Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Suggest a freelance hourly rate based on a target take-home income, business expenses, billable hours per week, and an estimated tax rate. The tool grosses up the result so the after-tax number actually matches the income goal.

Use it when starting freelance work, raising rates, pricing a long contract, or sanity checking whether your current rate actually supports the income you want. It is also useful when a client tries to negotiate a rate down and you want to model what that would do to your annual take-home.

The calculator adds your income goal and yearly business expenses, then divides by billable hours per year (hours per week times working weeks). It grosses up the result by the tax estimate using the formula gross equals (target plus expenses) divided by (1 minus tax percent), so the after-tax cash matches the goal.

The suggested rate is a floor, not a ceiling. Add a margin for risk, slow weeks, project delays, scope creep, and skills the market values. The required gross income figure shows what you would need to bill across the year to hit your take-home goal once taxes are paid.

A $90,000 take-home goal with $10,000 in expenses, 25 billable hours per week, 48 working weeks, and a 25 percent tax estimate suggests a rate around $111 an hour. Cutting billable hours to 20 a week pushes the rate to $139. A $60,000 take-home goal at the same capacity drops the suggested rate to about $78.

Most freelancers overestimate billable hours. Twenty to twenty-five billable hours per week is realistic for many service businesses once admin, sales, marketing, and rest are included. Setting the input too high will produce a rate that looks competitive but cannot deliver the income goal once real capacity catches up with you. Build a tax buffer of 25 to 30 percent into your rate from day one, plus a separate line for retirement and health insurance, so the rate you quote actually leaves you with a livable take-home after self-employment tax.