Home · Tools · Freelance rate calculator
Free tool · runs in your browser
What should you charge as a freelancer?
Most rate advice is a vibe. This is arithmetic. Put in the income you actually want to keep, be honest about how many hours you can really bill, and get a defensible hourly and day rate — then turn it into an invoice in one click. Your numbers never leave this page.
Your rate
to hit your target
Opens the Billfold editor with a line item pre-filled. Still free, still no signup.
How the number is worked out
The trap freelancers fall into is dividing their old salary by 2,080 hours (40 × 52) and quoting that. Employees get paid for holidays, sick days, training, and the hours between projects. You don't. You also carry costs an employer used to absorb. So the honest formula works backwards from what you need to keep:
rate = (take-home target + business expenses) × (1 + buffer) ÷ (billable hours per week × weeks worked)
The single biggest lever is billable hours. A 40-hour week almost never means 40 billable hours — client work competes with proposals, invoicing, email, and admin. Costing yourself at 40 and then billing 25 is exactly how freelancers end up working full-time for half their target. Set the billable number to what you can actually invoice, and the rate corrects for it automatically.
This figure is your floor — the rate that makes your business break even against your own goal. Value-based pricing can and should push individual projects above it. It should rarely go below.
Questions freelancers ask about rates
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Add the take-home income you want to the annual cost of running your business, add a buffer for gaps and late payers, then divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a year. Dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours understates the rate, because it assumes you bill every working hour, which no freelancer does.
How many hours a year can a freelancer actually bill?
Far fewer than a full-time schedule suggests. Between sales, admin, invoicing, holidays, and quiet periods, many sustainable freelancers bill 20 to 30 hours a week across roughly 45 to 48 weeks. That is often 1,000 to 1,400 billable hours a year, not 2,080.
Should my freelance rate be higher than my old salary's hourly rate?
Yes, usually much higher. As a freelancer you fund your own holidays, sick days, pension, equipment, insurance, and downtime between clients, none of which an employer covered. A rate at your old salary's hourly equivalent leaves you earning far less in real terms.
Does this calculator send my numbers anywhere?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sent to a server, because the tool does not have one. You can close the tab and nothing is retained.
Add this calculator to your site
Run a blog or resource for freelancers? Drop this calculator into any page — it's free, and it runs entirely in your visitor's browser, so nothing is uploaded and there's nothing to maintain. Paste this snippet where you want it to appear:
<iframe src="https://billfold.io/embed/freelance-rate-calculator/" width="100%" height="580" style="border:1px solid #e0e5de;border-radius:14px;max-width:520px" title="Freelance rate calculator by Billfold" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Got your rate? Send the invoice.
Billfold turns your rate into a clean, branded invoice in about a minute — in your browser, with no account and nothing uploaded.
Open the invoice editor →