Question 1

How do DevOps engineers charge?

Accepted Answer

Per project for setup work ($5,000-20,000+), hourly for ongoing support ($100-200), or monthly retainer for infrastructure management.

Question 2

Should I charge for cloud costs?

Accepted Answer

No — cloud infrastructure costs (AWS, GCP, Azure bills) should be paid directly by the client or passed through at cost. Your fee covers engineering work.

Question 3

What about on-call support?

Accepted Answer

On-call coverage is typically billed as a monthly retainer ($500-2,000) with additional hourly charges for actual incidents handled.

Question 4

How do I scope infrastructure projects?

Accepted Answer

Conduct a paid assessment ($1,000-3,000) to evaluate current infrastructure and requirements before quoting implementation work.

DevOps Engineer Invoice Template