The State of Freelance Writing Report: Freelance Writing Facts 2025

If you’re a freelance writer, you’ve likely felt firsthand how the industry has shifted in 2025. With the arrival of AI, a disruptive global economy, and more writers in the space than ever before, this space is a world apart from even just a few years ago. In my State of Freelance Writing Report 2025, I unpack the biggest freelance writing facts you need to know, answering key questions every writer is asking about where the industry is headed.

As of 2025, there are nearly 80 million freelancers working in the US alone, with content writing services continuing to be a highly in-demand solution. 

Drawing on over a decade of experience managing content teams, collaborating with industry-leading freelance writers, and publishing across multiple sectors, I’ve spent the last six months gathering data from 350 freelancers across the US and Europe.

This State of Freelance Writing Report addresses central topics like the growing usage of AI content tools, how freelance writers find new clients, how much freelance writers make, and more. 

As someone who loves data, I can’t wait to share this with you. Let’s dive into these freelance writing facts!

Source: Total number of freelancers working in the US, predictive figures 2017-2028.

State of Freelance Writing Report 2025: Contents Page

Feel free to use this section to skip to the content you find most interesting, or use the contents bar on the side of the page to find the most interesting freelance writing facts for you.

• What is the average pay per hour of a freelance writer?

• What is the average hourly rate of a freelance writer?

• How much do freelance writers earn per month?

• How consistent is freelance writing?

• How many freelance clients do you typically have per month?

• What are the top reasons freelance content writers decline projects?

• How do freelance content writers perceive their work-life balance?

• How many hours a day do freelance content writers typically work?

• What are the biggest challenges faced by freelance content writers?

• What are the main client acquisition channels for freelance content writers?

• Top freelance writing niches

• Do freelance business writers use AI content writing tools?

• How are writers using AI tools?

• What is the perceived future outlook of freelance content writing as a profession?

• Why Are Freelance Writers Worried About Their Careers?

• Where Will Freelance Content Writing Services Go Next?

Let's get right into it.

What is the average pay per word for freelance content writers? 

The vast majority of freelance writers get paid per word. Which begs the question: how much should I charge per word as a freelance writer? The reality is this number is highly subjective and will vary greatly between industries.

According to my data, the highest-paying freelance content writing niches were related to tech, healthcare, and law. Other writing content niches, like fashion and travel, regularly reported lower rates.

On average, 46.6% of writers charge between $0.05 and $0.1 per word – which is surprising, as this is definitely on the lower end of the spectrum. Here are some average figures on how much freelance writers charge per word:

• 9.1% of writers charge more than $0.15 per word.

  
  

• 11.4% of freelance writers charge below $0.05 per word.

  
  

• Only the top 3% of writers charge over $0.20 per word.

  
  

An important thing to note here is that my sample pool of writers varied heavily in industry. Some writers, like those working in tech, fell in the higher segments of the graph, while other industries were more commonly on the lower end.

What is the average hourly rate charged by freelance content writers? 

When freelance writers charge by hour, their rates can similarly vary significantly. However, as you can see from the graph below, the average writer makes around $53/h according to 2025 data. My State of Freelance Writing report closely mirrors the US Labor Bureau’s data here, as they reported that independent writers make around $52.22/h.

Here is how much freelance writers charge per hour:

• The most common hourly rate varies between $25 and $49/hour, covering 34.9% of writers. 

  
  

• 15.4% of writers have crossed the $75/h threshold.

  
  

• A smaller group, accounting for 5.1% of freelance writers, charge over $100+/h.

While I capped the graph at $100/h, it’s useful context to know that many of the writers in this group reached figures much higher than this. A handful of writers in the group charge over $200/h for their content writing services.

How much can you make as a freelance writer: Average freelance writer income per month

According to my State of Freelance Writing report, the vast majority of freelance writers make under $5,000 a month. Only around 19.4% of freelance writers make over $5,000/month, with a mere 3% making over $10,000 per month.

Here is how much money you can make as a freelance writer:

• 19.4% of freelance writers earn over $5,000 a month.

• 48.6% of writers earn under $2,000 a month.

• The largest single group, 26% of writers, makes between $0 and $999 per month.

As you can see by the graph, there is a steady decline in earnings as we move up the earnings brackets. That said, of the writers I surveyed, around 40% said that their income had either increased or significantly increased over the past year.

How consistent is the flow of work for freelance content writers? 

Whether or not freelance writing is a consistent career has been a major conversation in content writing circles over the past few years. Based on my State of Freelance Writing report, writers are fairly split on this issue, with nearly equal groups having high inconsistency or consistent work.

Here’s the breakdown of how consistent the flow of work is for freelancers:

• 23.7% of people have a consistent flow of freelance content writing work.

