Striking the Goldilocks Zone: How to Set the Right Coaching Rates

Setting your coaching rates can feel like guesswork. Too low and you burn out serving clients who do not value the work. Too high for your positioning and the diary stays empty. The goal is the rate in between: one that reflects your value, covers your real costs and still wins the clients you want.

Start with the real numbers

The ICF's 2025 Global Coaching Study, conducted by PwC, puts the global average fee for a one-hour session at $234. The average active coach earned $49,283 a year from coaching, working 11.6 hours a week as a coach, with 12.4 active clients.

Divide one by the other and the average coach is paid for roughly 210 hours a year, or about four a week. That is the number most rate calculators ignore. Paid hours are a fraction of working hours, because finding clients, preparing, writing up and running the business all take time too.

1. Know your value

• Experience and training. Years in practice, credentials and a proven method all support a higher rate.
• The outcome you deliver. Describe the change a client can expect, and put a number on it where you honestly can.
• Your niche. A coach for a specific kind of client can often charge more than a generalist, because the value is easier to see.

2. Check the market without copying it

Look at what coaches in your niche and region charge. Use it as a benchmark, and do not let it set your ceiling. The ICF figures above are global averages across every kind of coaching, so treat them as context rather than a target.

3. Work out your floor

The 2024 version of this article had a formula that was hard to follow. Here is a simpler one:

Minimum hourly rate = (target annual income + annual business costs) ÷ paid client hours per year

For example, if you want £50,000 a year, your costs (software, insurance, supervision, training and marketing) come to £8,000, and you can realistically deliver 400 paid hours, your floor is £145 an hour. Below that, every session moves you further from your target. Be honest about paid hours: holidays, quiet months and admin all come out of the total.

4. Price the outcome, then package it

• Value-based pricing. Price the programme around the result, and stop quoting by the hour.
• Packages and tiers. Offer two or three options with different lengths and levels of access, so clients choose how to work with you instead of whether to.
• A premium option. Priority scheduling or extra support between sessions gives clients who want more a way to pay for it.

5. Confidence and positioning

• Say what changes. Share results and client stories, with permission and without exaggeration.
• Offer a short consultation. It lets people experience how you work before committing.
• Flex carefully. A payment plan protects your rate better than a discount.

The other lever: more paid hours

The ICF found that 59% of coaches expect to earn more next year, mainly through more clients and more sessions rather than higher fees. That only works if you have the hours free and the enquiries coming in.

Two things help. Automating the admin (invoices, onboarding packs, contracts, reminders) gives back hours you can spend with clients. And the quickest source of new clients is usually people who already know you: on every account we run that tried both, warm outreach to existing connections beat cold by 2x to 5x on reply rate.

If you suspect admin is quietly capping your income, the 10-Hour Audit is a good place to start.