Freelance Hourly Rate Finder
Know what you need to charge — and why.
Numeric input is authoritative. The slider adjusts 10–100%; decimals may also be entered above.
Personal income is after modeled business expenses and estimated tax. Work hours include billable and non-billable time; weeks off have no work hours.
Planning options
Currency changes formatting only; no FX conversion. The 10% buffer and 60% billable defaults are examples, not industry benchmarks.
Your minimum freelance rate
$91.44/hour
Modeled minimum target rate under your assumptions.
With 10% planning buffer: $100.58/hour
- Annual billable hours
- 1,152
- Revenue needed / year
- $105,333.33
- Working weeks
- 48
- Total working hours/year
- 1,920
- Operating break-even / hour
- $10.42
- Annual personal income target
- $70,000.00
- Required taxable income after expenses
- $93,333.33
- Modeled annual tax at minimum
- $23,333.33
Operating break-even covers business expenses only. The minimum includes your income target and modeled tax; the buffer is an extra planning allowance.
The estimated effective tax rate is a planning assumption, not a tax calculation or tax advice. Actual taxes depend on jurisdiction, business structure, deductions, social insurance/payroll taxes, income bands, filing status, VAT/sales taxes and local rules.
Billable-hours reality check
40 total work hours/week × 60% billable.
- Billable hours/week
- 24
- Non-billable hours/week
- 16
- Annual billable hours
- 1,152
- Annual non-billable work hours
- 768
Non-billable work can include marketing, proposals, admin, bookkeeping, meetings, training and business development. These are informational examples. Billable utilization can vary month to month; 60% is not a universal target.
Where each billable hour goes
Allocations at the modeled minimum, with the planning buffer shown separately.
- Personal income / hour
- $60.76
- Business expenses / hour
- $10.42
- Modeled tax / hour
- $20.25
- Planning buffer / hour
- $9.14
Solid = personal income; stripes = expenses; dots = modeled tax; crosshatch = planning buffer. Personal + expenses + tax = minimum $91.44/hour. Adding buffer = $100.58/hour. Allocations reconcile before display rounding; displayed amounts may differ by a cent.
Current-rate check
Optionally enter Current hourly rate above to project annual revenue, business result and modeled personal income using the same assumptions.
Hourly → project pricing
Enter project hours to calculate a baseline and planning quote. The default basis is Buffered rate; contingency is an editable 10% planning example.
What happens if I charge...
Five rates around your minimum: −30%, −15%, current minimum, +15%, +30%. Other assumptions stay fixed; these are scenarios, not market-rate benchmarks.
| Hourly rate | Annual revenue | Modeled personal income | Income − target | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $64.00 | $73,733.33 | $46,300.00 | -$23,700.00 | Below target |
| $77.72 | $89,533.33 | $58,150.00 | -$11,850.00 | Below target |
| $91.44 (minimum) | $105,333.33 | $70,000.00 | $0.00 | Meets target |
| $105.15 | $121,133.33 | $81,850.00 | $11,850.00 | Above target |
| $118.87 | $136,933.33 | $93,700.00 | $23,700.00 | Above target |
Scroll the table horizontally on narrow screens if needed. Negative business results are not treated as personal profit.
Help me estimate expenses
Optional annual amounts. Draft categories never change results until you apply their total; primary Annual business expenses remains editable and authoritative.
Expense helper total: $0.00/year
Show calculation
- Working weeks = 52 − 4 = 48.
- Work hours/year = 40 × 48 = 1,920.
- Billable hours = 1,920 × 60% = 1,152.
- Required taxable income after expenses = $70,000.00 ÷ (1 − 25%) = $93,333.33.
- Required revenue = $93,333.33 + $12,000.00 expenses = $105,333.33.
- Minimum rate = $105,333.33 ÷ 1,152 billable hours = $91.44/hour.
- Buffered rate = unrounded minimum × (1 + 10%) = $100.58/hour.
