Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Freelancers and contractors use it to turn an income goal into a rate for a quote. Enter the salary you want to keep, your yearly overhead (equipment, software, insurance, workspace), a tax rate, and the hours and weeks you will actually work. The page shows the revenue to bill, the tax inside it, the hourly rate and the weekly rate, plus a check line showing the target left after tax and overhead. Unbilled time moves the rate most: the same $75,000 target is $57.69 an hour over 2,080 hours and $86.96 an hour over 1,380 billable hours. Admin, sales calls and unpaid revisions all come out of the hours, so count only the time a client pays for. Vacation, public holidays and sick days go in the optional Days Off Per Year field: 25 days off turn 2,080 hours into 1,880 and the $57.69 rate into $63.83.

Tax is taken as a share of total revenue and overhead is paid from what is left, so revenue = (salary + overhead) ÷ (1 − tax rate), billable hours = hours per week × weeks per year − days off × hours per week ÷ 5, hourly rate = revenue ÷ billable hours and weekly rate = revenue ÷ weeks per year. Each day off removes a fifth of a working week; the weekly rate ignores days off. Example: (75,000 + 15,000) ÷ (1 − 0.25) = 120,000. Tax is $30,000, overhead is $15,000 and $75,000 is left. Over 40 hours a week for 52 weeks (2,080 hours) the rate is $57.69. Overhead is not deducted before tax here, so when your expenses are deductible the revenue you really need is usually a little lower. Use a tax rate that matches your whole bill, self-employment tax included. A blank field is flagged, not counted as 0, and the target salary can be 0.