the same name are not the same man. The fixed price carries all of that whether it covers it or not — and the dead ends are not wasted work, they are findings, but they are findings that took hours. Price the research hour first, and the project becomes an assembly: a stated block of hours at a rate that adds up, with the cap agreed before the first archive opens.

This is a knowledge trade with a subscription bill, and the bill is the pricing trap. The databases, the archive memberships, the record copies — they are the genealogist’s workshop, paid every year whether the diary is full or empty, and clients who see a person at a laptop rarely guess they exist. The presets below use a 55% billable share: the hours in the records and writing the report bill, and quoting, ordering, travelling to archives and keeping up with the record releases take theirs first.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $48,000 target income, $6,800 a year of expenses — archive and database subscriptions lead, with record copies, archive travel, computer and software, professional memberships and insurance — a 22% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 55% billable time. Certificates and copies bought for one client’s tree are billed through at cost as their own lines, never buried in the rate, as the maths section explains. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $73 an hour.

Your numbers — genealogist presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs genealogists forget to put in the rate

  • The subscription shelf. The big databases, the newspaper archives, the society memberships — several hundred a year each, all of them due in the quiet months too. They are the workshop rent of a trade that looks, from outside, like it needs only a laptop.
  • Proving a negative. Showing that a record does not exist, or that the tempting ancestor is the wrong man, can take as long as a successful search — and it is some of the most valuable work you sell. If the hours are not inside the block, the rigour is what quietly gets skipped.
  • Record copies and certificates. Every tree drinks certified copies, and they are bought one client at a time. Billed through at cost they are a clean line the client understands; absorbed into the rate they are a leak that grows with every project.
  • The report is the product. Clients do not keep your search notes; they keep the written tree, the sourced citations, the story told straight. The writing hours are skilled hours — a block that prices the searching and not the telling underprices every project by the same slice.
  • Archive days. Some records live in one building, in one county, on paper. The travel day to read them bills nobody directly — the rate has to know the archives exist, or archive work becomes the favour you do at your own expense.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the genealogist presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 55% billable — that is 1,056 billable hours a year: the hours in the records and writing reports that clients can pay for, once quoting, ordering and archive travel have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $54,800 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 22% estimate, divide by 0.78 to get $70,256 — then add your profit margin to reach $77,282 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $73, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the block and project prices clients actually pay. Research is usually sold in blocks: ten hours of research is $730, and the block’s cap — agreed before the first archive opens — is what makes a fixed-feeling price safe for both sides. A single-record lookup with a written report is about two hours, $146. A full family-history project runs to about twenty-five hours, $1,825 of research and writing. The certificates and record copies the tree needs are not inside those numbers: they are bought for one client, at cost, and appear on the invoice as their own lines.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Genealogist rate questions

Because the project price is built out of research hours whether you count them or not — and genealogy hours are unusually hard to predict, because the records, not the researcher, decide how long a line takes. The hourly rate is how you build a project price with an honest hours cap: this much research, at this rate, and a checkpoint before any more is spent. Genealogists who skip the cap find their most interesting projects are their worst paid, because interesting usually means difficult, and difficult means hours.
Because the records are not the whole week. For every hour in the archives there is a quote to write, copies to order, a report to check, a client to update and new record releases to keep up with. Fifty-five percent is a realistic start for a solo genealogist. A long archive residency bills a higher share; a week of short lookups, each with its own quote and report, bills less. Set the number that matches your diary, not your best month.
No. A certificate is bought for one client’s tree, at a set fee, and it belongs to that client — burying its cost in your rate means every other client subsidises it and your rate quietly stops covering your subscriptions. Bill copies through at cost as their own line, named on the invoice, and keep the rate for what it is for: your hours, your subscriptions and your expertise. Clients accept the line readily, because they can see exactly what their money bought.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.