What hourly rate should I charge as a freelancer?

Start from the money you need to take home, not from what a competitor charges. Divide your gross requirement by the hours you will actually bill, which is far fewer than the hours you work once holidays, admin, sales and unpaid chasing are removed. That number is your floor, not your target.

Why is my freelance hourly rate higher than a salaried equivalent?

Because a salaried person has paid holidays, sick leave, employer taxes, tools and a company doing the invoicing. You pay for all of those yourself, so the same headline salary costs more per billable hour to replace.

Does this tool send my numbers anywhere?

No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and remembers your inputs in your own device's local storage. Nothing is uploaded.

Freelance hourly rate calculator

Most rate calculators ask what you want to earn and divide by 40 hours a week. That is how freelancers end up working for less than minimum wage. This one starts from the money you need to take home and subtracts everything a salary gets for free: holidays, sick days, employer taxes, your tools, and the hours you spend chasing people who have not paid you.

What you need to cover

Currency

Take-home you need per year

After tax. What you actually live on.

Tax and self-employment, % of gross

Business costs per year

Software, insurance, hardware, travel, accounting.

Hours you can actually bill

Weeks you work per year

52 minus holidays and sick time.

Hours per week you are at work

Unpaid hours per week (admin, sales, invoicing, chasing)

Average days a client pays late

What waiting for that money costs you, % a year

Empty-month buffer, % of the year with no work

Your floor

Billable hours a year–

Gross you must invoice–

Minimum rate–

Half a day (4 h)–

Full day (8 h)–

A 20-hour project–

What a fixed-price job really pays

Agreed price

Hours you quoted

Hours it actually took you

Quoted rate–

Effective rate–

You lost per hour–

How the number is built

The calculator does four things in order, and each one is a place where freelancers quietly pay themselves less:

Gross-up for tax. Take-home divided by (1 − tax rate) is what you must actually invoice before the state takes its part.
Add your own overheads. An employee's laptop, licence, insurance and accountant are someone else's line item.
Divide by billable hours, not worked hours. Weeks worked × (hours at work − unpaid admin) is the denominator. Ten unpaid hours a week on a 40-hour week removes a quarter of your earning time before a single invoice goes out.
Price the waiting and the gaps. Late payment is a loan you give your client, so the buffer is days late / 365 × your borrowing cost. The empty-month buffer covers the months where the pipeline is dry.

The result is a floor, not a target

Nothing stops you charging above it. But if a client's budget lands under this number, you are not "being competitive", you are subsidising their project out of your own savings. The useful habit is to know the floor before the conversation, not during it.

Why the fixed-price box matters more than the hourly one

Fixed price converts an estimating error into a pay cut. A job quoted at 12 hours that takes 19 pays 37% less per hour than you planned, and no line on the invoice shows it. The box above makes the number visible before you accept the next one at the same price.

What this is not

It is arithmetic, not financial advice. It has no idea what your market will bear, what your specialism is worth, or what your local tax rules actually are. Check those with a professional who can see your numbers. Every figure stays in this browser and is remembered only on this device.