Desired personal income is the amount available after modeled annual business expenses and estimated taxes. Taxable business income = revenue − expenses; modeled personal income = (revenue − expenses) × (1 − tax rate) for nonnegative business income. Expenses are treated as deductible only within this simplified planning model.
The estimated effective tax rate is a planning assumption, not a tax calculation or tax advice. Actual taxes depend on jurisdiction, business structure, deductions, social insurance/payroll taxes, income bands, filing status, VAT/sales taxes and local rules.
This estimates a modeled minimum rate under entered assumptions, not the correct rate, market rate, client willingness to pay, legal minimum or tax liability. It does not determine retirement contributions, pension, benefits, unpaid invoices, bad debt, exchange-rate risk, utilization seasonality, pricing strategy or value-based pricing. Healthcare and similar costs are included only if entered as business expenses. Everything is calculated locally; refresh clears entries.
How to use
Know what you need to charge — and why. Estimate a modeled freelance minimum rate from your income goal, expenses, effective tax assumption and billable time.
Enter desired personal income, annual business expenses, estimated effective tax rate, total work hours/week, billable time and weeks off. Optional Current hourly rate compares your rate with the same assumptions. Annual/Monthly converts the displayed income; monthly is annualized by 12. Planning options add a secondary buffer and currency formatting. Project hours starts blank. The expense helper is an optional draft; apply its total explicitly to fill primary annual expenses. Copy Result and Reset stay local; refresh clears entries.
Desired personal income is the amount available after modeled annual business expenses and estimated taxes. Taxable business income = revenue − expenses; modeled personal income = (revenue − expenses) × (1 − tax rate) for nonnegative business income. Expenses are treated as deductible only within this simplified planning model.
Freelance hourly-rate formula
Let I be desired annual personal income after modeled expenses and tax, E annual business expenses, t an estimated effective tax fraction and H annual billable hours. Taxable business income = revenue − expenses. Desired personal income = (revenue − expenses) × (1 − t), assuming nonnegative business income.
Required taxable income after expenses = I / (1 − t). Required revenue = E + I / (1 − t). Minimum hourly rate = required revenue / H. Expenses are treated as deductible only within this simplified planning model; they are not grossed up again on top of the tax-adjusted income.
Working weeks = 52 − weeks off. Annual working hours = work hours/week × working weeks. Annual billable hours = annual working hours × billable percentage/100.
Billable hours
Work hours/week includes both billable and non-billable work. Billable percentage is the share expected to be invoiceable. The numeric input is authoritative; the slider offers 10–100%. Lower positive percentages can be entered numerically; zero billable time makes an hourly rate undefined.
Default: 48 working weeks × 40 hours/week = 1,920 annual working hours. At 60%, 1,152 hours are billable. Time off is time with no working hours; the model does not assume paid leave.
For an employment comparison, compare gross pay using an employee work schedule separately. Invoiceable business hours and freelance revenue are not employee paid hours, gross wages, take-home pay or total employer labor cost.
Non-billable time
Non-billable work can include marketing, proposals, admin, bookkeeping, meetings, training and business development. These are informational examples, not advice to allocate a fixed percentage to each activity. Default weekly hours are 24 billable and 16 non-billable, giving 768 annual non-billable work hours. Billable utilization can vary month to month; 60% is not a benchmark or universal target.
Business expenses
Annual business expenses are operating costs paid by the business. They can exceed your desired personal income and still produce a valid planning calculation. Include only the amounts you want modeled. The optional helper totals Software, Insurance, Equipment, Accounting, Marketing, Coworking/office and Other annual costs; edits to the helper draft never alter results until you apply the total. The primary expense field remains editable and authoritative.
This model does not establish whether an expense is legally deductible. Personal healthcare, pension and benefits are not automatically included; applicable treatment needs separate assessment.
To distinguish an equipment purchase from accounting allocation, review a separate equipment depreciation schedule. Depreciation is not cash paid that year or an automatic tax deduction; do not substitute it for cash expenses or count both without a deliberate separate accounting basis.
