Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Find the Rate You Need to Charge
Your Numbers
Hourly Rate to Charge
Enter your numbers to find your rate.
Understanding Your Freelance Rate
New freelancers often price by guessing or matching a competitor's rate. This calculator instead works backward from what you actually need to earn -- your target income, plus expenses and taxes, divided by the hours you can realistically bill.
Not Every Week Is Billable
Vacation, sick days, and slow periods all reduce your working weeks -- budget for them up front instead of discovering the gap in October.
Billable ≠ Working Hours
Admin, invoicing, and marketing take real time but generate no revenue. Most freelancers can only bill 50-70% of their working hours.
Taxes Aren't Withheld For You
As a freelancer, nobody withholds tax from your invoices -- setting aside a reserve percentage keeps a large tax bill from becoming a crisis.
Business Expenses Come Off the Top
Software, equipment, insurance, and other costs of doing business need to be covered by your rate before any of it counts as take-home income.
Worked Example
Suppose you want $80,000 take-home, take 4 weeks off, bill 25 hours/week, and have $5,000 in expenses with a 25% tax reserve:
- Billable hours/year: 25 × (52 − 4) = 1,200 hours.
- Gross revenue needed: ($80,000 + $5,000) / (1 − 0.25) ≈ $113,333.
- Hourly rate: $113,333 / 1,200 ≈ $94.44/hour.
Summary
- Billable Hours: 1,200/yr
- Gross Needed: $113,333
- Hourly Rate: $94.44
Key Takeaways
- Start from Take-Home Pay: Set your target based on what you actually want to keep, not a round number that sounds fair.
- Be Honest About Billable Hours: Overestimating billable hours is the single most common freelance pricing mistake.
- Recalculate Annually: Revisit this rate each year as your expenses, goals, and available hours change.