Client keeps asking for extra work: what to say
When it’s the fifth “quick thing” rather than the first, the problem isn’t the request. It’s that you never set the line at which you stop absorbing. Here is where to put that line, the two scripts either side of it, and how to price the first one you charge for.
The absorb threshold
Decide once, before the next request arrives, what you will do for free. The rule that holds up in practice has four conditions, and a request has to meet all of them:
- Under 15 minutes.
- No judgment calls — nothing you have to decide, only something you have to do.
- No new assets: no copy to write, no image to source, no page to design.
- Fewer than three of them so far on this project.
The fourth condition is the one that matters for a repeat asker. A ten-minute task that needs a design decision was never tiny. And the fifth ten-minute task isn’t tiny either, because by then you’ve given away the better part of an hour and, worse, taught the client that asking is free. Count them. A line in your project notes is enough.
Script 1: the tiny one you’ll do anyway
Use this for requests one through three. It costs you nothing and it quietly starts the record you’ll need later.
Hi [Name], Done — [swapped the hero image / fixed the footer link / updated the date]. No charge for this one, it was quick. I’m keeping a running list of small adjustments outside the original scope so we both have a clear picture at the end of the project. This is #[3] on it. Nothing to action, just keeping things transparent. [Your name]
Chat version: “Done ✓ No charge, that was quick. Adding it to the ‘small extras’ list I’m keeping so we’ve got a clear record — this is #[3].”
“Nothing to action” is what keeps this from reading as passive-aggressive. You’re not billing and you’re not complaining; you’re numbering. When #4 arrives, the sentence that follows writes itself: “This is the fourth small addition. I’ve absorbed the first three, so I’ll quote from here.” That sentence is much easier to send when the client has already watched the counter go up three times.
Script 6: “while you’re in there…” after delivery
Different problem. The project shipped and the requests kept coming, because nobody told the client the meter stopped.
Hi [Name], Good to hear from you. The project wrapped on [date], so anything new is a fresh piece of work — no problem at all, I just want to be upfront so there’s no surprise on the invoice. [The request] would be about [X hours at $Y/hr, roughly $Z] / [a fixed $Z]. I can fit it in [this week / next week]. If you think there’ll be more of these, a small monthly retainer ([N hours for $M]) works out cheaper and means I can turn things around faster. Happy to send details. [Your name]
Chat version: “Sure — the project closed [date], so this would be new work: about [$Z], I can do it [when]. If more of these are coming, a small retainer is cheaper. Want me to go ahead?”
The retainer line is not filler. A client who is still asking a month after launch is telling you they have ongoing work and no plan for it. Post-launch drip requests are the most profitable and least stressful revenue in freelancing, and the offer converts far more often when it arrives attached to a specific request than when it arrives as a pitch.
Pricing the first one you charge for
Anything you price at all is a minimum of half a day at your change rate — typically three and a half to four hours. This isn’t padding. A “45-minute change” actually costs you reading the request, reopening the project, reloading context you had already unloaded, doing the thing, testing it, sending it, and answering the follow-up. Forty-five minutes of work is two and a half hours of interruption, and the half-day figure is the honest one.
Say it plainly and without a preamble: “My minimum for additions is a half day, which covers the work plus testing and handover, so $480. Want me to go ahead?” At a change rate of $120 an hour that’s the floor for an extra page, a third revision round, or a small integration. Your change rate, incidentally, is usually 1.3 to 1.6 times the number you first say out loud, because it has to cover admin, sales and the gaps between projects.
Try it on the real email
Paste the client’s email
It classifies the ask, applies your change rate and the half-day minimum, and writes the reply in the same style as the scripts above. Three a day, no signup, nothing stored.
Open the full tool in its own tab if the frame feels cramped.
All fourteen scripts, the change order template, the full pricing framework and six proposal clauses are in the $12 kit.
The other three situations
- How to tell a client something is out of scope (email template)
- Client wants more revisions than the contract says
- Client wants it by Friday 5pm: the rush-fee reply
Or read the three full scripts on the free page, or paste an email into the reply tool.
Questions
How many free extras should I do before I start charging?
Three, and only if each is under 15 minutes with no decisions and no new assets. The count matters more than the minutes: by the fourth request the client has learned that asking is free, and that lesson is harder to undo than any single task is to bill.
How do I start charging halfway through a project without it feeling like a shift?
Reference the log. “This is the fourth small addition — I’ve absorbed the first three, so I’ll quote from here.” It only feels abrupt if the first three were invisible, which is why script 1 numbers them out loud as they happen.
The client says the extra work is tiny. Do I still charge a half day?
If it meets the absorb test, do it for free and log it. If it doesn’t, yes — the half day is the minimum, because the interruption costs more than the task. Say what it covers: the work plus testing and handover. Clients accept a stated minimum far more readily than a number that seems to appear from nowhere.