FREELANCE RATE CALCULATOR / 02
Freelance hourly rate calculator.
Find your freelance hourly rate from income, expenses and billable hours. Free calculator with a worked example, no account and no saved entries.
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Your hourly starting point
A little clarity for your next project.
Enter your details and calculate to see the result.
THE THINKING BEHIND IT
A useful number.
With the context to use it.
How it works
Annual revenue needed ÷ annual billable hours. Non-billable work still takes time, so include admin, sales, and time between projects in your billable percentage.
Freelance hourly rate formula
(Target annual owner income + annual business expenses) ÷ (working weeks × hours per week × billable percentage). Enter the billable percentage as a decimal in the formula, so 60% is 0.60.
A worked example
60,000 target income + 12,000 expenses, divided by 48 weeks × 40 hours × 60% billable time, gives 62.50 per billable hour.
Keep in mind
This is a planning floor, not a market rate or an earnings forecast. Personal income tax, retirement contributions, benefits, and a profit buffer are not added automatically. Use one currency throughout.
Amounts use decimal arithmetic with half-up rounding. Displayed planning results have two decimal places.
COMPARE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
The same working week.
Different billable hours.
Consider a fictional freelancer who needs USD 60,000 in owner income and has USD 12,000 in annual business expenses. They plan to work 40 hours a week for 48 weeks. That is 1,920 working hours, but only the hours charged to clients belong in the rate calculation.
| Billable share | Billable hours / week | Billable hours / year | Hourly starting point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40% | 16 | 768 | USD 93.75 |
| 60% | 24 | 1,152 | USD 62.50 |
| 80% | 32 | 1,536 | USD 46.88 |
Why the rate changes so much
At 60%, the calculation is 72,000 ÷ 1,152 = 62.50. Reducing billable time to 40% raises the required hourly revenue to 93.75, a 50% increase. The working week has not changed; fewer hours must cover the same annual total.
Choose a percentage you can explain
For a recent representative period, divide hours you could charge clients by all hours spent working. Include proposals, bookkeeping and marketing in total working time. A fully booked delivery week may give a different result from a period with gaps between projects, so compare both assumptions here.
The table is a sensitivity check, not a recommended rate or billable target. A lower calculated number at 80% does not establish that 32 paid hours will be available every week. The final value is rounded to two decimal places.
Keep your next step simple.
Turn your rate into a project quote