# How much to charge for PC support **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657 "2003-07-15T14:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Penumbra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@Penumbra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penumbra)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/1 "2003-07-15T14:38:59Z")
The owner of a small local buisness here in my home town has asked me to do some computer related work in his shop. He isn’t very familiar with how PC’s work and needs some basic help like getting a printer connected to his machine, creating lables to place on his products, web site work, and hundreds of other small projects and questions that he thinks of. He wants me to be his “computer guy” and wants to know what I charge. I’ll be helping him in the afternoons after I get off of work from my real job for a couple of hours each day. Since I’ve never done PC Support work professionally I have no idea what I should charge him. Do most PC guys charge by the hour? If so, how much? Do they charge by each individual job? I don’t need a whole lot of money and I want to be fair with the man, so some real life examples of what people charge would be much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/2 "2003-07-15T14:44:09Z")
my cousing charges over $100/hour for hardware and network management. After taxes and converting to US currency, I think it works out to $10.23 US 😉 Actually my cousin really does get $100+ CDN/hr. I do software development from $40 CDN/hr. I’m not sure what PC support would be. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/3 "2003-07-15T16:06:33Z")
Well, I know the places around here charge on the order of $30-$50+/hr for personal face-to-face tech support. Depends on what you want to charge, really… ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/4 "2003-07-15T16:21:38Z")
I charge anywhere between an eight pack of Guinness and $40 per hour, depending on the person and how nasty the job is. Either way the fridge is always full of gods nectar. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/5 "2003-07-15T16:40:31Z")
A did service calls for a friend whose LAN company got $100 an hour and I got $80 of that. For friends I charge $20 an hour 'cause it’s always easy stuff. You can always charge whatever he makes an hour. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/6 "2003-07-15T18:00:45Z")
$50/hour with a 1 hour minimum After the first hour bill in .5 hour increments ---
**Author:** ![badmana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/7 "2003-07-15T18:46:56Z")
I have done pretty much what you’re doing **Penumbra**. I don’t charge a fixed rate. I mostly go with the difficulty factor. I did some hardware upgrades for a friend’s aunt’s travel office, I charged her system hardware costs + $50, and $50 for the installation and network connection. Sympatico (an DSL provider) would have charged her $200? ish for a complete DSL install, I charged her $50. Plus I get the added benefit of having free agent service for any cruise I might want to take. This is cash for about 20-30 minutes of work. If this business owner is going to retain you, per hour you’re looking at no less than $15-40 depending on what you know and what you can do. I’d probably ask him to pay for each piece of work. Cash. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/8 "2003-07-15T22:38:42Z")
I don’t do it by the hour, I do it by the job. They say what they want doing & I say what it would cost. I always get more money by asking them what they would pay 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-to-charge-for-pc-support/188657/9 "2003-07-16T04:52:17Z")
I was a contractor for a construction company and it really depends upon your experience and what you do on a daily basis. It sounds to me that you aren’t doing a huge amount of work and possibly not supporting a network. I would gather (depending on your area) $25 an hour will suffice. I was trained in it so I went for $35 as the company was my brother’s construction company and I had a pretty loose schedule. I charge my other brother $25 because it’s not a multi-million dollar company and he throws web design my way every so often. Besides, if you do a good job and you have never been in an IT management type of thing, the guy likes your work…the list goes on, by word of mouth you could get other jobs and be an independent in a matter of months if you so choose.