What the bar / client pays you per event. Typical range: $75–$250 (bar), $400–$700 (corporate).
If the venue provides gift cards/prizes, set to 0. If you receive any sponsor contribution toward prizes, enter it here.
$60–$240/mo typical
Divides your sub across events
Answer sheets, pens, printed round cards. ~$2–$8 typical.
IRS 2025 rate: $0.70/mi
PA, mic, laptop, projector, cables, etc.
~200 events for mid-range kit
If you bring your own gift cards / prizes as part of your service. Leave 0 if venue supplies all prizes.
Prep + travel + hosting time
US default ≈ 14.13% effective (50% deductible)
Set your goal rate to see the minimum fee you need to charge.
| Events/mo | Gross | Costs | Net | Eff. hr rate |
|---|
Projection uses your current inputs; question pack cost is per-event from your current events/mo setting.
Method: Gross fee − (question pack/event + printing + mileage + equipment depreciation + host-supplied prizes) − self-employment tax on net profit. Source: supreminders.com
Enter your gross event fee, then fill in your real costs: question pack subscription (divided across your monthly event count), round-trip mileage, equipment depreciation, any prizes you supply, and your total time per event including prep. The calculator deducts all of these, then applies self-employment (SE) tax to give you a true net take-home and an effective hourly rate.
Many hosts undercharge because they only factor in on-stage time and forget the full picture. A $150 bar event might look great — but after a $15 question pack allocation, $14 in mileage, $2.50 equipment wear, $4 printing, and roughly $17 in self-employment tax on the remainder, the actual take-home can be closer to $97. Spread across 3.5 hours of your evening and you're looking at an effective rate well under $30/hr before income tax.
Running this calculation before you pitch a venue helps you set rates confidently, identify the break-even point, and see exactly how adding a second venue on the same night would improve your per-hour earnings (since question pack and equipment costs stay flat while revenue doubles).
In the US, self-employed individuals pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of net self-employment income (the deductible half of SE tax reduces the base). This works out to roughly 14.13% of your net profit as an effective SE tax rate — which is what this calculator uses as its default. You can adjust this for your country or situation. This is separate from federal/state income tax, which is not included here.
You can deduct the mileage and equipment costs directly from your business income, which reduces the taxable base. The calculator shows the SE tax applied to the net profit after those deductions.
Professional trivia question subscriptions typically cost $60–$240 per month, or are sold as individual weekly packs at around $20–$40 each. The more events you run per month from a single subscription, the lower your per-event content cost. A $60/month subscription across 8 events is only $7.50/event, versus $15/event if you only host 4 nights. This is one of the most powerful arguments for adding more venues — fixed content costs amortize quickly.
A solid PA system with a wireless microphone runs $300–$600. A portable projector adds another $200–$400. Factor in backup cables, batteries, and a case, and a well-equipped setup might total $500–$1,000. At 200 events of useful life, a $500 rig costs $2.50 per event — a small but real cost that adds up. Equipment that fails mid-gig is reputationally expensive, so keeping a maintenance budget makes sense.
The monthly projection table shows how your per-event metrics change with volume. Because question packs are a fixed monthly cost split across events, each additional event in a month drops your content cost per gig. At 8+ events per month from the same subscription, the economics improve substantially. This is why many solo operators grow to 4–8 regular venues before hiring a sub-host — that transition point is visible in the projection table.
Freelance trivia hosts at bars and restaurants typically charge $75–$250 per event, with corporate and private events ranging from $400–$700 for a two-hour show. The actual net take-home after expenses (question packs, mileage, equipment depreciation, self-employment tax) is considerably less — often $50–$180 for a standard bar gig. Your location, experience, and whether you bring your own equipment all affect rates significantly.
The main recurring costs per event are: (1) question pack subscription prorated per event, (2) printing/supplies for answer sheets, (3) mileage at the IRS standard rate, (4) equipment depreciation per event, (5) any prizes you personally supply. Self-employment tax is then applied to the net profit after those deductions. Prep time is an opportunity cost that affects your effective hourly rate but is not a cash outflow.
The IRS standard mileage rate for business driving is 70 cents per mile for 2025. This is the default in the calculator. Always verify the current rate at IRS.gov as it may be updated annually or mid-year. UK hosts can use HMRC's Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rate instead.
Yes — absolutely. Experienced hosts report 1–3 hours of prep per event for reviewing and printing question packs, coordinating with the venue, loading and unloading equipment, and travelling. If you only price for your 2 hours on stage, your effective hourly rate will be misleadingly high. Use the "Total hours per event" field to include all work time and see your real hourly net.
A monthly subscription of $60–$240 is divided across all events you host that month. Run 4 events from a $60 sub and your content cost is $15/event. Run 8 events from the same sub and it drops to $7.50/event. This is one of the key reasons multi-venue operators earn disproportionately more per event — fixed content costs amortize across a growing event count.
Enter your target hourly net rate in the "Target hourly net" field. The calculator will then compute: (target hourly × total hours per event) + all per-event costs + SE tax buffer = the minimum gross fee you should charge. This reverse-engineering approach is more accurate than guessing and helps you defend your rate to venue managers.
For someone who enjoys hosting and public performance, trivia hosting can generate $50–$200+ in net take-home per 3–4 hour evening, which competes well with most gig work. The economics improve substantially with each additional venue you add, since your question pack and equipment costs don't scale linearly with event count. Many solo hosts run 4–8 regular weekly venues before the time constraint prompts them to hire sub-hosts.