Find the hourly rate that hits your target income after expenses and unbilled time.
Find the hourly rate that hits your target income after expenses and unbilled time.
Enter values above and click Calculate — results will appear here with the formula explained.
Freelancers fail financially by pricing like employees. An employee earning $60,000 gets paid for roughly 2,000 hours; a freelancer billing only 25 hours a week works maybe 1,200 billable hours a year — and pays self-employment taxes, equipment and insurance out of that rate.
The formula works backwards from the life you want: take-home target plus business costs, grossed up for taxes, divided by genuinely billable hours. The gap between hours worked and hours billed is the biggest surprise for new freelancers.
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Freelancers fail financially by pricing like employees. An employee earning $60,000 gets paid for roughly 2,000 hours; a freelancer billing only 25 hours a week works maybe 1,200 billable hours a year — and pays self-employment taxes, equipment and insurance out of that rate. Formula: rate = (target income + expenses) ÷ (1 − tax%) ÷ (billable hours × weeks)
Freelance Rate Calculator: Find the hourly rate that hits your target income after expenses and unbilled time. Formula: rate = (target income + expenses) ÷ (1 − tax%) ÷ (billable hours × weeks). Example: To net $60,000 with $5,000 expenses at a 30% burden requires $92,857 of revenue.
Find the hourly rate that hits your target income after expenses and unbilled time. Formula: rate = (target income + expenses) ÷ (1 − tax%) ÷ (billable hours × weeks)
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Target take-home income ($) | e.g. 60000 |
| Estimated tax + insurance burden (%) | e.g. 30 |
| Annual business expenses ($) | e.g. 5000 |
| Billable hours per week | e.g. 25 |
| Working weeks per year | e.g. 48 |
All fields use the exact formulas shown below — results include step-by-step breakdowns you can verify by hand.
Freelancers fail financially by pricing like employees. An employee earning $60,000 gets paid for roughly 2,000 hours; a freelancer billing only 25 hours a week works maybe 1,200 billable hours a year — and pays self-employment taxes, equipment and insurance out of that rate.
The formula works backwards from the life you want: take-home target plus business costs, grossed up for taxes, divided by genuinely billable hours. The gap between hours worked and hours billed is the biggest surprise for new freelancers.
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To net $60,000 with $5,000 expenses at a 30% burden requires $92,857 of revenue. Billing 25 hours × 48 weeks = 1,200 hours means charging at least $77/hour.
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