Scope Creep Cost Calculator
Scope creep rarely feels expensive in the moment. Put your numbers in and see what the extra hours actually cost you - on this project, and across a year of them.
The agreed fixed fee, before any extras.
What you estimated when you priced the work.
Including every 'quick favor' and extra revision.
What your time is worth when you set your own price.
Used to project the annual cost.
What this is costing you
Lost every year across 6 projects like this one
$9,000
- Unpaid hours worked
- 15 hours
- Lost on this project
- $1,500
- What you really earned per hour
- $55 vs $75 quoted
- What the project should have cost
- $5,500
27% below the rate you priced at
To hit your target rate for the hours it actually took
How this calculator works
Unpaid hours are the hours you worked beyond what you quoted. On a fixed-fee project, every one of them is delivered for free.
Lost revenue values those hours at your target rate - what you would have earned had the extra work been quoted as a change order instead of absorbed.
Your real hourly rate is the project fee divided by the hours it actually took. It is almost always lower than the rate you priced at, and it is the number that decides whether the work was worth taking.
Annual lost revenue multiplies the per-project loss by how many similar projects you run in a year. This is usually the figure that changes how people quote.
Now catch it before it costs you
This tells you what scope creep already cost. Ersilia catches the next one as it arrives: paste a real client message and see what the AI flags, what to charge, and exactly what to reply.
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere - the whole calculation runs in your browser.