How much to charge for content writing in 2026: articles, packages and AI

Reading time: 12 minutes

To know how much to charge for content writing, add up the hours of each step and multiply by your hourly cost. Then add tools, taxes and margin. In a survey of 460 Brazilian writers, the average in 2024 was R$ 0.17 per word. Below: content writing rates, how much to charge for a blog post, and monthly packages.

How much to charge for content writing in Brazil?

There is no official price, but the most recent benchmark with a stated sample that we found is a survey of 460 writers. In it, the 2024 average was R$ 0.17 per word and R$ 58 per hour. Therefore, use these numbers as a market reference, but work out how much to charge for content writing from the cost of each step.

At the Central Bank of Brazil’s PTAX selling rate of September 8, 2026 (R$ 5.0856 per dollar), that is about US$0.03 per word and US$11.40 per hour.

The Pesquisa Salarial de Redatores (Writers’ Salary Survey) comes from SEO consultant Júlia Neves, who sells courses for writers. According to the survey, the per-word rate changes with experience, but not in a straight line. Writers with 1 to 2 years in the field charged R$ 0.12, and those with 7 years or more, R$ 0.23. However, the 5 to 6 years group also stood at R$ 0.12. In addition, the page doesn’t say how it chose participants or what the margin of error is. The survey also didn’t measure per-project prices, so it doesn’t say how much to charge for a blog post as a whole.

If you serve clients abroad, the benchmark with the clearest method comes from the US. In the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) rate chart, over 1,100 members reported what they charged in 2025. However, the number of responses varies from service to service. For blog posts, the median rates range from US$0.25 to US$0.45 per word. In other words, R$ 1.27 to R$ 2.29 at the same PTAX rate. The association itself, though, notes that it doesn’t set rates.

Why did the São Paulo union take its price table offline?

Because of a CADE case about price tables. CADE is Brazil’s antitrust authority. In December 2023, it opened a case against Fenaj, the national journalists’ federation, and 25 union bodies, according to Consultor Jurídico. The goal was to find out whether the groups’ price tables broke Brazil’s antitrust law.

Then, in June 2024, the São Paulo Journalists’ Union took its freelance rate table offline while it defended itself in the case. According to the union, the table was only a reference for minimum rates for people negotiating alone. Without it, anyone deciding how much to charge for content writing relies on pay surveys.

How do you calculate the price of a blog post?

To know how much to charge for a blog post, list the steps, estimate the hours for each one and multiply by your hourly cost. Then add tools, images, taxes and margin. That way, the price covers what a word count doesn’t show, such as research, fact-checking, SEO and editing.

1. List the steps: topic, research, interviews, writing, fact-checking, SEO, images, editing and publishing.
2. Measure hours in a pilot: track the time for each step in the first articles.
3. Set the hourly cost: divide the monthly cost of the person doing the work, with payroll costs, by productive hours.
4. Add direct costs: tools, stock images and outside editing.
5. Add taxes and margin: only then do you know how much to charge for a blog post.

As a rough scale, Orbit Media, a Chicago agency that sells websites and content, surveyed 1,042 content marketers in 2026. On average, posts have 1,312 words, and writing each one takes 3 hours and 20 minutes. So, at the Brazilian averages, those hours would cost about R$ 193, and the words, R$ 223 (our math). But neither figure includes data research, fact-checking, images, taxes or margin.

The structure the text should follow, from title to sources, is in the guide on how to write a blog post.

Should you charge for content writing per word, per article or per package?

Charge per word only for simple one-off texts, and per article or blog post when the scope repeats. A monthly package, on the other hand, fits when the work includes planning, updates and measurement. After all, per-word content writing rates reward long texts and hide the research, while a package shows the client each deliverable.

Model	When to use it	Watch out
Per word	Simple one-off text	Rewards long text
Per hour	Consulting and open scope	Client can’t predict the cost
Per article	Fixed, repeated scope	A hard topic becomes a loss
Monthly package	Plan with updates and measurement	Needs countable deliverables

Since the Brazilian survey gives per-word and per-hour content writing rates, anyone selling per article or per package must convert them into hours per deliverable. If the client prefers to pay per word, cap the length. Then charge separately for the research and interviews in each article.

What should content writing rates include beyond the text?

Include every step that takes hours or changes the result, not just the writing. Then list each item in the proposal, with quantity and deadline. That way, the proposal shows line by line how much to charge for content writing, and the client compares proposals by scope.

• Research and data: sources, numbers and, when possible, original research with the client’s data.
• Fact-checking: every number with a source and a link, checked before publishing.
• SEO and images: keyword, title, metadata, internal links and a licensed image.
• Human editing: editing, tone of voice and approval, with a set number of rounds.
• Updates: data, sources and links in old posts that have aged.
• Measurement: traffic, leads and brand presence in AI answers.

