Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Work out what to charge as a freelancer. Start from the money you want to take home in a year. This works backwards through your time off, your unbillable hours, your business costs and your tax, and tells you the hourly rate that gets you there.

The form already has an example filled in. Change the numbers to match your situation — every field has a short note explaining what it means.

Your situation

What you want to earn

Currency

The currency you send invoices in.

Take-home income you want per year $

The money you want left for yourself over a year, after paying business costs and tax. A good starting point is what a salaried job in your field would pay — or more.

Your working time

Weeks you work per year

Start from 52 and subtract your holidays and expected sick days. Example: 4 weeks holiday + 2 weeks buffer = 46.

Days you work per week

Days you plan to work in a normal week.

Hours you work per day

Hours you work in a normal day, including the parts you cannot bill for.

Share of those hours you can bill %

Of the hours you work, how many you can actually put on an invoice. The rest goes to finding clients, quoting, admin, email and learning. 55–70% is realistic. 100% is not.

Costs and safety margin

Business costs per year $

Yearly total of what the business costs you: software, a laptop every few years, an accountant, insurance, a coworking desk.

Tax rate on your profit %

The share of your profit that goes to income tax plus self-employment or social security. Ask an accountant for your real figure; 25–40% is common.

Profit buffer %

A safety margin added on top for gaps between clients, late payers and reinvestment. 10–20% is common.

What to charge

Hourly rate —

The average you need to charge for each hour you actually bill to a client.

Day rate —

The same rate for one working day of billable time. Easier to quote for longer jobs.

Week rate —

One working week of billable time at that rate.

Revenue needed per month —

What you need to invoice each month on average to hit your yearly goal.

Billable hours per year —

Hours you can actually invoice, after admin, finding work and time off.

Total hours worked per year —

Every hour you work, billable or not.

Revenue needed per year —

Total you must invoice over the year to reach your take-home goal after costs and tax.

Effective rate —

Your yearly revenue spread over every hour you work, not just billable ones. This is the honest picture of what your time earns.

The hourly rate is the average you must hit across billable hours. The effective rate is that same money spread across your whole working year.

How the calculation works

Four steps, worked backwards from the income you want:

Hours you work = weeks worked × days per week × hours per day.
Hours you can bill = hours you work × the billable share. The rest is real work you cannot invoice: sales, quoting, admin, learning, fixing things.
Revenue you need = ( target income ÷ (1 − tax rate) + yearly costs ) × (1 + profit buffer). Dividing by (1 − tax rate) grosses your target up so that what is left after tax is the number you asked for.
Hourly rate = revenue you need ÷ hours you can bill.

What people forget — and it always costs money

Unbillable time. Finding clients, scoping, invoicing, chasing payment, bookkeeping, learning, redoing work. Most freelancers bill 55–70% of their hours, not 100%.
Unpaid time off. Employees get paid holidays and sick leave. You get neither. Subtract them from weeks worked.
Costs an employer used to cover. Both halves of payroll or social security, your own pension, your own health cover. This is why "the same as my salary" does not work.
Business costs. Software, a decent computer every few years, an accountant, insurance, a desk.
Quiet months and risk. The gap between contracts, the client who pays 60 days late, the job that quietly doubled in size. The profit buffer absorbs these.

Turning the rate into a price you say out loud

For longer jobs, quote a day rate — clients accept it more easily than a big hourly number. For fixed-price work, estimate the hours, apply your rate, then add 15–25% for revisions. As you get faster at delivering results, you can start pricing the result instead of your time.

Quick sanity checks

The old shortcut — previous salary ÷ 2,000 hours, then roughly doubled — is a floor, not a goal. If this calculator lands well above it, that is usually because the shortcut ignored tax and unbillable time.
If the rate feels uncomfortable to say out loud, that is a sign your old rate was too low, not that this one is wrong.
Keep an eye on the effective rate. That is the number that has to survive real life.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours can a freelancer really bill in a year?

Fewer than the hours you work. After finding clients, writing quotes, invoicing, chasing payment, bookkeeping, learning and redoing work, most freelancers bill 55–70% of their working hours. Working 5 days a week with 6 weeks off, that is roughly 1,000–1,400 billable hours a year, not 2,000.

Should my rate just be my old salary divided by 2,000?

That gives you a rock-bottom floor, not a real rate. As a freelancer you also pay both halves of payroll tax, get no paid holiday or sick leave, and buy your own equipment and insurance. This calculator is more accurate because it starts from the money you actually want to keep and works backwards.

How do I include tax in my rate?

Enter your effective tax rate on profit. The calculator divides your target income by (1 − tax rate) so that what is left after tax equals the number you asked for. Your real effective rate includes income tax plus self-employment or social security contributions — an accountant can confirm it.

What is the profit buffer for?

It covers what a single snapshot misses: the gap between contracts, clients who pay late, work that grows beyond the quote, a slow season, and money to reinvest. A 10–20% buffer is common. Without one, a single bad month erases your margin.

How do I turn an hourly rate into a day rate or a project price?

Day rate = hourly rate × the billable hours in a working day. For a fixed project price, estimate the hours, multiply by your rate, then add 15–25% for revisions. Once you are fast and confident, you can price the result instead of the hours.

Do the numbers I type get sent anywhere?

No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or saved on a server.