Send a client quote in 8 seconds with Crade

Quoting a new project is one of those small tasks that quietly eats half a morning. You read the brief, you remember what you charged the last similar client, you guess the hours, you open a spreadsheet, you format it, you copy it into an email. By the time you hit send, you have done twenty minutes of work for thirty seconds of actual decision-making. Multiply that by every inbound lead and a freelancer can lose half a week per quarter just on pricing.

What you put on your screen

Crade reads whatever is on your screen at the moment you ask it a question. For a quote, the source brief usually lives in one of these places:

• The client's email or DM with the brief
• A Notion or Google Doc with the scope written out
• A Figma file the client shared
• A previous quote you sent that you want to adapt
• An estimate spreadsheet you started filling in

You do not screenshot anything. You do not paste anything into a chat box. The brief just needs to be visible. Crade sees it the same moment you do.

What you say to Crade

Open Crade and type a single sentence. Something this short already works:

If you want a specific format (a particular total, a fixed turnaround, a discount on bundled scope, your standard rate), fold it into the same sentence. Crade reads the rest from the screen, so you do not need to retype anything that is already visible.

Step-by-step: how to do this in Crade

The full loop, from inbound brief to quote in your clipboard, takes about ten seconds the first time and less than that once you are used to it.

1. 1

   Open the brief

   Pull up whatever you would normally read to price the job: the client's email, a Notion doc, or a Figma comment thread. It just needs to be on the screen. No selection, no copy-paste required.

2. 2

   Click the Crade icon

   Crade sits as a small floating window that stays on top of everything else, including fullscreen video. If it is collapsed into the ∞ icon in the corner, click it once and the chat window expands. On Windows, the icon also lives in the taskbar.

3. 3

   Type your one-line request

   Click the "Ask anything about your screen…" input at the bottom of the Crade window and type your prompt. Include your rate or any constraint that is not on screen. Press Enter or click the arrow.

4. 4

   Wait for the answer

   Crade captures the current screen, sends it with your prompt to your connected AI, and the reply appears in the same window. For the built-in version the text streams in line by line. For connected Claude or ChatGPT, the full quote appears at once after the model finishes, usually a few seconds, longer if the brief is large.

5. 5

   Refine in place

   If the first version is off, do not start over. Reply in the same Crade window with the correction: "add a 10% rush fee", "drop the revisions line item, the client said unlimited", "make it 20% friendlier in tone". Crade rewrites the quote with the brief still on screen.

6. 6

   Copy out and send

   Select the final quote in the Crade window, Cmd+C (or Ctrl+C on Windows), and paste it where you need it: Mail, Notion, a Linear comment, or a proposal doc. On Pro with Agent mode, Crade can also save the quote as a formatted PDF to your Desktop and open it in Preview without you touching anything.

What you get back

A clean, copy-ready quote in the chat window. Sender info you can drop straight into an email or a proposal doc. Itemised line items with hours, rate, and totals. A short closing paragraph the client can reply yes/no to.

The quote uses the categories, hours, and discount rules visible on your screen, so if your estimate spreadsheet had a 5% early-book discount in the notes, Crade applies it. If the brief mentions a fixed deadline, Crade reflects it in the timeline line. You do not have to repeat any of that in the prompt.

Tips for better quotes

• Always include your standard rate in the prompt. Crade has no way to know it otherwise. "Use my standard rate of $120/hour" is enough.
• Use the client's exact project name. The quote feels personalised when the header reads "Arclight: Marketing site redesign" instead of "the project".
• Reply with "shorter" or "more formal" instead of starting over. Crade keeps the full brief context as long as the source window stays open behind it.
• Switch on Pro Agent mode if you want the PDF written for you. Otherwise the text version in the chat window is the deliverable.
• If the brief is in a long PDF or email thread, open it fullscreen first so the most relevant section is in view when you ask. Crade reads what is visible at the moment of the prompt.

Free vs Pro vs Premium

Every plan can do the basic quote-writing flow. The differences are how much you can do per day and whether Crade can write the PDF file for you.

• Free ($0): chat-window quote, screen vision, full chat history. Use your own Claude/ChatGPT account or the built-in Crade backend. Best for casual or trial use.
• Pro ($7.99/mo or $49.99/yr): everything in Free plus higher daily usage, Agent mode (PDF file writing), priority support. Right tier for active freelancers who quote weekly.
• Premium ($19.99/mo or $149.99/yr): 10x more daily usage than Pro, same Agent mode and priority support. Right tier for studios with multiple quotes per day across team accounts.

Frequently asked questions

The whole loop in one sentence

Brief on screen, one prompt in Crade, quote in your clipboard, sent in the next twenty seconds. The setup is free, and the time you spend on pricing drops from twenty minutes to ten seconds.