The hardest part of raising a rate is not the client's reaction. It is the thirty minutes before you send the message, which is when most raises quietly get cancelled.
It helps to understand what the number is actually doing, because it is not primarily a price.
A rate is a claim
A client sees your rate before they read anything you wrote, and it tells them something immediately. A low one says inexperienced. It says that to the clients with the most budget and the least patience, which is the exact group you would most like to reach.
This is why raising a rate often reduces haggling rather than increasing it. The clients who haggle were selected by the low number in the first place.
New clients first
There is nothing to negotiate with a client who has never worked with you. Use the new number. The awkwardness exists entirely in your head, because they do not know what the old one was.
If the new number feels uncomfortable to type, that is usually a sign it is the right one. A rise that does not make you slightly uncomfortable is too small to change which clients you attract, and it is not worth the effort of making it.
Existing clients get a date, not a request
This is the part people get wrong, and the mistake is framing. A request invites a negotiation. A date is information.
Before
Hi! I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering if we could maybe discuss my rate at some point? Costs have gone up a lot and I've taken on more responsibility. Totally understand if it's not possible right now.
After
Quick note on rates: from 1 March mine goes to $85/hr. Everything already scheduled stays at the current rate. Happy to talk through timing if that helps you plan.
The second is shorter, easier to agree to, and does not open a discussion about whether you deserve it. Protecting already-scheduled work removes the only legitimate objection and costs you almost nothing.
Do not justify it with your costs
Your rent is not the client's problem, and raising it invites them to weigh their budget against your expenses. A rate rises because your work is worth more, or it rises because it is time. Neither needs a reason attached.
Some will leave
If nobody leaves, the raise was too small. The ones who go will be the most price-sensitive, which is the same group that generates the most work per unit of income.
Run the arithmetic before you send anything. Lose a quarter of your clients and raise by a third and you are ahead on money and ahead on time, which is the whole objective.
The move that beats raising
An hourly rate can always be compared against another hourly rate. A scoped piece of work with a stated outcome cannot, because nobody else is selling exactly it.
That change also stops punishing you for getting faster, which hourly pricing does by design. It requires a specific enough position that the client knows what they are buying, which is the connection between pricing and your profile, and the rest of it is in raising your rate.