Freelance Rate Calculator
Work out the hourly rate you must charge as a freelancer — factoring unpaid time off, self-employment tax and real billable hours, not just salary ÷ 2080.
- ✓ Runs in your browser — nothing uploaded
- ✓ No sign-up
- ✓ Free, no limits
How it's computed
Required revenue = take-home ÷ (1 − tax rate) + expenses, because tax is charged on your profit (revenue − expenses). That revenue is then spread over your billable hours for the year — billable hours per week × working weeks (52 − unpaid weeks off) — to get the hourly rate. The day rate assumes an 8-hour day.
| Revenue you must invoice | $86,000.00 |
| − Business expenses | $6,000.00 |
| − Estimated tax | $20,000.00 |
| = Your take-home | $60,000.00 |
| Working weeks (52 − off) | 46 |
| Billable hours / year | 1150 |
Estimates for planning, not tax advice. Self-employment/social contributions and income tax vary by country and bracket — confirm your combined rate with a local accountant.
This freelance rate calculator works out the hourly rate you actually need to charge to hit a target take-home income — the number most freelancers get wrong by dividing an old salary by 2,080 hours. Enter what you want to keep after tax, your yearly business expenses, an estimated combined tax rate, the hours you can genuinely bill each week, and the weeks you'll take off unpaid. It returns the hourly rate, day rate and weekly revenue you need to quote.
The ÷2080 shortcut assumes an employee's world: 52 paid weeks, every hour billable, no self-employment tax, no overheads. Freelancing is the opposite. If you take six weeks off, only 46 weeks earn anything; if 25 of your 40 weekly hours are billable, the rest — sales, admin, invoicing — pay nothing; and you shoulder both halves of payroll/self-employment tax plus your own software, gear and insurance. Worked example: to take home $60,000 with $6,000 of expenses at a 25% combined tax rate, you need about $86,000 in revenue; spread over 25 billable hours across 46 working weeks (1,150 hours), that's roughly $75 an hour — not the $29 the naive salary ÷ 2080 suggests.
Use it to set a floor for your rates, sanity-check a new client's budget, or decide whether a retainer is worth it — then send the work with the invoice generator below. The tax rate is a single combined estimate: self-employment/social contributions and income tax vary widely by country and bracket, so treat the result as planning guidance, not tax advice, and confirm your actual rate with a local accountant.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Work backward from what you want to keep. Required revenue = take-home ÷ (1 − tax rate) + expenses, then divide by your billable hours for the year (billable hours per week × the weeks you actually work). That gives the rate that covers tax, costs and unpaid time — not just your target salary.
Why can't I just divide my old salary by 2,080?
Because 2,080 hours assumes 52 fully-paid, fully-billable weeks with no self-employment tax or business costs. As a freelancer you lose weeks to unpaid time off, spend hours on non-billable work, and pay both halves of payroll tax plus your own overheads — so the honest rate is usually far higher.
What should I put in the tax rate?
A single combined estimate of self-employment/social contributions plus income tax on your profit. It varies a lot by country and bracket, so use a realistic figure for your situation (an accountant can give you an exact number) — the calculator applies it to revenue minus expenses.
What counts as billable hours?
Only the hours you can actually invoice a client for. Time spent on sales, proposals, admin, bookkeeping, learning and marketing is real work but isn't billable, which is why a full-time freelancer rarely bills a full 40-hour week.
Is this financial or tax advice?
No. It's a planning estimate. Tax rules, deductible expenses and social contributions differ by jurisdiction, so treat the result as a starting point and confirm the specifics with a qualified local accountant.