PRICE INCREASE LETTER
Price increase letter template — tell customers before January
A one-page letter that says what's changing, when and why — with the email, text and notice versions, how much to raise your prices, and the pricing guides to check the new number against. Free in Word and PDF.
Word and PDF · Free · No email, no sign-up
The short answer
A price increase letter tells the customer four things: the new price (or the percentage), the date it starts, the reason in one honest sentence, and that nothing changes before that date. Then it thanks them, invites questions and is signed by the owner. One page; four short paragraphs.
Say the number. “Our prices are going up” without a figure makes every customer assume the worst; “about 5%, so a standard clean goes from $200 to $210” lets them see it's small. Send it a month before the change — early December for a January start — so nobody finds out from an invoice.
The letter is below, with an email version, a text version and a short notice for your website and price list. Further down: how much to raise prices this year, the one case where the notice is a rule, and every pricing guide on this site to check your new number against.
FREE TEMPLATE · WORD AND PDF
The price increase letter, ready to send
Replace the [bracketed] lines with your own — the date, the percentage, one example from the customer's own work, the reason, your name. Print it on your letterhead or paste the body into an email. Free, no email address, no sign-up.
Template · replace the [brackets]
[Your business name]
Subject: Our prices from [Monday, January 4, 2027]
Dear [First name],
Thank you for being a customer this year. Before the new year starts, I want to let you know about a change to our prices and give you plenty of notice.
From [Monday, January 4, 2027], our prices will go up by about [5%]. For the work we do for you, that means [a standard clean] goes from [$200] to [$210]. The full price list is [enclosed / on our website at your website].
The reason is simple: our costs — [materials, fuel, insurance and wages] — have risen over the past year, and we have held our prices since [January 2025]. This change lets us keep the same people and the same standard of work.
Nothing changes before [January 4]. Any job already quoted or booked before then is at today's price, [and if you'd like to book your next visit at the current rate, you can do so until that date].
If you have any questions, call or text me at [your phone] or reply to this letter — I'd rather hear from you than have you wonder.
Thank you again for your business. We look forward to working with you in [2027].
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your title], [Your business name]
[your phone] · [your email] · [your website]
The Word file is a standard .docx you can edit in Word or any app that opens Word documents. The example line — “a standard clean goes from $200 to $210” — matters more than the percentage: customers think in their own job, not in percent.
The email, text and notice versions
The letter is for customers you bill regularly. For everyone else, the same facts fit a shorter shape — every version keeps the date, the number and what doesn't change; the letter and the email add the reason and an example from the customer's own work.
Email. Subject: Our prices from January 4. Hi [First name], a heads-up before the new year: from [Monday, January 4], our prices go up by about [5%] — [a standard clean] goes from [$200] to [$210]. Our costs ([materials, fuel, insurance and wages]) have risen and we've held our prices since [January 2025]; this keeps the same people doing the same work. Nothing changes before the 4th, and anything booked before then is at today's price. Questions? Reply or call me at [your phone]. Thank you for your business this year. — [Your name]
Text message, to a regular. Hi [First name], it's [Your name] at [Your business name]. From [Jan 4] our prices go up about [5%] — your [every-two-weeks clean] goes from [$200] to [$210]. Nothing changes before then. Thank you for your business this year — call me with any questions.
Price increase notice, for the website and the price list. Prices from [January 4, 2027]: our prices increase by about [5%] on [January 4]. Jobs quoted or booked before that date are at the current price. Thank you for your business — [Your business name]
For a customer on a plan that renews automatically — sent inside the notice window your state sets (below), not a month out. Hi [First name], your [monthly maintenance plan] renews on [February 1], and from that date the price is [$105] a month instead of [$100]. This is the first change since [2025]; the service is the same. You can cancel or change the plan any time before then by [replying to this email / calling]. Thank you for staying with us. — [Your name]
Whichever you send, the date and the number come first, and nobody learns about the change from an invoice.
LINE BY LINE
What goes in a price increase letter
The paragraphs of the letter, in order, and what each one is for.
| The line | What to write |
|---|---|
| The thank-you | One sentence: thank you for your business this year. It sets the tone — this is a letter between people who've worked together, not a notice from a utility. |
| The new price | The percentage and one example from the customer's own work: “about 5% — a standard clean goes from $200 to $210.” A number they can picture. Enclose or link the full price list. |
| The date | The day the new price starts. A Monday, at least a month away, and never mid-job: “from Monday, January 4, 2027.” |
| The reason | One honest sentence — rising costs (name them), wages, the years since the last change — and what it buys: the same people, the same standard. Not an apology, not an essay. |
| What doesn't change | Jobs already quoted or booked are at today's price; the service is the same. If you're letting regulars book ahead at the old rate, say until when. |
| The invitation | Call or text me with any questions — with your number. Most customers won't; the ones who do are the ones worth a conversation. |
| The sign-off | Your name and title, not “Management”. A price increase signed by the owner is a decision; one signed by nobody is a policy. |
STEP BY STEP
How to raise your prices
Six steps, from the number to the new invoice. Start in November for a January change.
