Free Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Your target income, business expenses, taxes and real billable hours in; the minimum hourly rate you need to charge out. No signup.

Target take-home income per year ($)
Annual business expenses ($) — software, gear, insurance…
Estimated tax rate (%)
Weeks off per year (vacation, sick, holidays)
Billable hours per week (be honest — 20–30 is typical)
YOU NEED TO CHARGE AT LEAST
$102/hr
$816 per day
Gross revenue needed$117,333/yr
Working weeks46
Billable hours per year1,150

This is your floor, not your ceiling — price specialist skills and outcomes above it.

How to use the Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

  1. Enter your target take-home income per year and your annual business expenses.
  2. Enter your estimated tax rate.
  3. Set the weeks off per year and your billable hours per week (20 to 30 is typical).
  4. Read the hourly rate you need to charge at least, with the gross revenue and billable hours behind it.

Do this automatically

Send invoices from BillingOtter instead

Save your clients, email each invoice with the PDF attached and see what is paid, due or overdue. Clients pay from the invoice email without creating an account. The Free plan covers 5 invoices a month.

Free plan · no credit card · cancel anytime

Frequently asked questions

Why is my calculated rate higher than I expected?

Because employees are paid for ~2,080 hours a year while freelancers typically bill only 20–30 hours a week — the rest goes to finding clients, admin and unpaid gaps. Your rate must also cover expenses, self-employment taxes, and time off no one else pays for. That is all priced in here.

How many billable hours per week is realistic?

Most full-time freelancers genuinely bill 20–30 hours a week. If you plug in 40, you're assuming zero admin, zero marketing and zero empty weeks — the classic way to underprice.

Should I charge hourly or per project?

Use your hourly rate as the floor for pricing projects: estimate the hours honestly, multiply, then add margin for revisions and risk. Experienced freelancers usually earn more per hour on fixed-price projects — but only when the underlying rate math is right.