Freelance Rate Calculator

How to use this calculator

Most freelancers set a rate by looking at what other people charge and picking a number in the middle. That's guessing. This calculator works backwards from the only number that matters to you: what you need to keep.

Start with your target annual income — the money you actually want to live on, after tax and after the business has paid its own bills. Then enter the percentage of revenue you intend to set aside for tax. That figure is entirely yours to decide; it depends on where you live, your structure and your other income, and this tool never assumes a bracket for you. If you don't know it, ask an accountant and come back.

Next, add your monthly business expenses. Be honest and inclusive: design software, accounting subscriptions, insurance, a share of your phone bill, hardware you replace every few years, professional memberships, the coworking desk. Small recurring costs are the ones that quietly eat a rate.

The last two inputs decide everything. Billable hours per week means hours a client is invoiced for — not the hours you spend writing proposals, chasing payment, doing your books, posting on social media or learning a new tool. For most solo operators, a full-time-feeling week produces somewhere between 15 and 25 genuinely billable hours. If this is a side gig around a job, be realistic about what your evenings and weekends can sustain. Weeks worked per year should subtract holiday, public holidays, sick days and the weeks when nothing lands.

What the output means

The headline number is a floor, not a price. It's the rate at which your billable hours, your expenses and your tax set-aside combine to leave exactly your target income — no margin, no profit, no buffer. Charging below it means the target is unreachable at the hours you entered.

The breakdown shows how the total gets there: your take-home target, your annual expenses, and the tax set-aside grossed up so the percentage comes off revenue rather than being subtracted from what's left. The gross revenue required line is the number your invoices must add up to over the year.

Use the floor as a starting point and add margin on top for profit, for growth, and for the fact that clients rarely fill every hour you've made available. If the rate looks uncomfortably high, the fix is usually not a lower rate — it's more billable hours, lower expenses, or a smaller income target. Change one input at a time and watch which one moves the number most; that's where your attention belongs.