Work out the number
Add up what your costs did this year — materials, fuel, insurance, wages, software — and what inflation did (below). Then check the result against the market range in the pricing guide for your trade.
Pick the date
A Monday at least a month away, after your quiet period if you have one. January 4 is the natural date for most trades: the year turns, and every customer expects it.
Decide who gets what
Quoted jobs keep the quoted price; signed contracts keep theirs until they say otherwise; regulars can book ahead at the old rate until the date if you choose. Write the exceptions down before you write the letter.
Write the letter and send it
The template above. A letter or email to every customer you bill regularly, a text to the regulars you text, a notice on the website and the price list for everyone else. All in the same week.
Change the price everywhere, the same day
The pricing section on your website, the printed price list, the price book you invoice and quote from, the booking page. One old price left anywhere becomes the price a customer will hold you to.
Hold the line
A few customers will ask; answer each one yourself, with the reason. Almost nobody leaves over 5%. The ones who threaten to usually weren't paying the old price on time either.
How much to raise prices
Start from inflation, then add what your own costs did. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put consumer prices up 3.7% over the twelve months to September 2026 (2.6% leaving out food and energy; released October 14, 2026). That's the figure your customers have in their heads: a rise in line with it needs no more explanation than “our costs have gone up”. A rise well above it needs the sentence about what changed — a new hire, insurance, a supplier.
Small and yearly beats big and rare. A business that hasn't raised prices in three years has a 10–15% gap to close and a hard letter to write; one that moves 3–5% every January writes an easy one and never falls behind. Put the date in the calendar now and keep it.
Round to a clean number, and check it against the market. $200 to $210, not $200 to $209.40. Then look the new price up in the pricing guide for your trade — if it still sits inside the published range for your area, say so to yourself and send the letter; if it lands above the range, the fix is in your costs or your speed, not in a bigger letter.
Raise “from” prices and job prices together. The website's “from $200” and the price book you invoice from have to move on the same day, or the first customer to notice the difference gets the lower one.
Who to tell, and when the notice is a rule
Honor every quote. The custom of the trade — and the reason a quote carries an expiry date — is that a job you've already quoted is done at the quoted price until that date passes; the new price goes on the quotes you write from the change date on. A signed contract normally fixes the price until the contract itself says otherwise, so read it before you write, and ask your lawyer if it's unclear. For everyone else — the customers who call when they need you — the letter is a courtesy, and a month's notice is the custom most small businesses keep.
A plan that renews automatically is the one case where the notice is a rule. In the US, a monthly maintenance plan, a lawn-care subscription or a retainer that charges the customer's card without them acting each time may fall under a state automatic-renewal law, and some of those laws set the notice window: California's (Business and Professions Code §17602, as amended from July 1, 2025) requires a clear and conspicuous notice of a price change sent no less than 7 and no more than 30 days before it takes effect, with the cancellation instructions alongside it — so for a plan customer there, the notice goes out inside that window, not a month early; other states have automatic-renewal laws of their own with their own windows. Outside the US, the UK, the EU, Canada and Australia regulate changes to the terms of an ongoing consumer contract under their consumer-protection rules, including how much notice you give and the right to cancel.
Rules vary by state and by business type, so check your state's rules — and, outside the US, your country's consumer rules — before you set the date.
Update the price everywhere
The letter is the easy part. The new price then has to appear in every place a customer meets one, in the same week: the pricing section on your website, the printed price list by the register, the price book you invoice from, the quote you send next, the booking page if your prices show there, and the sign on the wall.
If your website is on Zarla, that's one dashboard: tell the editor “update the pricing section” with the new numbers and the website changes; the price book — the Price book tab on your Invoices page — keeps a price, a range or a “from” price for each service and drops it into any invoice, and it's private, so it never appears on the site until you put it there. A quote sent after the change carries the new numbers; a quote the customer accepted before it doesn't. Other builders and invoicing apps have price lists too — whichever you use, change them all on the same day.
