Scenario 1
$80,000/year, 25 billable hours/week
With $5,000 expenses and 46 working weeks, you need to charge about $74/hour.
Trusted by freelancers and business owners
Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Find the exact hourly rate you need to hit your income goals — based on real billable hours and business costs.
Adjust your inputs
Results update instantly as you type or drag.
0 – 500,000
$
What you want to take home before tax
0 – 100,000
$
Software, equipment, insurance, accounting
1 – 60
h
25h × 46w = 1,150 billable hours/year
Most freelancers bill 20–30 hours/week.
30 – 52
52 minus holidays and sick leave
Quick insights
Equivalent day rate (8h)
$591.30
Monthly revenue
$7,083
Annual revenue
$85,000
Quick answer
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Add your target income to your business expenses, then divide by your billable hours per year. That is the minimum you need to charge per hour.
How it works
From inputs to result in four steps
A quick walkthrough of what this calculator does behind the scenes.
- 1
Set your target take-home income for the year.
- 2
Add your annual business expenses (software, tools, insurance).
- 3
Estimate how many hours you can realistically bill each week.
- 4
Subtract holidays and sick days to get your true working weeks.
Formula
The math behind the number
No black box — here's exactly how the result is computed.
Hourly Rate = (Target Income + Expenses)
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Billable Hours per YearAdd what you want to take home to your business costs, then divide by the hours you can realistically invoice in a year.
Examples
Real-world scenarios
See how the numbers play out for typical use cases.
Scenario 2
$120,000/year, 30 billable hours/week
With $10,000 expenses and 47 working weeks, you need about $92/hour.
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