The short version
2026 editionKey takeaways
Each takeaway links to its canonical data row. Reported figures belong to their cited producer; modeled results are labeled as calculations.
- Work-for-hire blog posts: lower endpoint of the EFA median per-word range: 25¢ (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Work-for-hire blog posts: upper endpoint of the EFA median per-word range: 45¢ (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Work-for-hire journalism: lower endpoint of the EFA median per-word range: 40¢ (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Work-for-hire journalism: upper endpoint of the EFA median per-word range: 50¢ (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Work-for-hire articles and essays: lower endpoint of the EFA median hourly range: $70.00 (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Work-for-hire articles and essays: upper endpoint of the EFA median hourly range: $100.00 (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Copyediting of business/marketing material: lower endpoint of the EFA median hourly range: $50.00 (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Copyediting of business/marketing material: upper endpoint of the EFA median hourly range: $60.00 (2025 calendar year; EFA member survey, November 2025 to mid-January 2026).Editorial Freelancers Association
- Writers and authors (SOC 27-3043): median hourly wage: $36.98 (May 2025 (OEWS)).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Editors (SOC 27-3041): median hourly wage: $37.46 (May 2025 (OEWS)).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What do freelance writers charge per word?
In the Editorial Freelancers Association’s 2026 Rate Chart, the median per-word range for work-for-hire blog posts and articles is 25¢ to 45¢, and journalism is 40¢ to 50¢. Business and marketing copy runs 32¢ to 87.5¢, and technical and medical writing reach $1.00 a word or more.
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| Work-for-hire writing (EFA 2026 chart, 2025 rates) | Per word, low (¢) | Per word, high (¢) |
|---|---|---|
| Articles and essays | 25¢ | 45¢ |
| Blog posts | 25¢ | 45¢ |
| Business and marketing | 32¢ | 87.5¢ |
| Journalism | 40¢ | 50¢ |
| Short-form nonfiction | 30¢ | 30¢ |
| Technical | 100¢ | 100¢ |
| Medical | 100¢ | 150¢ |
Each pair is the EFA’s charted median range for that service, not a minimum and maximum of all rates. A range shown as one value (30¢–30¢, $1.00–$1.00) is charted that way by the EFA. Rates are for 2025 work.
Primary source: Editorial Freelancers Association — March 29, 2026
What do freelance writers charge per hour?
The same EFA chart puts median hourly ranges for work-for-hire writing from $60 to $113 an hour: $70 to $100 for articles and essays, $75 to $85 for journalism and $90 to $113 for medical writing.
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| Work-for-hire writing (EFA 2026 chart, 2025 rates) | Per hour, low | Per hour, high |
|---|---|---|
| Articles and essays | $70.00 | $100.00 |
| Blog posts | $74.50 | $87.50 |
| Business and marketing | $65.00 | $75.00 |
| Journalism | $75.00 | $85.00 |
| Short-form nonfiction | $65.00 | $75.00 |
| Technical | $60.00 | $98.56 |
| Medical | $90.00 | $113.00 |
Hourly and per-word ranges come from different answers in the same survey, so dividing one by the other does not give a words-per-hour figure.
Primary source: Editorial Freelancers Association — March 29, 2026
Do ghostwriters charge more per word?
Not always. In the EFA chart, ghostwritten business and marketing copy has a median range of 50¢ to $1.00 a word, above the work-for-hire range, but ghostwritten articles, essays and journalism are charted lower than work-for-hire.
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| Ghostwriting (EFA 2026 chart, 2025 rates) | Per word, low (¢) | Per word, high (¢) |
|---|---|---|
| Articles and essays | 15¢ | 30¢ |
| Blog posts | 25¢ | 40¢ |
| Business and marketing | 50¢ | 100¢ |
| Journalism | 23¢ | 29.5¢ |
Ghostwriting and work-for-hire are separate EFA categories with separate respondents; the chart does not say why some ghostwriting ranges are lower.
Primary source: Editorial Freelancers Association — March 29, 2026
What do freelance editors charge for business and marketing work?
For business and marketing material, the EFA’s median hourly ranges are $45 to $60 for proofreading, $50 to $60 for copyediting, $55 to $75 for line editing and $60 to $75 for developmental editing.
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| Editing business/marketing material (EFA 2026 chart, 2025 rates) | Per hour, low | Per hour, high |
|---|---|---|
| Copyediting | $50.00 | $60.00 |
| Line editing | $55.00 | $75.00 |
| Developmental editing | $60.00 | $75.00 |
| Proofreading | $45.00 | $60.00 |
The EFA charts other genres (academic, fiction, legal, medical and more) separately; this table shows the business/marketing rows only.
