Getting paid
Kill fee
The cancellation payment agreed before work starts, so the freelancer is not left absorbing 100% of the loss if the client walks away.
What it means
A kill fee is the payment a client owes if they cancel a project after it has started. It is negotiated up front, written into the contract, and scales with how far the work has gone at the moment of cancellation.
Without a kill fee clause, the contract's silence means the freelancer is out the time, the passed-up other work, and whatever partial output the client walks away with. Silence is not neutral. Silence means the freelancer absorbs the full cost of the client's change of mind.
Why it matters
Cancellations happen. Budgets get cut, priorities shift, an internal stakeholder leaves. None of that is a moral failing on the client's part, but none of it is the freelancer's fault either, and the risk should not sit entirely on one side.
Kill fees are so uncontroversial in professional practice that clients rarely push back when the clause appears in a contract. In our reviews of inbound client contracts, the clause is missing far more often than it is refused. It is missing because nobody asked, not because anyone refused.
What fair looks like
Typical tiers, expressed as ranges rather than rules:
- Cancelled before real work begins: around 25% of the project fee. The freelancer reserved the time and turned other work away.
- Cancelled mid-project (research, concepts, or drafts exist): around 50%.
- Cancelled after delivery or near-final: 75-100%. The work happened. Approval and payment are separate things.
The exact numbers matter less than the fact that a tier exists at all.
Related reading
For sample language and how to raise it without friction, see the blog post on normal kill fees for freelancers.