Freelance Rate Calculator

How to calculate your freelance hourly rate

Most freelancers underprice themselves because they think like employees. An employee gets health insurance, paid vacation, sick leave, retirement matching, a computer, and an office. A freelancer pays for all of that out of their own pocket — plus self-employment or income tax, software subscriptions, and the hours they spend on admin, marketing, and invoicing that clients will never pay for.

The formula we use

Your ideal hourly rate is driven by four inputs: your target take-home income, how many hours per year you can actually bill, your business expenses, and the tax rate you’ll pay on profit.

gross_income_needed = desired_take_home / (1 - tax_rate)
revenue_target      = (gross_income_needed + expenses) * (1 + profit_margin)
hourly_rate         = revenue_target / (weekly_billable_hours * working_weeks)

Why your billable hours are lower than you think

If you work 40 hours a week, you will not bill 40 hours. Realistic billable hours for most freelancers land between 20 and 28 per week once you account for prospecting, proposals, invoicing, meetings, learning, admin, and slow weeks. Use your actual number — not your aspirational one.

Why a profit margin matters

A 10–20% profit margin above your break-even rate cushions you against slow months, scope creep, and the inevitable client who pays late. Charging at exactly your break-even number leaves no runway when something goes wrong — and something always does.

Rule-of-thumb comparison

A common quick-and-dirty rule: take your desired annual salary, divide by 1,000, and that’s roughly your hourly rate. So 80,000/year → 80/hour in your currency. This rule hides a lot of assumptions, but it’s a useful sanity check against what our detailed calculator returns.

What this calculator does not include

This is a planning tool, not tax advice. Real-world factors we don’t model include retirement contributions (Solo 401k / SEP IRA in the US, SIPP in the UK, Super in Australia, RRSP in Canada), health insurance premiums (factor these into “expenses”), region-specific taxes, local business licenses, and fluctuating client demand. Consult a licensed accountant or tax professional for decisions with real consequences.

FAQ