kill fee
A payment owed to an agency or creator when a client cancels a project partway through, covering work already done.
Definition
A kill fee compensates a supplier when a client ends a project before completion. It may be a percentage of the total fee or a calculation based on work performed plus committed costs. The idea is fair: the team reserved time and did work that cannot be resold. Kill fees should be written into the contract with clear triggers and amounts. They appear in publishing and photography as well as agency work. Do not confuse them with termination notice periods under retainers, which are separate.
In a sentence
The contract set a kill fee of half the remaining production budget.
After cancellation, the agency invoiced for completed concepts plus the kill fee.
