Freelance fees
Freelance Pricing Calculator
A freelance rate is not a salary divided by 2,000 hours — that mistake is why so many freelancers earn less than the job they left. To pay yourself $60,000 with $6,000 of business expenses, a 20% tax rate, 30 billable hours a week and four weeks off, you must bill $90,750 a year — an hourly rate of $63.02. Enter your own numbers below and get the hourly, day and project rates that actually deliver the income you are aiming at.
How much should you charge as a freelancer?
Work backwards from the life you are funding. Add the income you want to your annual business expenses, gross the total up for tax (divide by 1 minus your tax rate), add a profit cushion for the gaps between projects, then divide by the hours you can actually bill — billable hours, not working hours. In the example above: ($60,000 + $6,000) ÷ 0.8 = $82,500, plus a 10% cushion is $90,750, divided by 1,440 billable hours (30 a week for 48 weeks) gives $63.02 an hour, $504.17 a day. The two mistakes that sink rates are dividing by 2,080 hours (nobody bills 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year) and forgetting that tax comes out of your side of the number.
How it works
Every sound freelance rate — whether you call it a freelance pricing calculator, a freelance rate calculator or an hourly rate calculator — is built from the same five blocks. The formulae:
Billable hours per year = billable hours per week × (52 − weeks off)Revenue you must bill = (target income + business expenses) ÷ (1 − tax rate) × (1 + profit cushion)Hourly rate = revenue you must bill ÷ billable hours per yearDay rate = hourly rate × 8 · Project rate = hourly rate × project hoursEach block exists because of a way freelancers undercharge. Billable hours: of a 40-hour week, quoting, admin, marketing, invoicing and revisions quietly consume a quarter to a half — 25–30 billable hours is a realistic planning figure, not a lazy one. The tax gross-up: $66,000 of income-plus-expenses at a 20% tax rate needs $82,500 of billings, not $79,200 (which is what adding 20% would give you — dividing is the correct direction). The cushion: projects end early, clients pay late, pipelines empty; 10% is a modest buffer, not greed.
The build-up, on this page’s example figures
| Step | Figure | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Target income | $60,000 | What you want to pay yourself |
| + Business expenses | $6,000 | Costs the rate must also carry |
| = Amount to cover | $66,000 | Before tax |
| Grossed up for tax at 20% | $82,500 | $66,000 ÷ (1 − 0.20) |
| + Profit cushion at 10% | $90,750 | Buffer for gaps and growth |
| ÷ Billable hours (30/week × 48 weeks) | 1,440 hours | Only hours a client pays for |
| = Required hourly rate | $63.02 | The rate that funds the plan |
Source: The standard cost-based method for setting freelance rates: cover your costs, gross up for tax, divide by billable hours. Figures shown are this page’s worked example, not a market survey. Last verified: November 2026
Worked examples
Example 1 — $60,000 target income, $6,000 expenses, 20% tax, 10% cushion, 30 billable hours, 4 weeks off
| Target income + expenses | $66,000.00 |
| Gross revenue needed (20% tax gross-up) | $82,500.00 |
| With 10% profit cushion | $90,750.00 |
| Billable hours (30/week × 48 weeks) | 1,440 |
| Required hourly rate | $63.02 |
| Day rate (8 hours) | $504.17 |
| