Stop giving away unpaid freelance discovery

The look happens before anyone signs

Sales people call it a discovery call. Clients call it “a quick glance.” You call it Tuesday afternoon. Opening their Figma, walking the codebase, mapping stakeholders, or writing a teardown is labor. The hourly floor was built on billable hours. An unpaid look is an unbillable hour that still left the week.

A two-minute “is this even a fit?” screen can stay free. The moment you are reviewing files, estimating scope, or handing over advice, you are in discovery. That is the line this card prices. It is not a moral lecture and it is not a law. It is the same floor you already set, applied to time that happens before a statement of work.

Hours × floor — or a flat you type

Formula: discovery price = hours you type × hourly floor. Fill the optional flat box and the flat replaces that product. The hours field then only describes how long the look is, not what it costs.

This page will not invent a discovery percent of a future project, a required 10% of a quote that does not exist yet, or an “industry standard” look fee. You set hours. Or you set a flat. Implied keep on this card is the discovery price if that invoice actually clears. There is no processor gross-up and no 50-state tax engine here.

After the look, the real job still needs a project quote and a deposit before you block production days. Discovery is not a substitute for either. If they want a standing weekly look instead of a one-shot audit, price a monthly retainer from the same floor. If they already hired you for deliverable hours and they also want a recurring Zoom that is not in those hours, that extra is calls per week × hours per call × weeks × floor on the weekly-call card — not another free look, and not this pre-contract teardown. If they asked for a paid kickoff workshop as a gate before you will quote — hours × floor, optional credit against the later project, toggle starts off — that is the kickoff-workshop card, not this $0-look fight. If they already want production hours on the real job while the SOW is still in legal — hours now, signature later, at risk = hours × floor, 8h × $90 = $720 — that is the start-before-contract card, not a free look and not a named workshop. If they want a visual pack they keep even if the job never starts — comps, refs, a board they download — extra is hours × floor on the moodboard card (worked 3h × $90 = $270), not a free pitch you eat, and not this unpaid look.

Worked example: $90 floor, 1 hour vs 2 hours vs a flat

Hourly floor $90. You type 1 discovery hour, leave the flat empty → discovery price $90, implied keep $90. That is the “1h paid look” preset. Type 2 hours → $180. That is the “2h audit” preset. Neither number is a recommended legal fee. Both are hours × floor.

Type a flat of $250 with hours still at 2 → price and implied keep become $250. Hours × floor still shows $180 so you can see what the time path would have been. You picked the flat; this page did not.

Optional donated hours: you already spent 3 unpaid hours on their deck. 3 × $90 = $270 already donated at the floor. That metric is a reminder that the calendar is already lighter. It does not add $270 to the discovery invoice, and it does not create a back-dated bill. Leave the box empty if you have not given time away yet. The card still prices the next look.

When to skip the look and quote the project

Paid discovery exists because you cannot price the job without opening the files. Skip it when you already can:

• The brief is written. Deliverable, files, deadline, and revision cap are on the page. Build the number on the quote guide and send it. A second “let me explore” pass is duplicate labor.
• The job is tiny and obvious. One landing page from a locked design, one illustration, a same-week copy pass. Quote it. Collect a deposit. Do not invent a discovery phase so the work feels bigger.
• They want a sample of the actual deliverable. That is a paid first phase, not a free look. Scope a small slice, price it, and start after it clears — same as any other job.
• You already looked. If unpaid hours are sitting in the donated box, do not add a free kickoff on top. Offer the paid number, quote the project, or walk.

Discovery is a tool for unknown scope. It is not a courtesy tax you owe every inquiry.

One sentence: offer the paid look, or decline the free one

The card writes the line. You paste it. You do not need a speech about “working for free.”

• Offer. Name the hours (or the flat), name the dollars, and say it is billed time. Offer to skip the look and quote if the brief is already clear.
• Decline. The “Decline free call” preset keeps a 1-hour paid alternative in the sentence so you are not just saying no. You are naming the next paid step.
• Skip guilt, fake scarcity, and “serious clients pay.” Those lines turn a normal boundary into a fight.

Example offer at $90 × 1 hour: I can start with a paid discovery of 1 hour for $90.00. That is billed time at my floor, not a free look. If the scope is already clear, I can quote the project instead. Example decline: I do not do unpaid discovery or free kickoff looks. A paid 1-hour look is $90.00. If the brief is already written, I can quote the project instead of a look. Paste from the card so the dollars match.

If they vanish after you already invoiced something, that is a different page — late invoice follow-up. This card is for the week before a contract exists. If they actually hired you, paid a deposit, then cancelled production, hours already worked vs that deposit is the keep / unpaid gap — not another discovery look.

Hours already given away are gone

The donated box exists so you can see the cash equivalent of time you already spent: donated dollars = unpaid hours × floor. Use it to decide whether another free call is even on the table. Do not use it to surprise them with a retroactive invoice. This is not a collections tool and typing a number here does not make a past look billable.

The next hour is the one you can still price. Put it on a paid discovery, on a project quote, or on someone else’s calendar.

This page is planning, not a contract

Educational only — not legal, tax, or collections advice. We do not invent a required discovery percent, a 10% project fee, or a statutory look rate. Confirm live terms in whatever agreement you already use. If you need an enforceable discovery clause, a lawyer in your jurisdiction writes it before the look starts. The math here is: hourly floor, hours you type, optional flat, optional hours already given away, discovery price, implied keep, one email-sized sentence.

Rate calculator Set the floor first Quote a project Take a deposit If they cancel after kickoff Price a retainer Standing Zoom on a live job Paid workshop before the quote Hours now, signature later Moodboard they keep even if the job dies

Rebuild the floor on the hub if billable weeks moved. After a paid look, split the real job with a deposit. If they later miss a due date on an actual invoice, use late invoice follow-up — not another free audit.

FAQ