Estimated taxes
The estimated effective tax rate is a planning assumption, not a tax calculation or tax advice. Actual taxes depend on jurisdiction, business structure, deductions, social insurance/payroll taxes, income bands, filing status, VAT/sales taxes and local rules.
The entered rate applies to positive business income after modeled expenses. Required taxable income = desired annual personal income / (1 − tax rate). At 0% tax, required revenue = expenses + desired income. A 100% assumption is invalid because the denominator is zero. The model does not calculate tax brackets, VAT, self-employment taxes or country-specific rules.
For a current-rate business loss, the negative post-expense result remains visible. Modeled tax and personal income are shown as zero; no tax refund or loss carryforward is assumed. Government sources below illustrate why actual obligations require separate assessment, not formulas imported into this calculator.
For an eligible domestic U.S. side-business case, explore a separate supported federal-tax scenario. Reconcile revenue and eligible expenses manually; an entered effective tax assumption here is not a validated personal rate, and the separate estimator does not cover every jurisdiction or tax situation.
Minimum vs buffered rate
Operating break-even rate = annual expenses / annual billable hours. It covers operating expenses only, leaving no modeled personal income. Minimum target rate = required revenue / annual billable hours; it covers expenses, modeled tax and your income goal. Suggested buffered rate = unrounded minimum × (1 + safety buffer/100), where the 10% default is a user-controlled planning example, not market pricing advice.
Minimum-rate allocation per billable hour: personal = I/H; expenses = E/H; modeled tax = [I/(1−t) − I]/H. Their unrounded sum equals the minimum. Buffer per hour is added separately to reconcile the buffered total; rounded display values can differ by a cent.
The rate-reality table uses −30%, −15%, minimum, +15% and +30% scenarios, with all other assumptions unchanged. Rows are neutral Below target, Meets target or Above target, not good/bad or market rates. Zero minimum collapses duplicate rows.
Current-rate check
Revenue at current rate = current rate × annual billable hours. Business result before tax = revenue − annual expenses. Modeled personal income = max(0, business result × (1 − tax rate)); a negative business result is separately labeled as a loss, not hidden as profit. Tax is modeled only on positive business income.
Statuses compare the current rate with minimum and buffered targets: MEETS BUFFERED TARGET, MEETS MINIMUM TARGET or BELOW TARGET. Rate gap = minimum − current rate; income gap = modeled personal income − annual target. These comparisons refer only to the entered assumptions, not market underpricing. An entered zero rate is present, not missing.
Hourly to project pricing
Project baseline = estimated project hours × selected rate. Choose Minimum, Buffered or a Custom hourly rate; default is Buffered, with project hours blank. Planning quote = baseline × (1 + project contingency/100). The default contingency is a separate editable 10% project planning allowance, added after an optional rate buffer. Neither allowance is a benchmark. The result is not a guaranteed price, invoice, proposal or value-based pricing strategy.
For app work, estimate a separate app-development scope before choosing project hours. Its illustrative effort and price ranges do not supply your quote, guarantee a scope or replace the separately entered rate and contingency here.
Worked examples
Default income target
52 − 4 = 48 working weeks. 40 × 48 = 1,920 working hours; × 60% = 1,152 billable hours. $70,000 / 0.75 = $93,333.33 required taxable income after expenses. Add $12,000 expenses = $105,333.33 revenue required. Divide by 1,152 = $91.44/hour minimum; × 1.10 = $100.58/hour with planning buffer.
Lower billable percentage
At 40% billable, the same schedule gives 768 invoiceable hours, so the same revenue target needs $137.15/hour minimum and $150.87/hour buffered. Fewer invoiceable hours increase the modeled hourly rate; this is a scenario, not a judgment.
Current rate of $75/hour
Annual revenue = $86,400.00; after expenses, before modeled tax = $74,400.00; modeled tax = $18,600.00; personal income after tax = $55,800.00. This is $14,200.00 below the $70,000 annual target, with a minimum-rate gap of $16.44/hour.
