Scenario 1
$80/hour, 8h day, 10% buffer
Day rate of $704 — protects your effective hourly rate.
Trusted by freelancers and business owners
Day Rate Calculator
Price a full day of focused work — without quietly discounting your hourly rate.
Adjust your inputs
Results update instantly as you type or drag.
0 – 1,000
$
1 – 12
h
0 – 50
%
Protects your effective hourly rate
Quick insights
5-day week rate
$3,520
20-day month rate
$14,080
Quick answer
How do I work out a day rate?
Multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours in a working day, then add a small buffer for context-switching.
How it works
From inputs to result in four steps
A quick walkthrough of what this calculator does behind the scenes.
- 1
Start from the hourly rate you already charge clients.
- 2
Decide how many hours a focused working day actually is.
- 3
Add a buffer for setup, meetings, and context switching.
- 4
Multiply through to get day, week, and month rates.
Formula
The math behind the number
No black box — here's exactly how the result is computed.
Day rate = Hourly rate × Hours/day × (1 + Buffer)
Take your hourly rate, multiply by hours in a working day, then add a small buffer so a daily commitment doesn't cost you money.
Examples
Real-world scenarios
See how the numbers play out for typical use cases.
Scenario 2
$120/hour, 7.5h day, 5% buffer
Day rate of $945 — typical for senior consulting.
Related
Pair this with
Other calculators that work well alongside this one.