Freelance rate calculator
The hourly rate that delivers your target income after tax and unbillable hours.
Fill in the fields and the result will appear here automatically.
Works backwards: not «what will I earn at this rate» but «what rate must I charge to take home this much». Two corrections sit between the target income and the rate, and without them the hourly price comes out systematically low. The first is the billable share: part of every week goes on email, invoices and finding work, so dividing income across all working hours assumes that every working hour can be billed. The second is the assumed withholding, applied here to turnover — meaning you must invoice more than you want to receive. Costs are deducted after the assumed turnover withholding and do not reduce its base. The example’s 6% is an assumption, not a tax rate for all freelancers. Days and hours can be fractional averages; choose the billable share from your own time records.
How it works
Formula and logic
Billable hours = days × hours per day × billable percentage / 100. In this model the chosen withholding applies to the entire invoice: invoice = (target remainder after costs + costs) / (1 − rate / 100). Hourly rate = invoice / billable hours; day rate = invoice / working days. Billable share must be above 0 and at most 100%; the rate is from 0 to below 100%. Actual taxes on profit, progressive bands, VAT and social contributions need a different model.
Example
To retain 150,000 after 15,000 of costs and an assumed 6% turnover withholding, with 21 days of 6 hours and 70% billable time, invoice 175,531.91: 88.2 billable hours give 1,990.16 per hour. With zero costs and the same other inputs the rate is 1,809.23.
Fields and units
- Target take-home per month — $
- Working days per month — working days/month
- Working hours per day — h/working day
- Billable share of hours, % — unitless
- Business costs per month — $
- Tax rate, % — unitless
How to use
- — Enter the amount you want to take home each month.
- — Enter the working days and hours you are prepared to put in.
- — Set the billable share — estimate it from your own time records.
- — Add your business costs and the rate of your tax regime.
Method and limitations
- Calculation method
- Formula and logic
- Limitation
- Costs are deducted after the assumed turnover withholding and do not reduce its base. The example’s 6% is an assumption, not a tax rate for all freelancers. Days and hours can be fractional averages; choose the billable share from your own time records.
FAQ
Why not divide income across all working hours?
Because some of the time is never billed: email, invoices, revisions and finding work. Counting every hour understates the rate by exactly that share.
What billable share should I use?
Use your records: billed hours / all working hours × 100. Correspondence, sales and administration can reduce it; this page does not prescribe a universal normal share.
Why does tax divide rather than add?
Tax is charged on what you receive, not on what you want. To be left with 100000 at a 6% rate you must invoice 106383, not 106000.
What counts as a business cost?
Subscriptions, equipment, desk rent and platform fees — anything paid out of income before it becomes yours.
Is the day rate a full day's earnings?
It is the billable part of a day at the calculated rate. A full working day is longer, because part of it is not billed.