Freelance Rate Calculator
Stop undercharging. Enter your target take-home income, business expenses, tax rate, and realistic billable hours to calculate the hourly rate you actually need to charge to make your goal. Also outputs day, weekly, monthly, and project rates — plus a full breakdown of where every dollar goes. 100% free, no signup, runs entirely in your browser.
Where your revenue goes
Project rate estimator
Estimate a fair price for a fixed-scope project based on your hourly rate.
Always quote in ranges or per-project fees, not pure hourly, for clients who value outcomes over time.
How to Use This Freelance Rate Calculator
- Pick a preset or enter your own numbersChoose Beginner, US, EU, or Senior for sensible defaults, or type your own numbers to match your exact situation.
- Enter your target annual take-home incomeWhat you want in your pocket, not gross revenue. This is the income goal the calculator will reverse-engineer your hourly rate from.
- Enter your annual business expensesInclude software subscriptions, equipment, insurance, accounting fees, and a portion of rent/utilities if you work from home.
- Set your combined tax rateFor US freelancers this includes self-employment tax (15.3%) plus federal and state income tax, often totaling 25–35%.
- Set realistic billable hours per weekMost freelancers are only billable 50–70% of their work hours. The rest is admin, sales, learning, and buffer.
- Set weeks worked per yearAccount for vacation, holidays, and sick days (typically 46–48 weeks).
- Add a profit margin10% is a healthy buffer for bad debt, scope creep, and reinvestment back into your business.
- Review your rateCopy the results or save a shareable URL so you can revisit the exact scenario later.
All calculations run in your browser — your inputs are never sent anywhere.
What Is a Freelance Rate Calculator?
A freelance rate calculator reverse-engineers your hourly rate from the income you actually want to take home. Most freelancers set their rate by comparing to what they earned as an employee, or by guessing — both approaches lead to undercharging.
What the real rate formula accounts for
- Self-employment taxesFreelancers pay the full 15.3% FICA themselves, on top of federal and state income tax.
- Business expensesSoftware, equipment, insurance, and accounting costs that W-2 employees don't pay out of pocket.
- Non-billable hoursOnly a portion of your work hours are billable — admin, sales, and learning take up the rest.
- Profit marginA buffer to cover bad debt, scope creep, and reinvestment back into your freelance business.
Why the output is your minimum sustainable rate
This calculator runs that math in your browser — your inputs are never sent anywhere — and shows you the minimum rate you need to charge to hit your income goal without burning out.