If you are working out life coach rates, the global average is $244 for a one hour session, but the number is rarely the hard part. The hard part is believing anyone will pay it, and the usual way coaches test that belief is by giving sessions away.
Plenty of coaches are good at the work and their clients get results. The invoice is where they hesitate, and the hesitation usually shows up as a discount nobody asked for.
$244
average fee for a one hour session (ICF 2023, via IPEC)
$52,800
average annual income of a coach (ICF 2023, via IPEC)
12+
clients an average coach serves at any given time (IPEC)
£90,000
UK turnover over 12 months that triggers VAT registration (HMRC)
The free session trap
Free sessions feel like a safe way to get practice. What's happening is that you are teaching the first people who meet you that your time has no price. A free client has committed nothing, so a reschedule costs them nothing.
You may have started low because you just wanted to help, and then watched the client treat the sessions as optional. A very low price signals that the sessions do not matter, and clients read it correctly.
Free work builds a habit of not asking for a price. Practice is fine, but it works better as a small number of clearly labelled pilot sessions with a fixed end date, a testimonial you can use, and a paid next step already on the table.
Free sessions
- Committed nothing
- A reschedule costs them nothing
- Teaches that your time has no price
- No end in sight
A pilot
- A small number of clearly labelled sessions
- A fixed end date
- A testimonial you can use
- A paid next step already on the table
What coaches charge
You do not have to guess at a starting point. ICF's 2023 Global Coaching Study, as reported by IPEC, puts the average annual income of a coach at $52,800, and the average fee for a one hour session at $244.
Treat that as a global average. It blends regions, specialisms, and years of practice, so a new coach in a small niche will usually sit below it and an executive coach with a corporate client list will sit above it. What the figure does tell you is that a few pounds or dollars a session is well below the market.
How to set your first rate
Price the outcome. A client who wants to leave a job they hate is buying the next six months of their working life. Package the work into a block of sessions with a clear result, and quote one price for the block.
Then work backwards from your own numbers. Decide the income you need, divide it by the number of paid client hours you can realistically sustain in a week, and remember that finding clients takes hours you will not bill. If the answer looks high next to the average above, your first move is a smaller promise at a lower block price, with the same standard of work.
Three points worth holding on to.
Your price is part of your method.
A client who pays properly turns up properly. The price creates commitment, and commitment is half of what produces the result, which makes undercharging a quiet way of undermining your own coaching.
Raising your price does not find you clients.
Some coaches raise their rates and then hear nothing, and decide the number was wrong. Often the number was fine and the conversation was missing. If calls are not converting, the fix sits in how you run them, and the guide to discovery call questions for coaches covers that. If the calendar is empty, start with how to get coaching clients.
Your price should survive your own success.
If one to one coaching is the only thing you sell, your income stops where your hours stop. That is the point where coaches burn out or turn people away. Group programmes and support between sessions help, and the piece on scaling coaching without losing the 1:1 goes through the options. Personify's Second Self, an AI version of you trained on your own material, can answer your clients' routine questions in your voice. Personify is our product, so weigh that accordingly.
A worked example of pricing from your own numbers
The figures below are an illustration, so swap in your own. Say you want to earn £48,000 a year from coaching, and you expect £6,000 of costs for software, insurance, supervision, and a website. That makes £54,000 of revenue to cover.
Next, count the weeks you will really work. This example uses 46, leaving six for holidays, illness, and the weeks that go sideways. Then decide how many paid client hours you can sustain without burning out. This example assumes ten paid hours a week, because every paid hour carries preparation, admin, and the unpaid hours you spend finding the next client.
Ten paid hours across 46 weeks is 460 hours. Divide £54,000 by 460 and you get roughly £117 an hour. That is the floor, and it assumes every one of those hours is booked. In your first year they will not be.
So adjust for reality. If you expect 70% of those hours to be booked, that is 322 paid hours, and £54,000 divided by 322 is roughly £168 an hour. Use that as your working rate.
