Almost every founder asks me the same question, usually in the first 10 minutes: what does this actually cost.
And I get why they ask carefully, because almost nobody in this industry publishes numbers. Every site says book a call. So here are the numbers, from 5+ years of doing this work and losing deals to every price point on this list.
The 3 price bands
The market splits into 3 bands, honestly, and the word ghostwriter is doing a lot of work across all of them.
At $500 to $1,500 a month you get writers. Usually working from a questionnaire you filled once and a stack of templates that performed for someone else. The posts arrive on time and they read fine, and 6 months later your profile sounds like 40 other profiles in your niche, because it came from the same templates.
At $2,000 to $4,000 you get strategists. Positioning first, then content. The good ones build from recorded conversations with you, which is the only reliable way I know to get a founder’s actual vocabulary onto the page. This is the band I work in, and I’ll name my own numbers below.
At $5,000 to $10,000 and up you get executive ghostwriting agencies. Teams, editorial calendars, sometimes PR bundled in. Built for C-suite at companies where LinkedIn is one channel of many. Good ones are genuinely good. You’re also paying for account managers.
What actually moves the price
When a quote lands in your inbox, it’s really a bundle of 5 decisions.
Whether strategy comes before writing. Whether the content is built from recorded interviews or from a form. Whether video is included, since clips are edited from the same recordings if the system is built right. Who does the work, because at agencies the senior person sells and a junior person writes, which is fine until your posts start sounding 24 years old. And volume, 2 versus 3 versus 5 posts a week.
The first 2 matter most. Everything downstream inherits from them.
My own numbers, since I said I’d publish them
My focused start package begins at $1,800 a month: 2 posts a week, profile rebuild, strategy, for founders testing the water. The full system starts at $3,500: 3 posts a week built from a monthly recorded interview, video clips, carousels, DM strategy, and a monthly call. That’s the one most founders choose. Multi-platform management starts at $5,000. Setup is $1,200 to $1,500 once, and yes, I know publishing this makes some sales calls shorter. That’s sort of the point.
The full breakdown of what sits inside each is on the packages section, and the process itself, day by day, is here.
The cost nobody puts in the quote
The expensive version of this decision is usually not the retainer. It’s 8 months with the wrong fit. I’ve inherited profiles that spent a year publishing template content, and the fix wasn’t a better writer, it was starting over with actual source material. One of my clients, a fire protection software founder, came from exactly that situation. Thirteen months later his LinkedIn sourced an $80K deal, and the difference wasn’t effort, it was where the content came from.
If you’re comparing providers this week, I wrote down the 9 questions I’d ask before hiring anyone, including the answers that should end the call.
Quick answers
Why do LinkedIn ghostwriter prices vary so much?
Because the word covers 3 different services. Some sell writing only, from templates. Some sell a full system: positioning, interviews, content, video, and DM strategy. Some sell executive PR with a team attached. The deliverable looks similar, a post is a post, but what sits underneath it is completely different.
Is a cheap LinkedIn ghostwriter worth it?
Sometimes, if you already have positioning and just need hands. But most founders at that price point end up sounding like everyone else, because template content has no source material from their actual expertise. The rewrites and the restarts usually cost more than the difference.
What should be included at $3,000 to $4,000 a month?
Strategy and positioning, a documented onboarding, content built from recorded interviews with you, 3 posts a week in your voice, video clips, and reporting on real indicators like profile visits and conversations started. If any of those are missing at that price, ask why.