Setting a freelance hourly rate is more than picking a number, because a huge share of your time is unbillable and business costs eat into every dollar. This calculator works backward from the income you actually want to keep. Enter your target annual salary, your yearly business expenses and the profit buffer you want, then the realistic number of billable hours you can sell each week and the weeks you plan to work per year. The tool adds salary, expenses and profit, then divides by your total billable hours to reveal the hourly rate you need to charge to hit your goal. It reflects the reality that admin, sales and downtime are unpaid, so your billable rate has to carry the whole year. Adjust the inputs to test scenarios. Every calculation runs locally in your browser, so your income plans stay private.
It adds your target salary and business expenses, then divides by your billable hours to find the rate you must charge.
Not all time is billable. Admin, marketing and downtime reduce billable hours, which raises the rate needed to hit your target.
Yes. Covering software, taxes and overhead in the rate ensures your take home income actually meets your target salary.
Setting a freelance hourly rate is more than picking a number, because a huge share of your time is unbillable and business costs eat into every dollar. This calculator works backward from the income you actually want to keep.
Yes. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator is completely free, with no sign-up and no usage limits.
Yes. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator runs in any modern web browser. There is nothing to download or install.
Yes. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator runs entirely on your device in your browser, so nothing you enter is uploaded to a server.