Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
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Result
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Find the hourly rate you need to charge to reach your income goal. Enter your desired take-home pay, business expenses, tax rate, billable hours and weeks off, and the calculator works out the rate with a full breakdown. It suits freelancers, consultants and contractors setting or reviewing prices. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser.
Enter your numbers below
Your output will appear here.
Starts from the income you want to keep, adds your expenses, then grosses the total up for tax.
Uses the hours you can actually bill each week, not the hours you spend working.
Removes holidays, sick days and vacation weeks from the year before it divides your income target.
Shows billable hours, revenue needed per year, a day rate at 8 hours and a monthly revenue target.
Three steps from a blank form to a result you can use.
Enter the take-home income you want for the year and your yearly business expenses.
Enter an estimated tax rate, the hours you can bill each week and the weeks you plan to take off.
Click Calculate to see the minimum hourly rate, the revenue it needs, a day rate and a monthly target.
Most freelancers underprice because they divide a salary by a full-time year. This calculator starts from what you want to keep and works back to the rate that pays for tax, costs and unpaid time.
The calculator needs five inputs. Use yearly figures and be honest about time off.
A sustainable rate has to pay for three things: your take-home income, the cost of running the business and the tax on what you bill. It then has to spread that total over the hours you can actually bill. The calculator works it out in this order:
Billable hours per year = billable hours per week x (52 - weeks off) Revenue needed per year = (take-home income + expenses) / (1 - tax rate) Hourly rate = revenue needed / billable hours per year Day rate (8 hours) = hourly rate x 8 Monthly revenue target = revenue needed / 12
Expenses are added first, then the total is grossed up for tax. Grossing up means dividing by one minus the tax rate. If you want to keep $60,000, spend $8,000 on the business and expect a 25% tax rate, you need $68,000 / 0.75 = $90,666.67 in revenue, because 25% of $90,666.67 is $22,666.67 and $68,000 is left.
Billable hours drive the rate more than any other input. Admin, sales calls, proposals, invoicing and learning are real work, but no client pays for them directly. A 40-hour week can easily hold only 25 to 30 billable hours. If you enter 40, your rate will look affordable and your income will fall short.
In the US, self-employed people pay 15.3% self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare, according to the IRS, on top of income tax. That is why a freelance tax rate is usually higher than the rate an employee sees on a payslip. Outside the US, use your local rules.
Example: an illustration, not a benchmark. A designer wants to take home $60,000, spends $8,000 a year on the business, expects a 25% tax rate, bills 30 hours a week and takes 6 weeks off.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Billable weeks | 52 minus 6 | 46 |
| Billable hours per year | 30 x 46 | 1,380 |
| Income plus expenses | $60,000 + $8,000 | $68,000 |
| Revenue needed per year | $68,000 divided by 0.75 | $90,666.67 |
| Minimum hourly rate | $90,666.67 divided by 1,380 | about $65.70 |
| Day rate (8 hours) | $65.70 x 8 | about $525.60 |
| Monthly revenue target | $90,666.67 divided by 12 | about $7,555.56 |
If the same designer had divided $60,000 by a 2,080-hour full-time year, they would charge about $29 an hour and end the year well short. That gap is the most common pricing mistake we see. The tool shows its own formula under the result, so compare its steps with this table if your numbers differ.
The calculator gives a floor, the lowest rate that meets your goal if everything goes to plan. Things rarely go to plan, so we suggest a few adjustments before you quote:
| Adjustment | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Add a buffer | Late payments, a lost client or a slow month cut billable hours. |
| Check the market | Your floor may sit below what clients pay for your skill. Raise it to match. |
| Round to a clean number | $70 reads more confidently than $65.70. |
| Convert for fixed fees | Multiply the rate by your estimated hours, then add room for revisions. |
| Set a day rate | The tool shows a day rate at 8 hours. If you bill fewer hours a day, multiply the hourly rate by your real number. |
Track the hours each project really takes. After a few months you will know whether your billable hours estimate holds and whether your rate needs to move.
Quick answers about the Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator.
Add your desired take-home income to your yearly business expenses, then gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate. Divide that by the hours you can bill in a year, which is billable hours per week times 52 minus weeks off. This calculator runs those steps for you and shows the formula under the result.
Enter the share of your revenue you expect to pay in total tax. In the US, the IRS sets self-employment tax at 15.3% on top of income tax, so freelancers often use a higher rate than employees. If you are unsure, ask an accountant or run a freelance tax estimate first.
Fewer than you work. Admin, sales, proposals and invoicing take time no client pays for. We suggest checking a few weeks of time tracking to see your real billable share, then entering that number. Overestimating billable hours is the fastest way to set a rate that is too low.
Treat it as your minimum. It assumes every planned hour gets billed and paid. Add a buffer for slow months and late invoices, compare it with what clients in your field pay, and round to a clean number. If the market rate is higher, charge the market rate.
Yes. The fields show dollars, but the math works with any currency as long as you use the same one in every field. Enter a tax rate that reflects your own country's rules. The result will be in the same currency you entered.
No. The calculator runs in your browser and does not send or save the numbers you enter. You do not need an account. Use the Copy button to keep the breakdown, and come back to rerun it whenever your income goal, costs or hours change.
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