Freelance copywriter cost in Australia, 2026

A price is a claim about time. Convert it back.

Two quotes for the same clinic page can differ by $600. One number tells you which one is real.

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The Australian average

$85 an hour. $680 a day.

The Cemoh 2026 rate guide, excluding GST, where a day covers up to 7.6 hours of work. That is the number to keep in your head.

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The spread nobody publishes

$399 to $1,110 a day

A 2.8 times gap inside one market. Sixty-eight percent of day rates sit between $502 and $858. Experience explains part of it. What the writer prices in for research and review explains the rest.

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The hours test

Divide the quote by $85

The answer is how many hours the writer just promised you. No rate guide runs this, because rate guides sell rates and not arithmetic.

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What the numbers turn into

$150 is 1.8 hours

$450 is 5.3 hours. $750 is 8.8 hours, a full day. $1,500 is 17.6 hours. Now hold that against reading the existing page, checking what you are allowed to claim, and writing it.

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The reframe

A $150 page is not a bargain

It is an accurate price for 1.8 hours, and the writer is being honest about the time. The mistake is on the buying side: expecting eight hours of thinking for two hours of money.

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Why a clinic page costs more

There is a step other industries skip

Every claim has to clear the AHPRA advertising guidelines, and the TGA code if a therapeutic good appears. Testimonials about clinical care are out entirely. So the page gets written twice, then checked a third time.

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The Australian band

$1,200 to $4,500 for five pages

Heydays Creative puts a five-page website at $1,200 to $2,800 junior, $2,300 to $3,900 mid-level, $2,600 to $4,500 senior. Compliance review is usually not inside that number.

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The verdict

If the rate drops 40% when you hesitate, it was never the rate

Ask what came out of the scope instead, because something did. Then spend the money on the pages that decide whether someone books.

Tap through for the full rate tables, the hours test on real quotes and where published prices sit against the band.

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