Free tool

Freelance rate calculator

The rate that makes your year add up — derived from your income goal, your real costs, and the billable hours you actually have. Not a market average: your floor, with the math shown.

Your numbers

What you want to earn before tax — the number your life actually needs.
Software, gear, insurance, workspace, accounting — the cost of the business existing.
Holidays, sick days, and the dry spells — be honest, they happen.
Client-billable only. Admin, selling, and email aren't billable — most independents land at 20–25.
Safety margin for slow months and invoices that pay late. 15% is a sane default.

Your floor

Floor hourly

$87

Floor day rate

$696

With buffer — hourly

$100

With buffer — day

$800

The math, shown:

$88,000 needed ÷ (46 billable weeks × 22 billable hours) = $87/hour before buffer.

Charge below the buffered number and the year only adds up if nothing goes wrong. Something always goes wrong — that’s what the buffer is for.

Why a floor beats a “going rate”

Published freelance rates are all over the map — surveyed web designers report a median near $93/hour (State of Web Designer Pricing, 2025) while broad aggregators land closer to $35/hour (ZipRecruiter, 2026). Neither number knows your costs, your city, or your life. The floor does: it’s the one rate that’s arithmetically true for you. Price projects on the value they create for the client, and let this floor be the line you never quote below.

Common questions

How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Add your annual income goal to your annual business costs, then divide by your honest billable hours per year (billable weeks × billable hours per week). That's your floor — the rate below which the year can't add up. Add a 10–20% buffer for slow months and late payments, and never quote below the result.
How many billable hours per week is realistic for a freelancer?
Most independents genuinely bill 20–25 hours of a 40-hour week — the rest goes to selling, admin, email, and the unbillable connective tissue of running a business. Calculating your rate against 40 billable hours is the most common way freelancers accidentally underprice.
Is this floor rate what I should charge clients?
It's what you should never charge below. For project work, price the value of the outcome to the client and use this floor only as the sanity check — value-based pricing with the floor as a backstop is how experienced freelancers actually quote.
Does this calculator store my numbers?
No. Everything runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent, stored, or logged anywhere.