Freelance rate calculator
Most freelancers price by dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours. That is the employee calculation, and it underpays you three times over. This one works backwards from what you actually need.
Your numbers
After tax and after business costs — what actually reaches your bank account.
52 minus holiday, public holidays, sick days and quiet weeks. Most people land near 46.
Hours a client pays for — not hours worked. Admin, sales, proposals and invoicing are unpaid.
Software, hardware, insurance, accountant, coworking, training, bank fees.
Income tax plus self-employment or social contributions, as a share of profit. Ask your accountant.
Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored anywhere.
You need to charge
$80 / hour
- Day rate
- $558
- Week rate
- $1,994
7 billable hours
25 billable hours
Why this is higher than you expected
Dividing $60,000 by a full-time year of 2,080 hours gives $29/hour. That is the employee calculation, and it is wrong three times over: it assumes every hour is billable, ignores business costs, and forgets that you pay your own tax.
- Revenue you must invoice$91,714
- Billable hours per year1,150
- Share of a 40-hour week that is billable63%
How the calculation works
The maths runs backwards from the number that actually matters — what reaches your bank account — rather than forwards from an hourly rate you guessed at.
1. Gross up for tax
If you want a certain amount after tax, you have to earn more than that before it. At a 30% effective rate, 70,000 of take-home needs 100,000 of pre-tax profit. As a freelancer you also pay both halves of the social contributions an employer would otherwise have split with you.
2. Add business costs
Software subscriptions, hardware, insurance, an accountant, a desk, training, bank and payment fees. These come out of revenue before you ever see profit, so they are added on top of the grossed-up figure rather than absorbed into it.
3. Divide by billable hours, not hours worked
This is where most rates go wrong. A 40-hour week is not 40 billable hours. Proposals, invoicing, chasing payment, calls that overrun, marketing, bookkeeping and admin are all real work that nobody pays you for. Twenty to thirty billable hours in a full week is normal.
Multiply that shortfall across a year and it is the difference between a rate that works and one that quietly does not.
Common questions
- How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
- Start from the take-home income you want, gross it up for tax, add your annual business costs, then divide by the hours you will actually bill — not the hours you will work. Billable hours are usually 20 to 30 per week rather than 40, because admin, sales, proposals and invoicing are unpaid.
- Why is my calculated rate so much higher than a salary equivalent?
- Because a salary hides three things an employer pays for: your unbillable time, your business costs, and the employer half of your tax and benefits. Dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours produces a rate that quietly underpays you on all three at once.
- How many billable hours should I assume per week?
- Most established freelancers bill 20 to 30 hours in a 40-hour week. If you are also doing your own marketing and admin, 25 is a realistic planning figure. Assuming 40 is the single most common cause of underpricing.
- Should I charge hourly or a fixed project price?
- Most freelancers do better on fixed prices, because the client buys an outcome rather than your time and you keep the gain when you work efficiently. An accurate hourly rate is still the number you price those projects from — it tells you where the floor is.
- Does this tool store what I enter?
- No. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and nothing is saved.
Now make sure you actually bill it
Frelvo tracks your time, converts it into an invoice at your rate, and chases the payment so you do not have to. Free to start, and it works wherever you are.