Free tool
Build a sliding scale that doesn't sink your practice
Most therapists want to offer a sliding scale. Most sliding scales are built backwards: the generosity comes first, and the math comes later, usually in the form of a tight month and a quiet sense of resentment. The fix is not to be less generous. It is to decide, in dollars, what your generosity costs — and to choose that cost on purpose.
This calculator does the arithmetic for you. Enter your full fee, the lowest fee you can sustainably offer, and how many discounted slots you want to carry. You get two things: a clean fee ladder you can hand to clients, and an honest readout of what the scale costs you per week and per year. Read the full guide: sliding scale therapy fees, and if you are still setting your base rate, start with setting your therapy rates.
Completely private: everything runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent or stored anywhere.
1. Your numbers
Many therapists anchor near Open Path's $30-70 range. Below your true cost per session, it stops being a discount and becomes a subsidy.
2. Your fee ladder
Sliding scale fee schedule
The income framings are a rough guide, nothing more. Many therapists skip them entirely and simply let clients self-select the fee that is honest and workable for their household.
3. What it costs you
Assumes 48 working weeks a year and sliding clients spread evenly across the discounted bands. Curious how your average compares? See revenue per session.
The PDF is a one-page schedule you can hand to clients — bands only, none of your revenue math on it.
This calculator is for planning, not financial or legal advice. If you take insurance, check your payer contracts and state rules before discounting — insurers may constrain what you can charge for covered services.
Sliding scale questions, answered
How many sliding-scale slots should I offer?
Work backward from the number, not from guilt. Decide how much weekly revenue your practice needs to stay healthy, then see how many discounted slots fit inside that. Many full-time therapists land somewhere around 10 to 20 percent of their caseload, but the right answer is whatever your numbers can carry year after year.
What should my lowest fee be?
Low enough to matter, high enough to sustain. Many therapists anchor near the Open Path Collective range of roughly $30-70 per session. If a fee is below what a session actually costs you to deliver, it is not a discount, it is a subsidy — and subsidies need a budget.
Do I have to verify a client's income to place them on a band?
No. The income framings on the ladder are optional guides, not eligibility rules. Many therapists simply show clients the schedule and let them self-select the fee that is honest and workable for their household. Verification adds friction and awkwardness for very little gain in a small practice.
Can I use a sliding scale if I take insurance?
Carefully. Payer contracts often constrain what you can charge for covered services, and routinely discounting or waiving cost-shares can violate those contracts and, in some cases, state or federal rules. Sliding scales are simplest for private-pay clients. If you are in network, read your contracts and check your state rules before discounting.
More free tools
Running the practice is the hard part. Practice Harbor is an EHR built by a psychologist — scheduling, notes, and billing that quietly do the math for you.
Start free — no credit card