Primary source: Editorial Freelancers Association — March 29, 2026
How do freelance rates compare with employee wages?
BLS puts the May 2025 median wage at $36.98 an hour for employed writers and authors, $43.46 for technical writers and $37.46 for editors. These are employee wages, which do not include the self-employed, so they are not a freelance rate.
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| Occupation (BLS OEWS, May 2025) | Employment | Median hourly wage | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writers and authors | 47,940 | $36.98 | $76,910.00 |
| Technical writers | 45,500 | $43.46 | $90,390.00 |
| Editors | 91,690 | $37.46 | $77,920.00 |
Employment counts employees only. A freelancer’s rate also has to cover unbilled time, self-employment tax, benefits and business costs, so it is not comparable one-for-one with a wage.
Primary sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — checked October 17, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — checked October 17, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — checked October 17, 2026
How should these figures be used together?
Use the EFA ranges as what working freelancers reported charging in 2025, by service and genre. Treat the BLS wages as a separate employee benchmark, not a lower bound for freelance rates. Neither is a market-wide average of freelance writing rates.
Rates vary with experience, turnaround, specialty and client type. Check the EFA’s current chart before quoting a range as current.
Is this a Workspace369 survey?
No. Workspace369 compiled these figures from the cited producers. No respondents were recruited and no figures were modeled for this page.
Corrections are welcome with the statistic ID and primary-source evidence.
How this report was built
Methodology and limitations
- EFA figures were transcribed from the Editorial Freelancers Association’s 2026 Rate Chart PDF (footer dated March 29, 2026) and checked against it on October 17, 2026. Each row keeps the chart page, section, row and column.
- The EFA describes the chart as median rate ranges from a survey of members run from November 2025 to mid-January 2026 about rates charged in 2025, with over 1,100 respondents. The PDF says they represent nearly a third of membership; the EFA’s web page says more than a third.
- BLS figures are May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics national estimates, read from the BLS public data API on October 17, 2026. Each locator gives the series ID.
- No averages were computed across sources, no per-word rates were converted to hourly rates and no figures were inflation-adjusted.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- EFA respondents are members of one professional association and answered only for the services they provide, so each range rests on an unpublished, often small, number of answers.
- The EFA publishes ranges around the median, not percentiles or sample sizes. Do not read the endpoints as the lowest or highest rates charged.
- BLS wages describe employees, not freelancers, and exclude the self-employed entirely.
Freshness and corrections
Maintained by the Workspace369 editorial team. Editorial owner reviews sources quarterly and when a producer publishes a new edition. Next review January 2027. The edition date changes only when the evidence or content is substantively reviewed; it does not change the underlying observation period.
First edition: . Data extraction, source attribution and arithmetic checked for this edition. No independent peer review is claimed.
Found an error or a newer primary release? Send a correction with the source and affected statistic. Confirmed corrections are recorded below before republishing.
Revision history
Evidence dates above describe the report. Download and citation updates below do not imply that sources were checked again.
- — First publication: Editorial Freelancers Association 2026 Rate Chart (2025 rates) for writing and editing, with BLS May 2025 employee wages shown separately.
Primary sources and provenance
Every reported numeric cell links directly to its producer. The downloads include exact table or workbook locators, observation periods, access dates, formulas and input references.
- Editorial Freelancers Association2026 Rate Chart (editorial rates reported for 2025) ↗Published March 29, 2026. Accessed October 17, 2026.Selected factual observations with attribution. The chart and underlying responses remain with the Editorial Freelancers Association; this compilation does not relicense them.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: writers and authors (27-3043) ↗Publication date not recorded; see the original source. Accessed October 17, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: technical writers (27-3042) ↗Publication date not recorded; see the original source. Accessed October 17, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: editors (27-3041) ↗Publication date not recorded; see the original source. Accessed October 17, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
Made to be checked, then cited
How to cite this report
For a source-reported statistic, credit the original publisher and link to the exact row here when using our compilation. For a modeled result, cite Workspace369 and include the assumptions. Linking to this page does not make us the original producer of third-party data.
Workspace369. (2026-10-17). Freelance Writing and Editing Rates: What the Primary Sources Show. https://workspace369.com/research/freelance-writing-rates/. Primary sources and observation periods as listed in the report.
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