What is a retainer agreement?

A retainer agreement is a contract where a client pays in advance, usually monthly, to reserve ongoing access to services. Instead of quoting each task, the provider commits capacity and the client commits recurring payment.

How a retainer works depends on which of two types it is. An advance-payment retainer buys actual work: a $1,000 retainer means $1,000 of services drawn down as delivered, with rollover rules for unused hours. A true retainer buys availability itself: the fee holds your spot whether or not work happens, and is typically not refundable.

Agencies, lawyers, and consultants all run on the first type. The agreement should state the type, the monthly cap, the overflow rate, and the exit, in that order of importance.

This retainer agreement template asks for each of those in a plain field.