Freelance Rate Calculator
Work out the hourly rate you need to charge from your target income, expenses, and billable hours. Free and accurate.
Independently verified for accuracy
Calculator by Toolsloft ↗- Hourly rate you need
- 60
This calculator turns the income you want to take home, plus your business costs, into the hourly rate you need to charge. Enter your target annual income, yearly expenses, and the hours you can actually bill in a year.
How this is calculated
The rate is the sum of your target income and annual business expenses divided by billable hours per year. Billable hours are the hours you can invoice clients for, which is well below total working hours once you account for admin, sales, and time off.
How to use
- Enter your target annual income.
- Enter your yearly business expenses.
- Enter your billable hours per year.
- Read the hourly rate you need to charge.
Examples
- $80k income, $10k costs, 1,500 hours:
$60/hour - $120k income, $20k costs, 1,200 hours:
$116.67/hour
FAQ
- What counts as billable hours?
- Billable hours are the hours you can actually invoice clients for. They exclude admin, marketing, sales calls, bookkeeping, holidays, and sick days, so a full-time freelancer often bills far fewer than 2,080 hours a year.
- Why is the rate higher than my salary divided by 2,080?
- A salaried figure divided by 2,080 assumes every working hour is paid and ignores costs. As a freelancer you cover your own expenses and only bill a portion of your hours, so the rate has to be higher to reach the same take-home income.