• 60% of freelance writers report having fluctuating consistency in their writing projects.

• 16.3% of freelance writers have a highly inconsistent flow of work.

The data shows that freelance writing is a fairly unstable career pathway, with over 75% of respondents stating that their work is either highly or partially inconsistent. Interestingly, there is a very similar percentage of writers that make over $75 an hour that also report their work as consistent - around 21%.

How many freelance writing clients do you typically have per month?

When it comes to juggling multiple clients, it seems that freelance writers have that skill down. The overwhelming majority, 72% of writers, work with at least three clients at once. Three to four clients seems to be the winning group here, as 46.8% of writers work within this range.

Here are some other client-based freelance writing facts:

• Just over 2% of freelance writers work with 9+ clients at once. 

  
  

• Around 23% of freelance writers work with between 5 and 8 clients at any one given time.

• The vast majority of content writers work with between 1 and 4 clients each month.

Especially for full-time freelance content writers, who were around 78% of the writers I surveyed, it’s completely normal to have multiple clients on the go at once.

What are the top reasons freelance content writers decline projects? 

When working as a freelance content writer full-time, you might come across working opportunities that don’t quite fit. There are a number of reasons that freelance content writers turn down projects, spanning from low pay to unclear briefs.

Here are the main reasons that freelance writers decline new projects:

• The top reason is unrealistic deadlines, with 124/350 writers claiming this is their top motive for turning down a contract.

  
  

• At a close second, around 35% of writers will reject a job offer if the pay is too low.

  
  

• Around 14% of freelance writers will decline a project if they know the client is difficult to work with.

  
  

• About 6% of freelancers will walk away from a project if it lacks creative freedom.

As a side note, if you’re a content manager who wants to eliminate the likelihood of delivering a bad brief, I’ve written a full content brief guide (with a free template).

How do freelance content writers perceive their work-life balance?

The freelance lifestyle is extremely flexible, allowing you to choose your working hours, select which contracts you want to work on, and have the ability to work with companies you love. That said, not all writers feel satisfied with their work-life balance.

Let’s review the freelance writing facts for work-life balance:

• 52.5% of freelance writers are somewhat or very satisfied with their work-life balance.

• 27.4% of content writers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their work-life balance.

• 20.0% of freelance writers are somewhat or very dissatisfied with their work-life balance.

With these figures in mind, let’s review exactly how much writers typically work in a day.

How many hours per day do freelance content writers typically work? 

The average freelance content writer works for 5.5 hours per day. For data transparency, this question was not solely about writing time. It aimed to trace all of the working hours that a freelancer was at their desk in ‘work’ mode during the day – that includes writing, admin, calls, emails, and other work-related tasks.

Here’s how many hours our community of 350 respondents is working in a day:

• Just below 60% of writers work a 5-6 hour day.

• An extremely small group of writers, coming in at 2.8%, work over 9 hours per day.

• Similar numbers of writers, around 14% for both groups, work either 4 to 5 or 7 to 8 hours a day.

What are the biggest challenges faced by freelance content writers? 

If anyone reading is active in freelance writing communities, you’ll likely know that there has been a surge of writers with concerns about the industry over the past few years. With that in mind, I wanted to get to the bottom of the biggest challenges faced by freelance content writers.

Here are the major challenges freelance writers feel in 2025:

1. 30.5% of writers cite client acquisition as their biggest problem.

   
   

2. 22.8% of content writers claim that workload inconsistency is their biggest problem. Considering that 75% of writers stated their work was partially or highly inconsistent, this is not a surprising second-place problem.

   
   

3. Other top contenders for biggest writing challenges are scope creep, content burnout, isolation from being a freelancer, and late payments.

   
   

What are the main client acquisition channels for freelance content writers? 

The single most popular acquisition channel for freelance writers is freelance writing service platforms like Upwork. Around 49% of freelancers claim that freelance platforms are their main client acquisition channel. Interestingly, the second most common method of getting new clients is through referrals.

Let’s break down the top ways freelance writers find clients:

• Only 2.5% of writers cite that their main form of client acquisition is through their personal website.

  
  

• 4.5% of writers have the most luck with cold pitching.

  
  

• 15.2% of business content writers find new clients via LinkedIn.

If you’re looking to hire a content writer, I’d suggest reaching out via one of these channels.

Freelance Writer Primary Writing Niche

Freelance writers work in every industry under the sun, spanning from education and SaaS to finance and HR. If there is an industry, there are freelance writers working in that sector to provide refined business writing services. 

Here are the top freelance writing niches for 2025:

• The most popular industries are tech, SaaS, finance, B2B content, and digital marketing, making up over 50% of the total respondents. 

  
  

• The single most popular freelance writer niche is technology, accounting for 11.1% of writers.