Now turn it into a package. A block of six sessions at £168 each is £1,008, so you might quote £1,000 for the block, paid up front or in two instalments. The client hears one price for one result, and you are no longer negotiating each session.
- 1Revenue to cover£48,000 income + £6,000 costs£54,000
- 2Paid hours10 paid hours × 46 weeks460 hours
- 3Floor£54,000 ÷ 460, every hour booked≈ £117 an hour
- 4Booked hours70% of 460322 hours
- 5Working rate£54,000 ÷ 322≈ £168 an hour
- 6Block6 sessions × £168 = £1,008Quote £1,000
For comparison, the same IPEC report says an average coach serves over 12 clients at any given time. Twelve clients on six session blocks at £1,000 is £12,000 of committed revenue, agreed before the first session starts. It also fits inside the ten paid hours: if each client meets you fortnightly, twelve clients need about six sessions a week.
Had you priced at the £117 floor, the same twelve blocks would bring in £8,424 (12 blocks of six sessions at £117). That is £3,576 less than the £12,000 the working rate secures.
Twelve blocks of six sessions
£3,576 separates the two, from the same twelve clients.
How to raise your price without losing the clients you have
Raising a rate feels risky because you picture the client leaving. In practice the awkward part is the message, so make the message boring and clear.
Start with new enquiries. Quote the new price to the next person who asks, and see what happens. You will learn more from one real conversation at the higher number than from a week of worrying about it.
Then tell your existing clients in writing, with notice. Give them four to six weeks, state the new price, and state the date it starts. Keep the message short, since a long explanation reads as an apology and invites a negotiation.
Offer current clients a fixed period at the old rate if you want to reward loyalty, and put an end date on it. An open ended discount quietly becomes the price.
Review the number every time you are fully booked, or after a set number of months, whichever comes first. If you are fully booked and nobody has ever said it is too expensive, you are probably underpriced.
One practical point if you are in the UK. HMRC says you must register for VAT if your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000. It is worth knowing before a price rise pushes you towards that line, because it changes what you keep from each invoice. Check your own position with an accountant.
Objections you will hear from yourself
"I am not certified, so I cannot charge much." Certification can help with some corporate buyers, but your clients are paying for a result they can picture. If you can describe who you help and what changes for them, you have more to base a price on than a badge.
"My niche is small, so people will not pay." A small niche can make the price easier to defend. A buyer who sees their exact problem in your description compares you with fewer alternatives, and a block price is easier to justify when the problem is specific.
"My clients are struggling already." That is a reason to offer a payment plan. Keep the price where it is. Splitting a block of six sessions into two or three payments keeps the number intact and makes it easier to say yes.
"Other coaches near me charge less." Other coaches may be undercharging, and you cannot see their diary or their income. Price from your own numbers, then use the market as a sanity test.
FAQ
Is it ever right to offer a discount?+
Occasionally, with a reason and an end date. A founding client rate for your first three clients, in exchange for a usable testimonial and honest feedback, is easy to explain. A discount offered because the client sounded nervous is not.
Should I offer a sliding scale?+
You can, but write down the rules before anyone asks. Decide how many places you will offer each quarter and what the criteria are. Otherwise the sliding scale becomes a negotiation with every enquiry.
What should I do if someone says it is too expensive?+
Do not drop the price in the same breath. Ask what they were hoping to get from the work, and check whether they understand what the block includes. If the price is truly out of reach, offer a smaller package at a lower block price and keep your session rate the same.
Do this today
Here are three things you can do before lunch.
- 01
Stop offering free sessions with no end in sight. Replace them with one pilot, with an end date and a paid next step.
- 02
Write down your block price and say it out loud once. If you wince, say it again until you do not, then put it in your next conversation.
- 03
Pick one person who has been getting your time for free and offer them the paid version, plainly, in one message.
A clear price brings clients who stop haggling, and the work gets better for both of you.
If you are newer to coaching, the basics of the role sit in what a life coach does and how to become a life coach.
Keep your hours for the paid work
A Second Self, trained on your own material, can answer your clients' routine questions in your voice between sessions.
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