How is the cost of a blog post worked out?
Cost per post is the writer's fee plus the time you spend on the post. A freelancer's fee is the word count times their per-word rate. An agency quotes a price per post. An in-house writer costs their hourly pay, plus benefits, times the hours one post takes.
Then add your own time for research, editing and fact checking. Most budgets leave this out. We give those hours no default, because we found no published figure we trust. Enter yours and the total changes.
With the sourced defaults, one 1,312 word post costs $328 to $590 from a freelancer, $500 to $1,500 or more from an agency, and about $176 of in-house writing time at a loaded cost of $52.83 an hour. The ranges are wide because the work behind a post is wide: a post with interviews and original data costs more than a summary of public facts.
The rates are for the United States in 2025 and 2026. Your market may differ, so overwrite any number in the form.
Want the full picture of what writers charge and where sources disagree? Read how much does a blog post cost? Every tier and where sources disagree and how much to spend on SEO content per month.
Where do the default rates come from?
Each default below is one published figure, read on October 29, 2026. We show the source and what it covers. If a figure changes, so will this page.
| Source | What it says | Read on |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial Freelancers Association, 2026 rate chart | Blog posts, work-for-hire: 25 to 45 cents a word (survey run November 2025 to mid-January 2026). | |
| Lilach Bullock, how much it really costs to have blog posts written (2026) | Agencies and premium ghostwriters: $500 to $1,500 plus a post, for 1,000 to 1,500 words. The author sells content writing, so read it as one informed view. | |
| U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Writers and Authors (May 2025) | Median pay $36.98 an hour ($76,910 a year), May 2025. A U.S. median for all writers, not only bloggers. | |
| U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 2026) | Benefits were 30.0 percent of total compensation for private industry workers; released September 9, 2026. | |
| Orbit Media, 2026 blogging statistics | Average post is 1,312 words and takes 3 hours 20 minutes to write (1,042 content marketers surveyed, 2026). |
Work out the cost of a blog post
- Enter word count and posts a month. Type the length of a typical post and how many you publish in a month. The word count starts at the 2026 industry average.
- Pick who writes. Choose a freelancer paid per word, an agency paid per post, or an in-house writer paid by the hour.
- Check the rates. Each rate starts at a dated, sourced figure. Replace it with a quote you have.
- Add your own time. Enter the hours you spend editing, fact checking and doing SEO research per post, and your hourly cost for outsourced posts.
- Read the result. The page shows the cost per post, per month and per year, with a plain comparison to a Paperboy plan.
Questions about blog post costs
How much does a blog post cost?
With the sourced defaults, a 1,312 word post costs $328 to $590 from a freelancer at the Editorial Freelancers Association's 25 to 45 cents a word, and $500 to $1,500 or more from an agency. In-house, the writing alone is about $176 before editing. Your total depends on research depth, who edits, and how much of your own time goes in.
What is a normal per-word rate for blog writing?
The Editorial Freelancers Association's 2026 rate chart lists blog posts at 25 to 45 cents a word for work-for-hire. Marketplaces run lower: one 2026 breakdown puts freelance marketplace posts at $100 to $450 each. A rate on its own tells you little, so ask what research and editing it includes.
Does the calculator include editing, fact checking and SEO research?
It includes whatever hours you enter for them. We set no default, because we found no published figure we trust for either one. For outsourced posts, enter your own hourly cost too, or the time is shown but not priced.
Where do the default rates come from?
From five published sources: the Editorial Freelancers Association rate chart, a 2026 pricing breakdown by Lilach Bullock, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage and benefits data, and Orbit Media's 2026 blogging survey. Each is linked, with the date we read it, on this page.
Is the Paperboy comparison fair?
It compares price only, and says what it leaves out. A Paperboy plan is a monthly price per site for a weekly pace of articles, not a price per post, and it does not include your own review time. If you need interviews or original photos, a person is the better fit.
Next: let Paperboy write the posts
Paperboy writes articles that answer the questions your buyers ask, with every fact linked to its source, FAQ and Article structured data, and publishes them to your site every week. Your first article is free.