Quote $95.00/hr
Inputs
Numbers update live as you type.
Your target
Your billable capacity
Bill hours, not working hours. Most freelancers bill only 50-60% of the time they work — the rest is sales, admin, and email.
That's 1,200 billable hours a year. You need to invoice $9,105.56 a month to hit your target.
Where your rate goes
To take home $70,000.00, you need to invoice $109,266.67 a year. Here's the split.
- Take-home
- $70,000.00
- Taxes
- $23,333.33
- Expenses
- $6,000.00
- Profit buffer
- $9,933.33
Tax is an estimate — your real rate depends on your country, structure, and deductions. Tune the tax field to match your situation.
Know your rate? Now bill it.
Send branded invoices at this rate, track billable hours, and chase late payers automatically — free, no credit card.
How the rate is calculated
A good freelance rate starts from the money you want to keep, then adds back everything that eats into it. Here's the chain.
1. Gross up for tax
You keep less than you earn. We divide your target take-home by (1 − tax rate) so the rate covers the tax bill on your profit.
2. Add the cost of business
Software, hardware, insurance, subscriptions — every business cost is added on top, because your clients ultimately fund your overhead.
3. Add a profit buffer
An optional margin cushions slow months, funds reinvestment, and means a single late payer doesn't sink you.
4. Divide by billable hours
We split the total across the hours you can actually bill — not the hours you work — so the rate is one you can hit without burning out.
Now bill at your new rate
Knowing your rate is step one — getting paid it is step two. Create a free Invoice Tracker account, save your rate per client, track billable hours with the built-in timer, and turn them into professional invoices in under a minute. Automatic reminders chase late payers so the rate you calculated is the rate you collect.
Frequently asked
How much should I charge as a freelancer?
Work backwards from the take-home pay you want, not forward from a number that 'feels right'. Add up the salary you want to keep, your annual business expenses, and the taxes you'll owe, then divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a year. This calculator does that math for you. As a sanity check, your freelance rate should usually be noticeably higher than the hourly equivalent of a salaried job — you're covering your own taxes, benefits, equipment, downtime, and unpaid admin time.
Why is my freelance rate so much higher than my old salary?
Because a salary hides a lot of costs your employer used to absorb. As a freelancer you pay both halves of self-employment tax, buy your own equipment and software, get no paid holiday or sick leave, and spend unpaid hours on sales, admin, and email. You also can't bill 40 hours a week — most freelancers bill only 50-60% of the time they work. Once you account for all of that, a rate that's 1.5-2× your old salaried hourly equivalent is normal, not greedy.
What are billable hours, and why not just use 40 per week?
Billable hours are the hours a client actually pays you for. The rest of your week — pitching, invoicing, bookkeeping, learning, email — is real work but nobody pays for it directly. If you assume you'll bill 40 hours a week, you'll set your rate too low and burn out trying to hit it. Be honest: 20-25 billable hours a week is a healthy full-time freelance load. This calculator takes billable hours as a direct input so your rate is grounded in reality.
What tax rate should I use?
It depends on your country, business structure, and income, so treat the default as a starting point. In the US, many freelancers set aside 25-30% to cover self-employment tax plus federal and state income tax. In the UK, factor in income tax bands plus Class 2/4 National Insurance. The safest approach is to ask an accountant for your effective rate, or use our free Self-Employment Tax Calculator to estimate the US figure, then plug it in here.
Is this calculator free, and is my data private?
Completely free, no signup, and everything runs in your browser — your income figures never touch our servers. We build these tools on the same engine that powers Invoice Tracker, our free invoicing app, so you can try the quality before deciding whether a free account is worth it.
Once I know my rate, how do I actually bill it?
Create a free Invoice Tracker account, save your new rate against each client, and send professional invoices in under a minute. Log billable hours with the built-in timer, convert them straight into an invoice at your calculated rate, and let automatic reminders chase late payers — so the rate you worked out here is the rate you actually get paid.
This calculator is for informational use only and is not financial or tax advice. The tax figure is an estimate — your actual rate depends on your country, business structure, and deductions. For decisions that matter, consult a qualified accountant in your region.