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Freelance Rate Calculator

Dividing your old salary by 2,080 badly underprices freelance work. This calculator starts from the take-home income you want and adds back taxes, business costs, time off and the hours you cannot bill to find the rate you need to charge.

Quick examples
$
$

Software, insurance, equipment, accountant.

%
weeks

Holidays, vacation and sick time.

hours
%

The rest goes to admin, sales and learning.

Your numbers stay in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Hourly rate to charge$91.79
Day rate (8 billable hours)
$734.30
Revenue needed per year
$101,333.33
Billable hours per year
1,104 hours

Saved setups

Save a set of inputs you reuse — your usual rate, your loan, your room sizes — and load it back in one tap.

    Your recent calculations

    Results you calculate here are kept on this device so you can come back to them.

      Formula

      Revenue needed = target income ÷ (1 − tax rate) + business costs
      Billable hours = (52 − weeks off) × hours per week × billable share
      Hourly rate = revenue needed ÷ billable hours

      How to use it

      1. Enter the yearly take-home income you want.
      2. Enter yearly business costs and the tax rate on your profit.
      3. Enter weeks off and weekly working hours.
      4. Set the share of working time you can actually bill to clients.

      Worked examples

      $70,000 take-home, $8,000 costs, 25% tax, 6 weeks off, 60% billable

      Revenue needed per year
      $101,333.33
      Billable hours per year
      1,104 hours
      Hourly rate to charge
      $91.79

      A $15,000 side income on 10 hours a week

      Revenue needed per year
      $21,000.00
      Billable hours per year
      384 hours
      Hourly rate to charge
      $54.69

      Why billable share matters most

      Few freelancers bill more than 60–70% of their working hours; the rest goes to finding clients, invoicing, admin and learning. Dropping from 80% to 50% billable raises the rate you need by 60%. If you are just starting out, assume the lower end.

      A rule of thumb to sanity-check

      Many independent workers find they need to charge roughly 1.5–2 times the hourly equivalent of the salary they are replacing, once self-employment tax, insurance and unpaid time are covered.

      Questions people ask

      How do I turn an hourly rate into a day rate?

      Multiply by the billable hours in your day. This calculator uses 8; many freelancers quote 6–7 hours a day and price accordingly.

      What business costs should I include?

      Anything an employer used to pay for: health insurance, retirement contributions, software, hardware, professional fees, training, and workspace.

      Related calculators

      Salary to Hourly CalculatorWhat your salary works out to per hour.Annual Income CalculatorYearly income from any pay amount and frequency.Net Pay CalculatorEstimate take-home pay with your own tax rates.Hourly to Salary CalculatorTurn an hourly wage into yearly, monthly and weekly pay.