Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Work out the hourly rate you need to charge to hit your income goal after expenses, taxes, and non-billable time.
About this tool
Work out the hourly rate you actually need to charge as a freelancer or contractor to hit your income goal — after accounting for business expenses and the reality that not every working hour is billable to a client. Most freelancers underprice by starting from a rate that only covers billable hours, without factoring in admin time, marketing, and unpaid gaps between projects.
Key Features
- Accounts for business expenses, not just take-home income
- Adjustable billable percentage to reflect real non-billable time
- Customizable weeks and hours worked per year
- Instant breakdown of annual, weekly, and hourly targets
- Works in any currency
How to Use
- Enter your desired annual income and estimated annual business expenses.
- Adjust weeks worked, hours per week, and your realistic billable percentage.
- Click Calculate to see your target hourly rate.
Benefits
- Price your freelance or contract work with a real number behind it, not a guess
- See exactly how non-billable time (admin, marketing, unpaid pitches) affects your rate
- Understand how much a slow month or lower billable percentage costs you
- Compare how different expense levels change the rate you need to charge
- Set a client-facing rate that actually supports your real annual income goal
Frequently Asked Questions
It's the share of your total working hours that you can actually invoice to clients — the rest goes to admin, proposals, marketing, professional development, and gaps between projects. Most freelancers find their realistic billable percentage is well under 100%, often in the 50-75% range.
Not automatically — this calculates the rate needed to cover your desired take-home income plus business expenses. If you want to account for self-employment tax specifically, add an estimated tax amount into the "annual business expenses" field, or treat your desired income figure as pre-tax and budget for taxes separately.
This is common — many freelancers set an initial rate based only on billable hours at 100%, without accounting for non-billable time or business expenses, which understates what's actually needed to hit their income goal.
Track your actual hours for a few weeks: divide hours spent on paid client work by total hours worked (including admin, marketing, and unpaid time). Most freelancers land somewhere between 50% and 75%, depending on how much of their own business operations they handle personally.
Many freelancers round up slightly to a clean number (like $52 to $55) as a small buffer for unexpected slow periods or scope creep, though the exact approach depends on your market and how price-sensitive your clients are.
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