Business utility
Standalone tool pageFreelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Calculate a sustainable freelance hourly rate from expenses, savings goals, taxes, and realistic billable hours.
How It Works
The tool adds your monthly expenses and savings goal, layers in taxes and business overhead, then divides by your realistic billable hours to estimate the minimum sustainable hourly rate.
Example
If you need $2,000 per month, add 25% overhead, and only have 80 billable hours, your baseline rate is about $31.25/hour before any project risk buffer.
When to use this tool
- Setting your first freelance rate.
- Checking whether your current rate covers expenses and taxes.
- Building project quotes from a sustainable hourly baseline.
How the calculation works
- Add your monthly expenses and savings goal.
- Add taxes or overhead as a percentage buffer.
- Enter how many billable hours you realistically have each month.
- The tool returns a baseline hourly rate and a recommended project buffer rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a billable hour?
A billable hour is time you can actually charge to a client. Admin, marketing, proposals, and revisions often reduce your real billable hours.
Should I charge hourly or per project?
This tool helps with both. Use the hourly result as your baseline, then multiply by estimated hours and add a risk buffer for a project quote.