Finance · Free browser tool
Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Calculate your target freelance hourly rate and project pricing based on desired income, expenses, taxes, and billable hours.
Your income goal
Enter yearly figures. Results update instantly as you type.
Your working time
How much of your time is actually billable to clients.
This is a planning estimate, not tax or business advice. It assumes a consistent workload year-round and does not account for slow seasons, bad debt, or rate negotiation room—many freelancers add a buffer above the minimum rate shown here.
Required hourly rate
$75.40
Minimum to hit your income goal
Required annual revenue
$105,556
Gross, before tax & expenses
Billable hours / year
1,400
50.0 working weeks
Recommended day rate
$603.17
Based on 40-hr weeks ÷ 5 days
Rate breakdown
- Target take-home income
- $70,000.00
- Annual business expenses
- +$6,000.00
- Grossed up for 28.0% tax
- $105,555.56
- Working weeks (15 PTO days/year)
- 50.0 weeks
- Billable hours (70.0% of 40 hrs/week)
- 1,400 hrs/year
- Required minimum hourly rate
- $75.40
Recommended day rate
$603.17
Quote this for single-day engagements or as a starting point for project-based pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this tool work backward from my income goal to a rate?
It reverses the usual math: instead of guessing a rate and hoping it adds up, you enter your target annual take-home pay, business expenses, and tax rate to get a required gross revenue figure. That revenue is then divided by your realistic annual billable hours—not your total working hours—to produce the minimum hourly rate you need to charge to actually hit your income goal.
Why does Billable Hours Ratio matter so much?
Most freelancers only bill for 60–75% of the time they work—the rest goes to admin, proposals, marketing, invoicing, and unpaid revisions. If you set your rate based on all 40 weekly hours being billable, you will fall short of your income goal every year. Lowering the billable ratio raises your required hourly rate because fewer hours are left to cover the same annual revenue target.
What tax rate and expense figures should I use?
A common starting point for US freelancers is 25–30% for combined self-employment and income tax, though your effective rate depends on total income, state, and deductions—the companion 1099 Tax Estimator can help refine this. For expenses, include recurring business costs like software subscriptions, equipment, coworking or office space, and insurance, but not one-time personal expenses.
Is my income and rate data uploaded anywhere?
No. Every calculation happens locally in your browser using plain arithmetic—nothing you type is sent to a server, so it is safe to model real income targets and client rates.
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How to Price Your Freelance Rate in 2026: Working Backward from Income Goals
Most freelancers set their hourly rate by guessing, checking what competitors charge, or anchoring to a previous full-time salary divided by 2,080 hours. All three approaches skip the two variables that actually determine whether freelancing pays your bills: how much of your working time is truly billable, and how much of your revenue disappears to self-employment tax and business overhead before it ever reaches your bank account.
A more reliable method works backward. Start with the annual take-home income you actually want, add your recurring business expenses—software, equipment, a coworking desk, insurance—then gross that combined number up for your estimated tax rate, since taxes come out of gross revenue, not net income. Divide the result by your realistic annual billable hours, not your total working hours, because time spent on proposals, admin, invoicing, and unpaid revisions still has to be paid for by the hours you do bill.
That billable-hours ratio is where most new freelancers underprice themselves. Full-time employees are billable close to 100% of the time from their employer's perspective, but independent contractors typically convert only 60–75% of a working week into invoiced hours once you account for non-billable business development. Plug in a lower ratio and watch the required hourly rate climb—that gap is exactly why "just charge what a salaried role would pay per hour" usually falls short.
Once you know your minimum hourly rate, this calculator also derives a day rate by multiplying it against a standard 8-hour day, useful for quoting single-day workshops or short engagements. Because taxes are such a large piece of the gross-up math, pair this with the 1099 Freelance Tax Estimator to refine your actual effective tax rate instead of relying on the 25–30% rule-of-thumb guide used here as a default. This free calculator runs entirely in your browser—your income goals, rates, and business figures are never uploaded to a server.