Freelance Rate Calculator

Works backward from your target take-home income to the hourly and day rate you need to charge, accounting for unpaid weeks off, non-billable hours, business expenses and tax.

Enter your desired annual income, weeks of vacation and unpaid time off, billable hours per week, annual business expenses, and your tax rate as a percentage. The hourly and eight-hour day rate update as you type.

A 60,000 target income, 4 weeks off (48 working weeks), 25 billable hours per week, 5,000 in expenses and a 25% tax rate grosses up to about 86,667, spread over 1,200 billable hours per year — roughly a 72.22 hourly rate and a 577.78 day rate.

A 40-hour work week rarely converts into 40 billable hours — admin, proposals, marketing and unpaid gaps between projects typically leave freelancers billing 20-30 hours per week even when working full-time.

The calculator adds business expenses to your target income first, then divides by (1 − tax rate) so the resulting rate already covers taxes — you don't need to set money aside from it afterward.

Tax rates, typical billable ratios and reasonable expenses vary widely by country, industry and individual practice — treat the result as a starting point for negotiation, not a guaranteed market rate.

All figures are calculated locally in your browser; nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.