20-hour project
Using the unrounded buffered rate ($100.58/hour displayed), 20 hours gives baseline $2,011.57; adding 10% contingency gives planning quote $2,212.73. Calculations use unrounded rates rather than multiplying the rounded hourly display.
Assumptions and limitations
This estimates a modeled minimum rate under entered assumptions, not the correct rate, market rate, client willingness to pay, legal minimum or tax liability. It does not determine retirement contributions, pension, benefits, unpaid invoices, bad debt, exchange-rate risk, utilization seasonality, pricing strategy or value-based pricing. Healthcare and similar costs are included only if entered as business expenses.
The estimated effective tax rate is a planning assumption, not a tax calculation or tax advice. Actual taxes depend on jurisdiction, business structure, deductions, social insurance/payroll taxes, income bands, filing status, VAT/sales taxes and local rules.
Billable utilization is a planning assumption that can vary by month; this model uses a flat 52-week year and the entered weeks off. All modeled billable hours are assumed to produce revenue at the selected rate; collection timing, unpaid invoices and bad debt are not modeled. No salary benchmark, automatic “quote around” range or pricing recommendation is added.
Annualized income and annual expenses range from 0–1e9 currency units; entered current/custom hourly rates 0–1e6; work hours above zero through 168/week; billable time 0–100%, with positive annual billable time required; weeks off 0–51; buffer/contingency 0–200%; project hours 0–1e6. Tax must be 0–less than 100%. The 168-hour bound is computational, not a suggested workload. Finite modeled amounts above 1e18 show a bound error; no result is silently capped.
FAQ
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Estimate annual billable hours, add annual business expenses to the after-tax income target grossed up by your effective tax assumption, then divide required revenue by billable hours. The result is a modeled minimum under your assumptions, not a market-rate recommendation.
Why can’t I bill all of my working hours?
Some working time may go to marketing, proposals, administration, bookkeeping, meetings, training and business development. Which activities are invoiceable depends on the work and agreements; these examples are not a universal utilization benchmark.
What does billable percentage mean?
The planned share of total working hours that can be invoiced. For example, 60% of 40 hours/week is 24 billable hours; the remaining 16 hours are non-billable work. Actual utilization can vary month to month.
How do business expenses affect my hourly rate?
Annual expenses increase required revenue. This model adds them after grossing up desired personal income for estimated tax, treating expenses as deductible only in a simplified planning sense. Actual deductibility depends on applicable rules.
How does the estimated tax rate affect the result?
Required taxable business income after expenses is desired after-tax personal income divided by one minus the entered tax rate. A higher assumption increases required revenue. It is not an actual tax calculation; 100% leaves no after-tax income and is invalid.
What is the difference between the minimum rate and buffered rate?
The minimum covers modeled expenses, tax and your income target. The buffered rate adds your chosen planning percentage. Operating break-even covers expenses only. Neither buffer nor minimum is a market-rate benchmark.
How can I check whether my current hourly rate is enough?
Enter Current hourly rate to project revenue from annual billable hours, subtract expenses and apply the same tax assumption to positive business income. Compare modeled personal income with your target. Losses remain visible even though personal income is displayed as zero.
How do I turn an hourly rate into a project price?
Multiply project hours by the selected Minimum, Buffered or Custom rate, then add the entered project contingency. This is a planning quote, not a guaranteed price, invoice or pricing strategy.
Should I use monthly or annual income?
Use the period that makes planning easier. Monthly desired income is multiplied by 12; changing the period converts the displayed amount to preserve the annual target. Expenses remain annual.
Is this calculator tax or pricing advice?
No. It is a mathematical planning model using your inputs. It does not determine tax liability, the market rate, client willingness to pay or the correct price. Actual taxes and business circumstances require separate assessment.
Sources
References support general business-expense, utilization and self-employment concepts. Government guidance is jurisdiction-specific context; its tax rules are not implemented here. Sources do not endorse BuzCalculator or establish a market rate.