# What a post actually costs

> Organic content is not free. It is the sum nobody does, because the hours never reach an invoice.

- Type: tool
- Category: analytics
- Labels: tools, cost, agencies, productivity
- Author: Redação Swonkie, Equipa editorial
- Published: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://swonkie.com/en/hub/real-cost-per-post/

---
"Organic is free" survives because the hours of the people doing it appear nowhere. A month of work
producing sixteen pieces costs the same in salaries whether it produces sixteen or four.

## What goes into the hours

Everything that would not exist if the channel did not exist: ideas, production, editing, sending
for approval, corrections, scheduling, replying to comments, reporting. The half usually left out is
the second one, and it is almost always the bigger.

## What to do with the number

It is not for a quote. It answers three questions:

**Is this piece worth it?** If a post costs 40 to produce and the channel it goes to brings back
nothing, the problem stops being abstract.

**Is this network worth it?** Splitting the total across networks is a rough approximation, and
enough to see that the fifth network costs almost as much as the first.

**Would publishing less be cheaper or dearer?** Half the pieces with twice the care usually costs the
same. It is the sum behind
[publishing less and better](/en/hub/publish-less-and-better/).

## What this number does not say

It says nothing about value. A piece costing 40 that closes a client worth 3,000 was cheap. Cost per
piece is for comparing options, not for judging results: that needs the other side of the ledger.