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Freelance tool

The rate your income actually requires.

Most freelancers price from what feels reasonable, then wonder why the year falls short. Work it the other way: start from what you need to earn and let the arithmetic name the rate.

  • Free, no sign-up
  • Hourly and day rate
  • Counts unpaid time

Hourly rate calculator

Free
What you want to take out of the business.
Software, insurance, hardware, accountant.
Holiday, illness, quiet spells.
Admin, sales and marketing are not.
82.13Hourly rate
657.00Day rate — 8 hours
1,104Billable hours a year
7,555.56To invoice monthly
90,666.67Revenue needed
1,840Total hours worked
736Unpaid hours a year
49.28Effective rate, all hours
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Worth knowing

Why the obvious sum is wrong.

  1. 01

    Dividing salary by 2,080 hours undercharges badly

    A $60,000 salary is not $28.85 an hour freelance. That figure assumes every working hour is billable, no holiday, no sick days, no business costs and no self-employment tax — four assumptions that are all false. The honest rate is usually double the naive one.

  2. 02

    Roughly 40% of your week is not billable

    Proposals, invoicing, email, bookkeeping, marketing, learning and the admin of running a business all consume paid-for time that no client pays for. Sixty percent billable is a realistic target for an established freelancer; new ones often run nearer forty.

  3. 03

    Set tax aside as a rate, not as a surprise

    Employment quietly handles withholding for you; self-employment does not. Whatever proportion your jurisdiction takes needs building into the rate and moving to a separate account as each invoice clears, or the annual bill lands against money you have already spent.

Questions

About this tool.

Add your target income, business costs and the tax you must set aside to get the revenue you need. Divide that by the hours you can genuinely bill in a year — total hours worked, minus time off, minus the non-billable share. That quotient is the rate.
Sixty percent is a reasonable planning figure for an established freelancer working a 40-hour week. Below fifty, admin and business development are eating the year; above seventy-five is usually unsustainable for long.
Quote projects wherever you can — it rewards you for working efficiently instead of penalising it, and clients prefer a known total. Use the hourly figure as the internal floor that tells you whether a fixed price is worth accepting.
It includes a set-aside percentage so the rate covers it, but the correct percentage depends on your jurisdiction, structure and total income. Treat the default as a placeholder and confirm the real figure with an accountant.

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Charging properly is step one.

Step two is a business that does not depend on you selling every hour.

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