Freelance rate calculator
A freelance rate calculator estimates the hourly or day rate needed to cover your income target and business costs. Start with annual income and expenses, then divide the required revenue by realistic billable hours. Adjust time off, non-billable work and your own tax-reserve assumption before comparing the scenarios below.
Hourly and day rate
From income, costs, reserve and billable time
Two named models
See exactly how the reserve is applied
Salary baseline
Convert annual, monthly, weekly or hourly pay
Use the freelance rate calculator
Start with the income you want to take home, add business costs and a reserve you choose, then set realistic working time. Every assumption is yours to change.
Restored from an earlier link
This link came from an earlier version of the calculator. Your values were restored in memory, removed from the address bar, and calculated with the Reserve from revenue model, the model that link used.
Your rate
Enter an income target to see the rate it needs, or switch to salary conversion.
This rate is out of date. Fix the highlighted field to update it.
- Hourly rate
- —
- Quoted full-day rate
- —
- Average billable-day capacity
- —
- Annual required revenue
- —
- Reserve amount
- —
- Total available hours
- —
- Billable hours
- —
Compare planning scenarios
Each row shows how a change in your own assumptions moves the required rate. None is a market rate.
- Hourly equivalent
- —
- Per day
- —
- Per week
- —
- Per month
- —
- Per year
- —
Assumptions
Planning estimate, not a tax calculation
The reserve is a percentage you choose. Neither model calculates income tax, national insurance, self-employment tax or VAT for any jurisdiction, and the scenarios are not market rates.
Calculated in your browser. Your income, costs and rates are not sent to a server or written to the page address. Consented website analytics record only that a plan was calculated and which model was used, never the amounts.
Method
How your rate is calculated
Income, expenses and reserves
The default model, "Reserve from revenue", holds back your reserve percentage from every unit of revenue: required revenue = (income target + expenses) ÷ (1 − reserve). The alternative, "Simple tax-on-profit illustration", takes the reserve only from profit: required revenue = expenses + income target ÷ (1 − reserve). Both are planning arithmetic on assumptions you enter; neither calculates real tax.
Income 60,000 + expenses 6,000, reserve 25%
Reserve from revenue → 66,000 ÷ 0.75 = 88,000 required revenue
Tax-on-profit illustration → 6,000 + 60,000 ÷ 0.75 = 86,000 required revenueBillable capacity
Billable hours = working weeks × days per week × hours per day × billable share. Forty-six weeks of five eight-hour days is 1,840 available hours; at 60% billable that is 1,104 billable hours. Hourly rate = required revenue ÷ billable hours, so 88,000 ÷ 1,104 ≈ 79.71 per hour.
Day rate calculator
Hourly rate versus day rate
A quoted full-day rate is the hourly rate multiplied by the hours in the day you sell: 79.71 × 8 = 637.68. It is what you would quote for a whole day of client work.
The average billable-day capacity is different. It spreads your billable hours across every working day, so with 60% billable time an average day carries about 4.8 billable hours, or roughly 382.61 at the same hourly rate. Quoting the full-day figure for every working day would assume a schedule you do not have.
Salary to hourly
Convert a salary into an hourly baseline
Salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year) gives an hourly baseline. With 40 hours and 52 weeks that is 2,080 hours, so 52,000 a year is 25.00 an hour and 4,000 a month (48,000 a year) is 23.08 an hour.
That baseline is not a freelance rate. It includes hours an employer pays for that a freelancer cannot bill, and it excludes business costs, unpaid leave and the reserve. Use it to compare an offer, then switch to the freelance mode to plan a rate.
Scenarios
Compare planning scenarios
Beside your plan, the calculator shows a lower income target and a higher target with one fewer working day each week. Each row lists exactly which inputs changed, and "Use these assumptions" loads them into the form so you can keep editing. None of them is a market rate; they show how your own choices move the number.
Before you send a quote, check the working-days assumption against a real calendar (the free working days calculator counts them with holidays and time off) and compare the billable share with the time you actually track. The rate is a plan; tracked time tells you whether the plan holds.
Frequently asked questions
Freelance rate questions
Is this a tax calculator?
No. The percentage is a planning assumption you choose. The tool does not calculate actual tax bands, allowances, national insurance or other jurisdiction-specific liabilities.
Why should I include non-billable time?
Administration, proposals and other work may not be billable to clients. A rate based on every available hour can underestimate the rate needed to meet your target.
How is a day rate calculated?
A quoted full-day rate multiplies your hourly rate by the hours in the day you sell. That is different from the average billable hours available across all working days.
Does salary divided by 2,080 give my freelance rate?
It gives an hourly salary baseline only when the assumed schedule is 40 hours for 52 weeks. A freelance plan also needs realistic working weeks, business costs and billable capacity.
Are the suggested scenarios market rates?
No. They show how your own assumptions change the required rate. They are not evidence of what clients in a particular market will pay.
Can I save or share my calculation?
You can copy a summary and the page link. The calculator does not put your financial inputs into the page address automatically.
What happens when no hours are billable?
A finite hourly rate cannot be calculated from zero billable hours. Increase the planned billable capacity or reconsider the target and schedule.
Related tools
More free tools for time and billing
Next step
Your rate is a plan. Track the hours that test it.
Tracking actual billable time helps you compare that plan with the work you deliver, and the same hours can flow straight into an invoice.