  
  

• 7 out of 20 niches have fewer than 10 writers, demonstrating the wide range of specialties that freelance writers offer.

  
  

• The least popular freelance writing industry is food and beverage, at only 3/350 respondents. 

One note to make is that I have primarily worked in the tech, B2B, SaaS, and content marketing niches over the past few years. Due to that, it’s unsurprising that these industries are overrepresented, as that is the pool of writers I had access to. 

I’d love to conduct a wider study for 2026 that surveys a larger group of freelance writers, so please contact me if you’d like to be involved.

Do freelance content writers use AI-based content writing tools?

Now we’re onto the question that everyone has been waiting for – it’s time for the AI section! According to SiegeMedia, 90% of content managers are planning on using AI in 2025. But what do freelance writers feel, and are they already incorporating AI into their workflows?

According to my State of Freelance Writing Report for 2025:

• 28.2% of writers do not use any AI tools in their content writing business.

  
  

• 54% of content writers occasionally use AI tools in their workflows.

  
  

• 17.8% of freelance writers regularly use AI tools in their content writing workflows.

That means that a total of 251/350 writers that I surveyed are occasionally or regularly using AI in their workflows, accounting for just over 71% of freelancers.

How do freelance writers use AI tools? (Freelance Writing Report 2025 data)

Of course, to understand exactly how content writers use AI, I included a follow-up question for all those respondents that claimed they were using AI. This question outlined some major AI tool areas and asked freelancers to select how exactly they were using artificial intelligence.

Here is how business content writers use AI:

• 40.4% of writers use AI to make content briefs.

  
  

• 35.2% use AI for SEO research.

  
  

• Around 23% of content writers use AI for content editing.

  
  

• And for the smallest group, 4.4% of writers use AI for content writing.

It seems that pre-writing stages, like SEO research and content brief production, have the bulk of AI usage, with far fewer writers 

Interestingly, there was a strong correlation between the writers that used AI for their content writing and the lowest pay-per-word rates in the survey. It seems that what these writers gain in speed they lose in quality and earnings per word.

What is the perceived future outlook of freelance content writing as a profession?

One of the main goals I had when creating this State of Freelance Content Writing Report was to better understand the overall sentiment about the industry from writers across the globe. In my survey, I asked how each writer currently rated their future outlook, ranging from very optimistic to very pessimistic.

Here are the results for how freelance business writers feel about their industry in 2025:

• Around 40% of B2B content writers either feel somewhat or very pessimistic about the future of their industry.

  
  

• On the flip side, 29% of freelance writers are somewhat or very optimistic about the future of their industry.

  
  

• The largest group of writers was somewhat pessimistic (109/350) and the second largest was neutral, at 105 writers.

It seems that a larger segment of freelance writers are worried about the future of the industry.

Why are freelance writers worried about their careers?

Of the 141 writers that were somewhat or very pessimistic about the future of their industry, almost all of them chose to answer the follow-up question to give details about why. Of all the data I accumulated in this study, this is the section that I personally found most fascinating.

Here are the main reasons that freelance writers are worried about the future:

• AI Reducing Demand: Artificial intelligence is the leading concern for the future of the freelancing industry, with 38% of workers worried about AI replacing their jobs. This is notably higher than the worker average for the US, with 32% of workers believing AI will take job opportunities from them, according to the Pew Research Center.

• Industry Instability: 30% of freelance writers are worried about wider industry instability. This is a general sentiment that refers to economic downturns, global recessions, and budget cuts in every sector.

• Oversaturation: Around 18% of pessimistic writers are worried about oversaturation in the industry. While it can feel that more writers are working today than ever before, it’s important to remember that B2B content marketing budgets are booming. 46% of active content marketing teams are increasing their marketing budgets in 2025, following a year-on-year trend that has been going up for several years.

2025 Freelance Writing Report Conclusion: Where Will Freelance Content Writing Services Go Next?

This State of Freelance Writing report has covered everything from AI content writers to freelance writer salaries and more. I hope you have found these statistics just as interesting as I have, and I want to thank everyone that has been a part of making this data come to life! To each of the 350 writers that so kindly participated in the study – thank you! I couldn’t have done this without you.

If you’d like to be a part of my 2026 state of freelance writing guide, please be sure to reach out via email. I’d love to add you to my list and let you know when next year’s survey is ready to go. Also, if you have any suggestions of the type of questions you’d like to see, I’m always a message away.

While there is a great deal of pessimism in the industry, I want to remind readers that there are successful freelance content writers all across the globe. From those making $10,000 a month to those that earn a livable wage while only working a handful of hours a day – there are triumphs everywhere if you look for them!

And, if this study has shown me one thing, it’s that freelance writing and the dedicated writers across the globe aren’t going anywhere.