How much should I charge for emergency and after-hours callouts?
Charge a callout fee that includes the first hour, then about 1.5–2 times your normal rate. At a normal $110 an hour, a $195 callout plus $165 an hour after that makes three two-hour callouts a week worth $1,080, against about $755 in on-call pay and overtime. Charged at the normal $110, the same week brings in $660 and loses $95.
Emergency pricing makes $325 a week; the day rate loses $95 a week for the same work.
The emergency price has to cover costs that do not exist in the daytime: an on-call payment to whoever holds the phone, overtime rates for the hours worked, and a tired technician the next morning. Pricing emergency work at the day rate means paying for the privilege of doing it.
The callout fee is what protects the short jobs. A 20-minute reset at 2am costs you the same on-call arrangement and travel as a two-hour repair; a fee that includes the first hour makes sure every callout pays for itself.
State the price when the customer calls, before anyone is sent. Emergency customers are rarely price-shopping at that moment, but surprises on the invoice are what produce disputes and bad reviews.
If the arithmetic does not work even at these prices — because callouts are too rare to cover the on-call cost — it is often better to stop offering 24-hour cover than to run it at a loss.
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Figures are typical ranges for small businesses in the UK, US and Canada, given so you can check them against your own books rather than take them on trust. They are arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a forecast, and not financial advice.