Freelance Rate Calculator
Find the hourly rate that actually covers tax, costs, holiday and unbillable time.
Work Out What You Need to Charge
The mistake almost every new freelancer makes is dividing their old salary by 2,080 hours. That ignores three things at once: you cannot bill all your working hours, you now pay your own costs and taxes, and you get no paid holiday or sick leave. The rate that results is typically half of what is actually needed.
This calculator starts from what you want to earn and works backwards through billable utilisation, business expenses, unpaid time off and tax to reach the rate that produces it. The figure is often uncomfortable. It is also correct.
Key features
- Billable hours, not worked hours — you enter the hours you can actually invoice, which is the number most rate calculations quietly get wrong.
- Working weeks a year — drop it to 46 or 44 and the holiday and sick leave you do not get paid for is carried by the weeks you do work.
- Business costs included — software, hardware, insurance, accountancy and workspace, as an annual figure.
- Tax gross-up — works back from the take-home pay you want to the revenue that produces it.
- Hourly and day rates — the same figure both ways, with the total revenue you need alongside.
This tool runs entirely inside your browser using native Web APIs. Your files and text are never uploaded to a server, never logged and never shared with third parties.
How to use: Freelance Rate Calculator
- Set your target income
What you want to actually take home in a year, after tax. - Be honest about billable hours
Not hours worked — hours you can invoice. Twenty to twenty-five a week is realistic for most sustainable freelancers. - Set the working weeks
Subtract holiday and expected sick time from 52. Those weeks are unpaid, so the rest have to cover them. - Add costs and tax
Annual business expenses, and the percentage that goes to tax and contributions. - Read your rate
Hourly and day rates appear, with the total revenue you need to hit the target.
Technical specifications
| Processing location | Entirely in your browser — no server round trip |
|---|---|
| Data uploaded | None. Files and text never leave your device |
| Price | Free — no account, no trial, no usage cap |
| Category | Calculators |
| Works offline | Yes, once the page has loaded |
| Browser support | Chrome 90+, Edge 90+, Firefox 90+, Safari 15+ |
| Interface languages | English, 中文, हिन्दी, Español, العربية |
Frequently asked questions
My rate looks far too high. Is it wrong?
Probably not. Two-thirds of your gross typically disappears into tax, costs and unbillable time. If the number seems impossible for your market, the problem is usually the target income or the utilisation assumption, not the arithmetic.
How many billable hours a week is realistic?
Twenty to twenty-five, for most people. A forty-hour week that is entirely billable does not exist once you account for finding the work, quoting for it, invoicing, chasing payment and everything else nobody pays you for.
Should I quote hourly or a fixed price?
Fixed prices generally serve you better once you can estimate reliably, because they reward efficiency rather than punishing it. Use this rate as the floor you check any fixed quote against.
Is my income data stored?
No. Everything is calculated locally and nothing is transmitted or saved.