In the Orbit Media survey, for example, publishing original research is linked to a 50% higher chance of good results. Likewise, marketers with formal human editing tend to report better results than those who leave editing to AI. But this is correlation, not proof of cause.

On the updates line, the agency charges for the hours to update outdated content, post by post.

Should AI lower content writing rates?

It should lower only the part of content writing rates that AI shortens, that is, the draft. After all, research, fact-checking, experience and measurement still take human hours. The data shows less time per text and fewer jobs for simple writing, but no gain in results just from using AI.

In the Orbit Media survey, 92.4% of marketers already use AI for their posts. Meanwhile, the time to write a post fell from 4 hours and 10 minutes in 2022 to 3 hours and 20 minutes. In the same period, however, the share reporting strong results fell from 26% to 14%. In fact, AI users and non-users report strong results at the same rate. Andy Crestodina, co-founder of Orbit Media, sums it up:

“AI makes you faster, but speed isn’t the point.”

Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media (2026)

Has AI reduced demand for writers?

It has, at least on one large global freelance platform. In a study published in Management Science, researchers compared job posts before and after ChatGPT. Within eight months, writing and coding posts fell 21% compared with manual-intensive jobs. However, the jobs that remained were more complex and paid more.

In Brazil, the writers’ survey doesn’t measure the effect of AI, but it shows a similar signal. From 2023 to 2024, the average per word fell from R$ 0.23 to R$ 0.17, while the average per hour rose from R$ 49 to R$ 58. According to the survey itself, the hourly increase may point to more value for consulting and strategic work.

Therefore, AI changes how much to charge for content writing only on the writing line. In the proposal, keep that line apart from the others, so the time savings make the draft cheaper without cutting fact-checking. How to use AI without breaking Google’s rules is in the guide on how to do content marketing in the AI era.

How do you build a content writing proposal?

To show how much to charge for content writing, build the proposal in lines of work, each with countable deliverables, hours and price. Then add taxes and margin and set a date to review the scope. That way, the client sees what each line costs and can adjust the package without renegotiating everything.

1. Assessment: charge separately for mapping what the blog has, what to update and which questions to answer.
2. Scope by line: new articles, updates, original research and measurement, with the monthly quantity.
3. Hours and cost: use the pilot hours to charge each new blog post at its real cost.
4. Direct costs: tools, stock images, interviews and outside editing.
5. Taxes and margin: add the tax rate of the company’s tax regime and the agency’s margin.
6. Rules: editing rounds, approval deadlines and the date of the price review.

The measurement line, by the way, answers the question clients ask today: does the brand show up in AI answers? The protocol, with fixed prompts repeated every month, is in the guide on how to measure brand mentions and citations in AI. The tool cost per client, in turn, goes into the math of how to price a GEO service at an agency.

How do you justify content writing rates with results?

Show three layers every month: what the team delivered, where the brand shows up and what turned into business. That way, the agency justifies how much to charge for content writing with data, not with a per-word price. Without measurement, on the other hand, the client only compares prices, and the cheapest proposal tends to win.

Indeed, in the Orbit Media survey, 18% of marketers can’t say whether the blog delivers results, and only 14% report strong results. In contrast, data-driven marketers are more likely to report success, although this is also correlation.

Since search brings fewer clicks, pick the metric for each type of content with the metrics for when search brings no click. To show the client the return in money, use the math in SEO and GEO ROI. Likewise, content marketing ROI puts cost, leads and AI presence in the same spreadsheet. When the client asks if a blog is still worth it, show the three layers side by side.

What we found when analyzing 8 pages on how much to charge for content writing

We analyzed 8 pages in Portuguese that answer how much to charge for content writing, per article or per text, and that came up in our searches. Seven give prices in reais, but none cites a survey with a stated sample for them. For example, on the pages that price an article of about 1,500 words, the ranges go from R$ 35 to R$ 600.

Only two talk about AI in the main text, and only one links AI to price: a company that sells an AI blog writer. Likewise, only one mentions AI answers, such as AI Overviews. None includes updating old posts or measuring results in the price. Finally, only one talks about cross-checking sources in research, the closest thing to fact-checking we found.

Frequently asked questions

Main sources

• Júlia do SEO, Pesquisa Salarial de Redatores (Writers’ Salary Survey), with 460 writers (2025).
• Editorial Freelancers Association, median rate chart with 2025 data (2026).
• Orbit Media, annual survey of 1,042 content marketers (2026).
• Demirci, Hannane and Zhu, study on generative AI and demand for freelancers, in Management Science (2025).
• Consultor Jurídico, CADE case on journalists’ price tables (2023).
• São Paulo Journalists’ Union, why the union took its freelance rate table offline (2024).