Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Work out what to charge per hour based on the income you actually want to take home — with taxes, expenses, vacation, and non-billable hours built in. Free, instant, nothing to sign up for.

Your numbers

Currency — type to search

Target take-home income per year — the amount you want to bring home after tax

Business expenses per year — software, gear, insurance, co-working…

Effective tax rate (%) — income tax + self-employment/social contributions

Weeks off per year — vacation, sick days, holidays

Working hours per week

Billable share of your time (%) — most freelancers are 50–70%. Sales, admin, and email are not billable.

Your hourly rate

$76.83

per billable hour

Rate breakdown
Revenue you need per year	$86,667
Working weeks	47
Total working hours	1,880
Realistic billable hours	1,128
Suggested day rate (8 h)	$602

How this calculator works (and why the math matters)

The most common mistake freelancers make is setting an hourly rate by asking around or copying a job salary. A salary is not a rate. When you freelance, you pay your own taxes, buy your own equipment, and — crucially — you are never paid for 100% of your working hours. The fair hourly rate is the one that covers all of that.

That is exactly what the formula above does:

Gross up your income for taxes. If you want $60,000 in your pocket and your total tax load is 25%, your business must earn $80,000 before tax (plus expenses).
Add business expenses. Software subscriptions, hardware, insurance, accountant fees, co-working space — anything the business pays for.
Count your real working weeks. 52 minus vacation, public holidays, and sick days. Most people land around 46–48.
Discount for non-billable time. Finding clients, writing proposals, invoicing, and answering email are part of the job but nobody pays for them. If you assume they eat 40% of your week, only 60% of your hours earn money.
Divide. Required revenue ÷ billable hours = your hourly rate.

A worked example

Maya is a designer who wants to take home $60,000 a year. She spends $5,000 on software and equipment, her effective tax rate is 25%, she takes 5 weeks off, works 40 hours a week, and estimates 60% of her time is billable.

Revenue needed: ($60,000 + $5,000) ÷ (1 − 0.25) = $86,667
Working hours: 47 weeks × 40 h = 1,880 hours
Billable hours: 1,880 × 60% = 1,128 hours
Hourly rate: $86,667 ÷ 1,128 = $76.83/hour

Notice that $60,000 ÷ 1,880 — the naive calculation — would have suggested $32/hour. That rate would leave Maya roughly $28,000 short of her target.

Choosing your billable percentage honestly

The billable percentage is the input people get wrong most often. If you are established with a steady pipeline of repeat clients, 70–75% is realistic. If you are still building your business and spend real time on outreach, proposals, and portfolio work, 50% is more honest. Test it for two weeks: track every hour you work and mark whether a client was paying for it. Use your real number.

When to quote a project price instead

Hourly rates are a floor, not a ceiling. Once you know your hourly rate, you can quote fixed project prices that reflect the value you deliver rather than the time you spend — as you get faster, your effective rate goes up. Use our project rate calculator to price a whole engagement, and the invoice generator to bill it professionally.

Rule of thumb: if the calculated rate shocks you, don't lower the rate — check your assumptions, then reconsider your niche. Freelancers who serve businesses (B2B) typically sustain 2–3× the rates of those serving consumers for the same skill.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge per hour as a freelancer?

A common rule of thumb is to take your target annual salary, add business expenses and taxes, then divide by your realistic billable hours — usually 50–60% of your working hours. For most freelancers this works out to roughly 1.5 to 2 times the hourly rate of a comparable salaried role.

Why is my freelance hourly rate higher than a salaried employee's rate?

As a freelancer you pay your own taxes, your own insurance, your own equipment and software, and you are not paid for vacation, sick days, sales calls, admin, or bench time between clients. A higher rate simply covers the costs and unpaid time that an employer would otherwise absorb.

What percentage of a freelancer's hours are actually billable?

Most solo freelancers bill between 50% and 70% of their working hours. The rest goes to finding clients, invoicing, admin, learning, and communication. If you assume 100% billable, your rate will be too low to sustain a business.

How do taxes affect my freelance rate?

You need to gross up your target income by your effective tax rate, including self-employment or social contributions. For example, if you need $60,000 after tax and your total tax load is 25%, you must earn about $80,000 before tax. The calculator does this gross-up for you.

Should I round my calculated rate up or down?

Round up, and round to a confident number. The calculator's estimate assumes your inputs are perfect, which they never are. Rounding up also leaves room to negotiate, offer discounts for large commitments, or absorb slow months.