A retainer agreement is a contract where the client pays a set fee each month for a defined scope of work or a block of your time. To write one, state the scope, cap the hours or deliverables, say what happens to unused time, bill in advance, set auto-renewal, and give both sides a notice period. Get those six right and the rest is detail.
What a retainer is, and how it differs from a project contract
A retainer is, in Bonsai's description, a contract that guarantees you a certain rate for a pre-set number of hours or projects per month, usually over several months or a year. The client pays for your availability and a defined block of work on a recurring basis, whether or not they use every hour in a given month.
A project contract is a different shape. It covers one piece of work with a start, deliverables and an end. A retainer has no natural endpoint. It renews until someone ends it, so it has to answer questions a project contract never faces: what happens to hours nobody used, how it renews and how either side gets out.
Both are ordinary contracts. Cornell's Legal Information Institute describes a contract as an agreement that creates mutual obligations enforceable by law, built from offer, acceptance and consideration. In a retainer the consideration is clean: you promise availability and scope, the client promises a recurring fee.
A loose agreement is worse than none, because the ambiguity repeats monthly. Vague scope becomes endless unpaid requests. Silence on unused hours becomes an argument. No termination clause becomes a client who walks away mid-month and expects a refund.
A freelancer and client reviewing terms together at a shared desk
The clauses a retainer needs
Treat this as the spine of the document. The exact wording changes with your work, but each question should be answered in writing.
Scope of included work
Written by
The Delivvo team
Delivvo runs the client cycle for service businesses: inquiry, quote, contract, deposit and delivery. Payments go straight to your own account.
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State precisely what the retainer covers. "Manage our social channels" is a future argument. "Up to twelve scheduled posts a month across two platforms, with copy and one round of revisions each" is something both sides can hold each other to. Vague scope is the most common source of unpaid work, because the gap between what you meant and what the client assumed fills up with free labour. The discipline you use to write a statement of work is the discipline a retainer scope needs.
Monthly cap on hours or deliverables
Decide whether you measure in hours or deliverables, and name the ceiling. Either you are available for up to twenty hours a month, or you produce a named list of deliverables. The cap is what makes a retainer a retainer and not an unlimited subscription to your time. Without it, one heavy month quietly resets the client's idea of what their fee buys.
What counts and what is extra
Say what falls inside the cap and what is billed separately: a new campaign, a rush request, anything outside the named scope. State the rate. This clause lets you say yes to extra work without resentment, because the answer to "can you also do this?" is already written down: yes, and here is what it costs.
Rollover or no rollover
Be explicit about unused hours. The clean options are that unused hours expire at the end of the month, or that a capped number roll over once. Rollover feels generous but can leave you owing a backlog you never budgeted for. Pick a rule and write it down. Silence here is how you end up arguing about hours from four months ago.
Payment timing and auto-renewal
State the fee, the billing date and the due date, ideally before the work period rather than after it. Billing at the start of the month protects cash flow and signals that the client pays for availability, not for finished deliverables. Add auto-renewal so the agreement continues month to month without a fresh signature, which is most of a retainer's administrative appeal. For how to set the figure, see retainer pricing versus hourly.
Notice period and termination
An auto-renewing agreement needs a clear exit for both sides. A written notice period, commonly thirty days, protects you from a client disappearing and protects the client from being trapped. Name how notice must be given and when it starts counting.
Kill fee
A kill fee covers you when a client cancels work already underway or ends the arrangement mid-cycle. The simplest version for a retainer is that the current period's fee is non-refundable once the period begins, because you reserved the time and turned down other work to hold it.
Ownership of the work
Say when ownership transfers and on what condition. The common and fair position is that rights pass to the client on full payment, not before. That protects you if payments stop mid-engagement. Spell out what the client owns, what you keep and whether you can show the work in your portfolio.
Confidentiality
Include a clause covering sensitive information you see through the relationship. Over months of a retainer you build real access to a client's internal workings, so this matters more than on a one-off job. A mutual clause also signals professionalism and makes the rest easier to sign.
Contract wording is a starting point, not legal advice, so check your final agreement with a lawyer.
Why a written agreement is worth the hour
Working without a clear written agreement costs real money. A survey of New York freelance workers reported by Freelancers Union found that 62% had lost wages at least once because of nonpayment. Some places now require the paper too: New York's Freelance Isn't Free Act requires a written contract for work worth $800 or more, and California's SB 988 added similar rules from 2025 with a lower $250 threshold. Neither rule is a reason to skip a contract elsewhere.
How to propose a retainer to an existing client
The best candidates are clients you already serve well. They know your work and would rather keep you than re-hire each time.
Lead with their benefit. The pitch is not "I would like predictable income." It is priority access and continuity: you keep coming back with work, so I hold dedicated capacity for you every month, you get faster turnaround and you stop renegotiating scope and price. Point to the history. "We ran four projects this quarter. Here is what folding that into one monthly arrangement looks like."
Anchor the proposal in the scope you have learned together, so you size the retainer honestly instead of guessing. Offer a clear monthly figure for a defined scope, name a start date and attach the agreement.
If the client hesitates, shorten the first term. A three-month retainer that either side can renew gives them an easy yes and gives you a real trial. Most good retainers started small and kept renewing. For the wider playbook, see our retainer guide.
How Delivvo runs a retainer from proposal to monthly invoice
Delivvo keeps the agreement, the monthly bill and the work in one place, so the retainer does not depend on you remembering to send things.
Build a quote from packages and add-ons, for example a base package with a capped number of hours and an add-on for rush work. That gives the client a clear menu and a written cap before they sign.
Send the contract from the same link. The client signs by typing or drawing a signature, and you get a signing record with a SHA-256 hash, IP address and device, plus an archived PDF. Contracts and signatures are unlimited on every plan.
Set the monthly fee up as a recurring invoice, numbered in your own format, with the billing date from your agreement.
If a payment is late, automatic reminders go out at 7, 14 and 30 days and stop once the invoice is paid, so you never have to write the awkward email yourself.
The client opens a portal with a one-time code. They see files, approvals, messages and invoices in one place, which keeps scope requests visible instead of buried in WhatsApp.
Clients pay through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0% of each payment. Every invoice and contract carries a verification code that anyone can check at delivvo.io/verify, and documents come in English and Arabic.
What is the difference between a retainer and a deposit?
A deposit is an upfront part of one project's price, settled when the work ships. A retainer is a recurring fee for ongoing availability and a defined monthly scope, with no single endpoint. A deposit secures one project. A retainer secures a continuing relationship.
Should retainer hours roll over?
That is your call, but decide it in writing. No rollover keeps planning simple and is the more common default, because the client pays for reserved availability. If you allow rollover, cap how many hours carry and for how long.
Is a retainer agreement enforceable?
A retainer is a contract when it has an offer, acceptance and consideration on both sides, and a signed written agreement makes terms easier to prove if there is a dispute. Rules differ by country and state, so check yours with a lawyer.
How do I price a retainer?
Base it on the realistic monthly scope and the value of reserved capacity, not just an hourly rate multiplied out. Because you hold time and turn down other work, retainers often carry a modest premium over hourly billing while saving the client the cost of re-hiring each time. Size the cap from real history with that client.
Delivvo runs the whole client cycle for service businesses, from the first inquiry to the quote, contract, deposit, invoice and delivery, so your retainer is signed, billed and tracked without chasing. Clients pay you directly through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0%. Start free
