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Social media manager cost calculator: what your posts really cost a month.

This social media manager cost calculator puts four ways of getting your posts made side by side: doing it yourself, a freelancer, an agency and Creobee's plans. Enter how often you post and what each option charges, by the hour or as a monthly retainer, and it shows the monthly cost and the cost per post, so a quote in dollars a month becomes a number you can compare.

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Your posting schedule

13 posts a month (52 weeks over 12 months).

Doing it yourself

Planning, writing, designing and posting one post.

Freelancer

Agency

Creobee

Counted at your hourly rate, on top of the plan.

The freelancer and agency numbers are example rates: change them to the quotes you have. They sit inside the typical ranges in pricing guides, cited below the calculator.

What 13 posts a month cost

  • Doing it yourself$683 /mo

    Your time at your rate$52.50 a post

  • Freelancer$650 /mo

    Hourly, per post$50 a post

  • Agency$2,000 /mo

    Monthly retainer$154 a post

  • Creobee$56.92 /mo

    Solo plan ($19) + 1.1 h of your time checking posts$4.38 a post

Creobee plans

PlanPosts a monthPer post, all usedPublishing
Solo $19/moCovers your 13 posts30$0.63No, you post
Autopilot $39/mo90$0.43Yes
Pro $79/mo300$0.26Yes

A freelancer or an agency may also answer comments, make video and report results. Creobee plans, writes and designs image posts with captions, and posts them for you on the plans with publishing.

What a social media manager costs per post

A quote for social media help usually arrives as a monthly figure, and the number of posts behind it is easy to miss. Dividing by the posts is what makes quotes comparable: a $900 retainer for 12 posts is $75 a post, and the same $900 for 30 posts is $30. The calculator does that division for every option at once, at the schedule you actually keep.

The freelancer and agency defaults are example rates inside the ranges published in pricing guides, checked on October 1, 2026: Social Champ (updated January 2026) puts freelancers at $25 to $100 or more an hour and agencies for small and mid-sized businesses at $1,000 to $3,500 a month, and WebFX (February 2026) quotes $35 to $150 an hour for freelance management. Replace them with the numbers you were quoted. For every option with its sources, read how much a social media manager costs.

What the cheapest number leaves out

Your own time is a cost even when no invoice arrives. An hour and a half a post at $35 an hour is $52.50 a post, and it comes out of the hours you would otherwise spend on customers. That is why the calculator prices doing it yourself at your own rate, and adds your checking time to Creobee's plan.

Cost per post also flatters software. A freelancer or an agency can answer comments and messages, shoot video, run ads and report on what worked. Creobee makes designed 4:5 image posts with captions, laid out as one feed, with no AI-generated images, and posts them for you on the plans with publishing; it does not reply, make video or report. If the posts are the part that never gets done, compare it with done-for-you social media posts; if the rest matters, a person earns the difference.

How to use it

  1. 01

    Enter how many posts you publish a week. The calculator turns it into posts a month, 52 weeks over 12 months.

  2. 02

    Put in what an hour of your time is worth and how long one post takes you, then the freelancer's and the agency's price, hourly or as a retainer. The defaults are examples: replace them with your quotes.

  3. 03

    Compare the monthly and per-post cost of each option, and see which Creobee plan covers your posts.

Questions

  • It depends on who you hire and how much they do. Social Champ's pricing guide (updated January 2026) puts freelancers at $300 to $800 a month for basic scheduling and posting and $1,500 to $2,000 or more for strategy, content and community management, and agencies at $1,000 to $3,500 a month for small and mid-sized businesses. Enter the quote you actually have and the calculator works out what each post costs.

  • Monthly cost divided by posts a month. Posts a month is posts per week times 52, divided by 12, rounded to a whole post. An hourly option is the rate times the hours per post times the posts; a retainer is the same every month, so its cost per post falls as you post more.

  • The cheapest plan whose monthly posts cover your schedule, plus the minutes you spend checking each post, counted at your own hourly rate. Past the largest plan it adds top-ups of extra posts. Only the plans with publishing post for you; on the others you download the posts and post them yourself.

  • Often, yes. A freelancer or an agency can answer comments and messages, film video, run ads and report on results. Creobee plans, writes and designs image posts with captions and, on the plans with publishing, posts them; it does not reply to comments, make video or report analytics.

  • No. The math runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account.

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