How much should I charge for a logo design as a first-time freelancer?

Don't pick a logo price because it "feels about right" for a first project. Build it from a number you can actually defend, then adjust from there.

Start from your hourly rate, not the other way around

Decide your hourly rate first (what covers your living costs, taxes, and the time you spend on things that aren't billable, like admin and sending proposals), then price the logo as that rate times the hours the project will realistically take you. A flat project price is still fine to quote at the end, most clients prefer it, but it should come out of that calculation, not a number you picked because it sounded competitive.

Estimate the hours a logo actually takes, not just drawing time

A logo project is more than the time you spend sketching. It usually includes:

• A short briefing or questionnaire to understand the business and what the logo needs to work on (website, social, print, merch).
• Concept exploration, more than one direction if you're presenting options.
• A fixed, agreed number of revision rounds, not an open-ended "until you're happy."
• Final file delivery in the formats the client actually needs (vector source, PNG with transparency, different color variants).

Add those up honestly before you multiply by your rate. Most first-time freelancers only count the hours they expect to enjoy, which is the sketching, and quietly eat the rest for free.

A business client is paying for more than a file

A logo for someone's personal side project and a logo for a company that will put it on invoices, a website, and a storefront are not the same job, even if the deliverable looks similar. A business client is implicitly paying for your judgment about where it'll be used, a couple of real alternatives to choose from, and simple usage guidance so their next designer or developer doesn't guess. That's worth pricing higher than a one-off favor for a friend, and it's a reasonable thing to say out loud if a client pushes back on price: you're not just selling a PNG.

It's fine to start lower than your "real" number, on purpose

If you're genuinely a first-time freelancer with no logo work in your portfolio yet, pricing slightly below your calculated rate to land your first one or two projects isn't a mistake, as long as you're doing it deliberately and not because you're afraid to say a number. The thing to avoid is staying there. Have an actual plan (even just a note to yourself) to raise your logo price once you have real references to show, so the discount stays a temporary bootstrap decision instead of becoming your rate by default.

Steadytrack's pricing calculator walks you through exactly this (hourly rate, estimated hours, a buffer) if you'd rather land on a number through the proposal you're already writing than do the math separately.