The season's other paperwork: the holiday messages to customers — send the thank-you and the price letter separately, a week or two apart — and the holiday hours sign for the door.
New prices, one place
Put the new prices on your website the same day
Add what you do, your town and your business name to the sentence, and Zarla builds your website from that one line. When your prices change, tell the editor “update the pricing section” and the website shows the new ones; then set the same numbers in the price book on your Invoices page, the place your quotes and invoices take their prices from. Two edits, one dashboard.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
Check the new number: every pricing guide on this site
Each guide gives the published US range for the trade, a calculator for your own costs and a worked example — the place to check that the price in your letter still sits inside the market. No guide for your trade yet? How much should I charge? walks through the same formula for any service business.
- how much to charge for pressure washing
- how much to charge for house cleaning
- how much to charge for lawn mowing
- junk removal pricing
- car detailing pricing
- handyman rates
- dog sitting and dog walking rates
- how much a plumber should charge
- how much a notary can charge
- how much a locksmith charges
- towing rates
- moving company pricing
- HVAC pricing
- daycare pricing
- how much an electrician charges per hour
- painting pricing
- Christmas light installation pricing
- snow removal pricing
- dog grooming pricing
- laundromat pricing
- spa pricing
- hair salon pricing
- solar pricing
- how much to charge for tutoring
- How much to charge for a website
Writing the paperwork around the change? How to write a quote covers the expiry date that protects a quoted price, and how to write an invoice covers the first invoice at the new rate.
Price increase letters: common questions
In writing, a month before it happens, with the number. A one-page letter or email that says the new price (with one example from their own work), the date it starts, the reason in a sentence, what doesn't change, and your name and number for questions. Regulars you text get a text; everyone else sees a notice on the website and the price list. The template on this page is that letter, free in Word and PDF.
For most customers, a month is the custom — a letter in early December for a January 4 change — and nobody should learn about it from an invoice. For a plan that renews automatically, the notice can be a rule rather than a courtesy. In the US, California's automatic renewal law requires a clear notice no less than 7 and no more than 30 days before a price change takes effect, and other states have automatic-renewal laws of their own; outside the US, the UK, EU, Canada and Australia regulate changes to an ongoing consumer contract. So check your state's rules — and, outside the US, your country's consumer rules — before you set the date.
Start from inflation — US consumer prices rose 3.7% in the twelve months to September 2026 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' count — and add what your own costs did. A 3–5% rise every January is the pattern that never needs a hard letter; a business that has waited three years has a 10–15% gap and should still take it, with the sentence about why. Round to a clean number, and check it against the published range in the pricing guide for your trade.
You don't have to, but one honest sentence helps: rising costs (name them — materials, fuel, insurance, wages), the years since your last change, and what the new price keeps — the same people, the same standard. Don't apologize and don't write an essay; a paragraph of justification reads as doubt.
Don't — honor a quote until it expires, which is why every quote should carry an expiry date (30 days is common). A job quoted in December at the old price is done at the old price in January, and the new price goes on the quotes you write from the change date on. A signed contract normally fixes the price until the contract itself says otherwise; read it before you write, and if it's unclear, ask your lawyer.
Yes, on one date, with exceptions you've decided in advance and written down: quoted jobs and signed contracts keep their price, and you may let regulars book ahead at the old rate until the date. Raising prices customer by customer, quietly, is how two neighbors end up comparing invoices.
Answer them yourself, with the reason, and don't negotiate the number — offer a smaller service at the old price if you want to give them something. Very few customers leave over a 5% change; the ones who threaten to are often the ones who paid late at the old price. A customer who's never pushed back on anything and does now deserves a phone call, not a reply.
The letter is personal — addressed to one customer, with an example from their own work, signed by the owner — and goes to the customers you bill regularly. The notice is public — three lines on the website, the price list and the counter — for everyone else: the percentage, the date, and that jobs booked before it are at the current price. Both are on this page.
Sources
Read October 26, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Price Index, September 2026 — released October 14, 2026: all items up 3.7% over the 12 months to September, all items less food and energy up 2.6%
- Kilpatrick Townsend — California's Latest Automatic Renewal Law Amendments Take Effect in July 2025 — October 3, 2024: AB 2863 adds Business and Professions Code §17602(g) — a clear and conspicuous notice of a fee change no less than 7 and no more than 30 days before it takes effect, for contracts entered into, amended or extended from July 1, 2025
New prices on the website the same day you send the letter
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with the pricing section, the price book, quotes and invoices in the same dashboard, each updated in a minute.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.