Freelance Rate Calculator
Work out the hourly and day rate that pays the income you want. Type your target monthly income, your business costs, the share that goes to taxes, the hours you can really bill each week and the weeks you take off. The rate comes from your own numbers, not from a market average.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
Result
Type the income you want and your billable hours per week to see the rate.
The rate is rounded up to the cent: it is the lowest rate that reaches your income when every billable hour is sold. Arithmetic on your own numbers, not tax advice.
How the rate is worked out
Start from what you need to invoice
Your income is what is left after costs and taxes, so the calculator works backwards: income plus costs, grossed up by the tax percent. The result is the amount to invoice each month.
Two ways taxes are charged
When the tax is a percent of what you invoice, the amount to invoice is (income + costs) ÷ (1 - tax). When it is a percent of your profit, costs are deducted first: costs + income ÷ (1 - tax). Pick the one that matches how you are taxed and type one effective percent.
Only billable hours earn
A year has 52 weeks. Take out your weeks off and multiply by the hours a client pays for each week. Proposals, invoices, admin and learning are real work, but nobody is billed for them, so the billable hours have to cover them.
Hourly rate
Hourly rate = amount to invoice per year ÷ billable hours per year, rounded up to the cent. It is a floor: below it, the income you typed cannot be reached even with every billable hour sold.
Day rate
Day rate = hourly rate × billable hours per week ÷ working days per week. With 25 billable hours over 5 days, a day is 5 billable hours, not 8.
What this leaves out
Unpaid invoices, slow months, retirement savings and the benefits an employer would pay. To build a cushion for them, add it to the income or to the costs.
Formulas
- Weeks worked
- 52 - weeks off
- Billable hours per year
- billable hours per week × weeks worked
- To invoice, tax on what you invoice
- (income + costs) ÷ (1 - tax)
- To invoice, tax on profit
- costs + income ÷ (1 - tax)
- Hourly rate
- to invoice per month × 12 ÷ billable hours per year
- Day rate
- hourly rate × billable hours per week ÷ working days per week
One link with your work, your services and your contact
VISU Link is a link page and digital business card at visu.to/yourname. Put your portfolio, services, WhatsApp and email in one place and share it with a link or a QR code on your proposals. Free to start.
Create your VISU LinkSee VISU LinkHow to use it
- Type the income you want to keep each month, after costs and taxes.
- Add your monthly business costs and the percent that goes to taxes, and say whether that percent applies to what you invoice or to your profit.
- Type the hours per week a client actually pays for, your working days per week and the weeks you take off in a year.
- Read the hourly rate, the day rate and the amount to invoice per month. Download the card or copy the result.
Examples
25 billable hours a week, tax on what you invoice
Made-up numbers to show the maths: income $4,000.00, costs $600.00, 15% tax on what you invoice, 25 billable hours a week over 5 days and 6 weeks off. To invoice: (4,000 + 600) ÷ 0.85 = $5,411.76 a month. Billable hours: 25 × 46 = 1,150 a year. Hourly rate: $56.48. Day rate at 5 billable hours a day: $282.40.
The same numbers with tax on profit
With the 15% applied to profit instead, the amount to invoice is 600 + 4,000 ÷ 0.85 = $5,305.88 a month, the hourly rate is $55.37 and the day rate is $276.85.
Nothing but income and hours
Income $3,000.00 and 30 billable hours a week, with no costs, taxes or time off filled in: 30 × 52 = 1,560 billable hours a year and an hourly rate of $23.08. Add real costs, taxes and weeks off and the rate goes up, because fewer hours have to pay for more.
Questions
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Add the income you want to your business costs, gross the total up for taxes, and divide the yearly amount by the hours you can bill in a year. The calculator does exactly that and shows every step.
What are billable hours?
Hours a client pays for. Writing proposals, invoicing, answering email, learning and looking for work are not billable. Count only the hours you can realistically sell in a normal week.
Why is a freelance rate higher than a salary divided by full-time hours?
An employee is paid for every hour of the week, time off included, and the employer carries costs that a freelancer pays alone. A freelancer has fewer paid hours to cover the same income plus costs and taxes, so each of those hours has to carry more.
How do I turn an hourly rate into a day rate?
Multiply the hourly rate by the billable hours in one working day. The calculator divides your billable hours per week by your working days per week, so the day rate always agrees with the hourly one.
What goes in the tax field?
One effective percent: the share that taxes and mandatory contributions take over a year. Choose whether it applies to what you invoice or to your profit. A fixed monthly contribution goes in the costs instead. The calculator knows no tax table: it applies the percent you type.
Does the rate cover my time off?
Yes, through the weeks off. Every week you do not work removes billable hours from the year, so the hours that remain carry the whole income.
Are my numbers stored?
No. The maths runs in your browser. Your income, costs and hours are not uploaded, are not added to the page address and are not saved.