Freelance Rate Calculator

Why Your Rate Needs to Be Higher Than It Feels Like It Should

The instinct when starting out is to take a salary you'd be happy with and divide by 2,080 (40 hours × 52 weeks) — but that number assumes every hour of the year is billable, which it never is. Marketing, admin, invoicing, unpaid pitches, and time off all eat into the calendar without generating revenue. Most freelancers only bill 25-30 hours in a genuinely productive 40-hour week, and rarely work all 52 weeks without a break. On top of that, a freelancer's "annual expenses" line includes things a salaried employee never sees directly — self-employment tax, their own health insurance, software subscriptions, and no employer match on retirement contributions.

How to Use This Calculator

Enter the annual take-home income you want, your estimated annual business expenses (subscriptions, insurance, equipment, a buffer for self-employment tax), and your realistic billable hours per week and weeks worked per year — be honest about billable hours specifically, not total hours worked.

How We Calculate It

Hourly rate = (desired annual income + annual expenses) ÷ (billable hours per week × weeks worked per year). For example: $80,000 desired income, $8,000 in expenses, 25 billable hours/week, 48 weeks/year → $88,000 ÷ 1,200 billable hours = $73.33/hour.

A Few Notes

This gives you a floor, not a ceiling — it's the rate that covers your target income and costs, not necessarily what the market will bear for your skill level and niche, which could be higher. It also doesn't build in profit margin or savings beyond your stated "desired income," so pad that figure if you want this calculation to include a cushion rather than just break-even take-home pay.