Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Open toolWork out a suggested hourly rate from your income goal, working days, and expenses.
Work out the hourly rate you need to charge to reach an income goal, after covering your business expenses, given how many days a year you can really work and how many of those hours you can bill.
How it works
Money needed = Desired annual income + Annual business expenses. Billable hours per year = Working days per year × Billable hours per day. Suggested hourly rate = Money needed ÷ Billable hours per year.
The idea is that you cannot bill every hour you work — some go on admin, marketing, and finding the next client — so the rate has to be spread over the hours you can actually invoice. The default of 220 days at 6 billable hours a day gives 1,320 billable hours a year.
The rate is shown in the site-wide currency chosen in Settings; nothing is converted.
How to use it
- Enter the Desired annual income you want to take home from the business.
- Enter your Annual business expenses (software, equipment, insurance, co-working space). Use 0 if none.
- Set Working days per year — after weekends, holidays, leave and sick days.
- Set Billable hours per day — the hours you can honestly invoice, not the hours you are at your desk.
- Read the Suggested hourly rate, and click Copy to copy it.
Options & controls
Inputs
- Desired annual income
- The yearly income you are aiming for, in the current currency. Must be greater than 0. Default: 60,000.
- Annual business expenses
- What the business costs to run each year. Must be 0 or more, and must not be left empty (type 0 if there are none). Default: 0.
- Working days per year
- Days you expect to work in a year. Must be greater than 0. Default: 220.
- Billable hours per day
- Hours per working day that you can bill to clients. Must be greater than 0. Default: 6.
- Reset
- In the title row. Restores the four sample values.
Reading the results
Results
- Suggested hourly rate
- The rate per hour, in the current currency, shown as “/hr”.
- Billable hours per year
- Working days × billable hours per day.
- Copy
- Copies both figures as one line of text.
- Assumptions & notes
- A short reminder that the calculation is simplified. On phones it is behind a toggle.
Tips & guidelines
- A good way to set Working days per year is to start from 365 and subtract weekends (about 104), public holidays, planned leave, and a few days for illness. A result between 200 and 230 is typical.
- Be conservative about billable hours. Many freelancers bill only four to six hours in a working day.
- Enter the income you need before tax, because the tool does not model tax. If you know your tax rate, divide your desired take-home by (1 − tax rate) first.
- Treat the number as a floor, not a price. Check it against what your market pays, and consider rounding up so you have room to negotiate.
- Try different scenarios: how does the rate change if you can only bill 4 hours a day, or if expenses double?
Limits
- It does not calculate tax, retirement or health-insurance contributions, profit margin, or a buffer for slow months.
- It assumes one flat hourly rate all year; it does not consider project pricing or retainers.
- The calculation does not know your local market rate.
Saved in your browser
Nothing. Values return to the defaults when you refresh.