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Freelance Rate Calculator

What should you charge? Target income + expenses + taxes ÷ real billable hours.

Free foreverNo uploadsNo account
Target take-home income (per year)
What you want to personally earn after business costs and taxes.
Business expenses (per year)
Software, hardware, insurance, accounting, coworking, marketing.
Tax rate (%)
Combined income + self-employment taxes on profit. 25–35% is a common range.
Working hours per week
Total hours you work — including the unbillable ones.
Billable share (%)
Client-billable fraction of your time. Admin, sales, and email are not billable; 50–70% is realistic.
Weeks not worked (per year)
Vacation, sick days, public holidays, and the gaps between projects.
HOURLY RATE
123.71
DAY RATE (8H)
989.65
WEEKLY (BILLABLE)
2,969
GROSS REVENUE NEEDED
136,571
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01 · Real-world fits

Common use cases

  • Setting an opening rate when going independent for the first time
  • Checking whether your current rate actually supports your income goal after taxes
  • Converting a salaried job offer into the equivalent freelance rate to compare fairly
  • Quoting day rates for consulting engagements
  • Stress-testing what a slow quarter (more weeks off) does to the rate you need
02 · The honest pitch

Why Freelance Rate Calculator?

The classic freelancer mistake is dividing target salary by 2,080 hours — as if every working hour were billable and taxes didn't exist. This calculator makes the three killers explicit: unbillable time (admin, sales, email — typically 30–50% of a week), business expenses, and self-employment taxes on top. The result is usually 2–3× the naive number, which is exactly why the naive number bankrupts freelancers. All computed on your device: your income goals are not a lead-generation form.

03 · Edge cases

Frequently asked questions

Three compounding reasons: only part of your week is billable (60% is a good year), you now pay both halves of employment taxes plus your own benefits, and business expenses come off the top. A $90k salary equivalent routinely requires a $90–120/hour freelance rate — that is the math working correctly, not the calculator being pessimistic.