Field Guides / Pricing

How many revision rounds to include, and how to charge for extra ones

Two rounds of revisions per deliverable is fair and normal, and the number only holds if you define what a round is on the quote, state the price of a further round before round one begins, and count the rounds out loud at every delivery. When round three is requested, offer a choice before any work happens: pay for the extra round, or lock the current cut. Rounds one and two are the job. Round three is a new job.

Why do revision rounds blow out when the quote already says "two rounds included"?

Revision rounds blow out because nobody on the client side reads "includes two rounds of revisions" as a limit. They hear "revisions included", a revision costs them nothing to ask for, and unpriced scope always gets taken.

A video business owner came to me halfway through a job that had turned sour. Edit only, no shoot, four videos for one client. He'd quoted two rounds on each. By the time he reached out, two of the videos had been through three rounds and one through four. The client had just sent another list, and he finally said what most people never say: this is going to cost more, and he asked for $600 to cover the extra changes. The client felt ambushed, offered half, $300, and told him to take it or leave it. The relationship ended over a few hundred dollars, and the job made no money.

He read it as a pricing problem. It wasn't. It was a boundary problem, missing since week one. "Two rounds included" sat on the quote as a polite suggestion, never defined and never counted. Over six weeks he taught the client that rounds were unlimited, then tried to un-teach it in a single email. You can't draw a line after you've let it be crossed three times.

There's a second reason the sentence on the quote fails, and it came up repeatedly when I put this story on LinkedIn: the person sending the notes is often not the person who signed. The quote does the legal work. The counting does the human work.

How to define, count and hold revision rounds: the method, step by step

The method is three words: define, count, hold. Define the round and its price on the quote, count rounds out loud at every delivery, and hold the line when round three is requested.

1. Define what a round is, on the quote. One round is one list of changes, sent together after everyone on the client side has watched the cut. Changes that arrive in separate emails are gathered into the next counted round, and going back to an earlier version starts a new one. One commenter on that thread finds clients only work out what a round is at the first revision, because they aren't sure and don't ask, so put the definition in writing before then.

2. Put the number of rounds and the price of a further round in the same clause. Not "revisions included" buried in a paragraph. The price of round three exists before round one begins, so the day you mention it you're reading from the quote rather than inventing a charge.

3. Say it out loud at the start, to whoever will be giving notes. Ask at the kick-off who will review the cuts, and make sure those people hear the two-round line, not just the person who signed.
4. Count the rounds at every delivery. A counted round is a fact. An uncounted round is a favour. Put the version number in the subject line and say which round it is in the first lines of the email.

5. When round three is requested, offer the choice before any work. The moment to raise it is when the third list arrives, before you open the project. Pay for another round at the price on the quote, or lock the current version and take delivery. The full email for this moment, and the two before it, are in The three revision emails.
6. Hold it. If they choose the extra round, confirm it in writing, then do the work. If they choose to lock, deliver. If they push back, the lines are in the section below.

How much should an extra revision round cost?

An extra round costs a fixed fee per round, built from your day rate and the editing time a round on that job actually takes, and it goes on the quote before the first round starts. The client gets a figure they can read on the quote.

Start with your day rate (build it first if you haven't: How to price a video project). Estimate how long one round takes on this deliverable, price it pro rata at your day rate, and round it to a figure the client can read at a glance. That figure goes in the clause. One operator on the thread draws the line between a revision and a scope change at whether it takes a couple of hours or a couple of days to make the client happy. A couple of days gets quoted as a variation, with its own price.

Some operators in that thread bill extra rounds hourly against an estimate and report the hours as they go, and one sells prepaid editing credits. The clause above works with any of them: swap the per-round figure for the hourly rate or the credit cost.

What to say when the client pushes back on paying for round three

Point to the quote and the count. The price was agreed before round one and the client has heard the number at every delivery, so there's nothing to defend. Four versions of pushback come up.

"It's just a few tweaks." A list of changes is a round whatever its size, and tweaks sent separately gather into the next counted round. Hold the definition, warmly.

"We never agreed to that." Often true, of the person saying it. Don't argue the contract. Send them the line on the quote and the delivery emails with the count, and if they need to take it to whoever signed, give them the version history to do it with.

"You didn't get it right the first time." Your own mistake is free and doesn't count as a round: a missed note, missing audio, an editor who went beyond the request, a fix that broke something else. All of that counts as finishing the last round, and you fix it free. A change of mind, a new idea, or someone senior seeing the cut late is a round. Say which this is, in one line: "My mistake is free, your change of mind is paid."

"Can't you just absorb it?" You can, as long as you know what it costs. One owner on that thread absorbs extra rounds for client retention and says it has caused no issues. Another lets a round slide on contracts over ten thousand dollars to keep the relationship good. If that's your rule, say it to the client with the count still running: "this one's on us, and the next one is $[rate]."

A worked example

Here's the four-video job again, in round numbers: what happened, and what the method would have put in place.

What happened. Four videos, two rounds quoted on each, no definition of a round, no price for a third. At least four extra rounds were done free, then an invoice for $600 to cover them landed after the work. The client offered $300, take it or leave it, and walked.

What the method sets up. Same quote with the clause: two rounds per video, a round defined as one list sent together, further rounds at $500 (a round figure). Every delivery email carries the count. When a third list arrives on video one, the client is asked before the project is opened: $500 for round three, or lock the cut.

One commenter on the thread who counts rounds this way sees two outcomes: clients who are willing to pay for more do so without concern, and those who aren't find a way to wrap it up inside two.

The mistakes that undo it

Four habits leak rounds even when the clause is on the quote.

• Starting the changes before all the notes are in. Ask the client to confirm their list is complete before you open the project. Half a list now and half next week is two rounds of work for one counted round.
• Treating a new deliverable as a revision. Extra aspect ratios, an alternative cut, a new graphic card: those are additions to the scope, quoted on their own, however small the email that asks for them.
• Quoting editing hours and not tracking them. One operator on the thread quoted seven hours of editing and the job ran past thirty. Track the hours against the quote as you go and raise it at the first overrun, so the conversation happens at hour eight rather than hour thirty.
• Using unlimited revisions to win repeat work. One commenter spent his early years offering no limit on revisions and a jump to the top of the edit queue to please clients. He works with none of those clients today.

The rule of thumb for revision rounds

Two rounds per deliverable, with a further round priced before the first one starts. Benchmark: a round is one list of changes sent together, the extra round is a fixed fee built from your day rate, and the count goes in every delivery email.

Hold yourself accountable

Which of these have you taken on or put in place recently?

• Your quote template carries the revision clause, with a round defined and the price of a further round filled in.
• Your last delivery email said which round it was and how many remained.
• The last time a client asked for a third round, they got a choice before you opened the project.
• The last time you let a round slide, you told the client it was a one-off and what the next one costs.

Your one move this week

What's the one thing you can commit to implementing this week? If you're not sure, start here.

Paste the revision clause into your quote template with a real figure in the [rate] placeholder. Then check your last three delivery emails: could the client have known which round they were on? If not, add the scoreboard line to your delivery template so the next job counts from version one.

One thing executed every week creates 50 strategic moves a year.

Related tools and guides. The three revision emails, How to price a video project, Anatomy of a Profitable Quote, Quote checklist, Drop the scope, not the price, Case study: the missing boundary.