Free calculator · SEO and Visibility
Content Production Cost Calculator.
A content plan is never one shape repeated. Add a row per article type — depth, length, how many a month — and get the cost of each plus the blended per-article figure a retainer conversation actually needs.
Sets the recommended prices below to this market's rates.
Pick your sector to start from the scope a brief like yours usually needs. Every input stays editable.
One row per kind of article. A real content plan is not one shape repeated: a monthly cornerstone piece and four short news posts have very different costs, and pricing the average gets both of them wrong.
Estimated monthly cost
AED 1,150 / mo
5 articles a month across 2 types, blending to AED 230 each, in AED.
An estimate, not a quote, reviewed August 2026. Rates vary a lot by niche: medical, legal and financial content command a premium over general topics regardless of length.
Estimate done
Want the real number for your project?
An estimate works from typical scope. A quotation works from yours. Send this breakdown over and you get a fixed price back, from the person who would do the work, within one business day.
What this tool measures
Content is the line item most often written into a retainer as a round number nobody can defend. This breaks it into the three things that actually decide what an article costs: how long it is, how much research it needs, and whether it comes with original images.
Depth is the multiplier that matters. A piece written from general knowledge, a piece that cites sources and checks data, and a piece written or reviewed by someone qualified in the field are three different products. In regulated sectors the third is not a luxury, and pricing as though it were is how content projects stall at the review stage.
How to use it
Set length by what the topic needs rather than by a target. Long-form is not automatically better; it is better when the question genuinely takes that long to answer, and padding is visible to readers and to search engines alike.
Be honest about depth. If a claim in your sector could cost someone money or health if it were wrong, you need a subject-matter expert to write or sign it, and that is priced accordingly here.
Original images are a separate cost because they are separate work. Stock is cheaper and looks it, which matters more in some sectors than others.
How to read the result
The per-article figure is the writing, one revision round and delivery in a usable format. It excludes strategy, keyword research and the internal linking work that decides whether the article is ever found, which are properly part of an SEO engagement rather than a writing cost.
The monthly figure scales linearly, which is roughly true up to about eight articles a month and then stops being true. Beyond that, volume needs an editor and a process, and the cost per article rises again rather than falling.
If the number seems high, the useful comparison is not against a cheaper writer. It is against the cost of publishing something nobody reads, which is the same production cost with none of the return.
What to do next
Decide the smallest number of articles that would prove whether this channel works for you, and commission exactly that. Twelve well-chosen pieces tell you more than fifty scattered ones, and cost less.
Agree the review process before commissioning. The most common cause of a stalled content programme is not writing capacity, it is that nobody internally has time to approve what has been written.
Questions people ask
Can AI write these instead?
It can produce the draft, and the cost of a draft has genuinely collapsed. What has not changed is the cost of knowing whether the draft is right, which in any sector with consequences is most of the work. Priced here is a piece someone is willing to put their name to.
Does word count affect rankings?
Not directly. Length correlates with covering a topic properly, and covering a topic properly is what gets rewarded. Writing to a word count rather than to a question produces exactly the padding that undoes the benefit.
How many articles a month is sensible?
Four is a real programme for most small businesses. Two is enough if each is genuinely good. Anything above eight needs an editor, at which point the cost structure changes and this calculator understates it.
Why is expert review so much more expensive?
Because you are buying someone's professional judgement and, implicitly, their liability. A specialist's hour is priced by their profession, not by the writing market.
Where to go from here
- SEO Package Estimator — content is one line in a wider engagement. This prices the rest of it.
- SEO Audit Checklist — before commissioning writing, check the site can actually get it indexed.
- Social Media Management Quote Builder — if the same content also has to run on social, this prices that separately and properly.
The guide behind this tool
Built by GoDesign FZE, who produce content and technical SEO work.
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Want someone to just do this part?
The tool is free and stays free. If you would rather hand the work over, tell us what you are dealing with and you get a straight answer on scope, cost and timeline.
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- A written timelineMilestone dates are agreed in writing before work starts, so you always know what ships next.
- One business dayEvery enquiry gets a reply from the person who would scope the work, not a sales sequence.
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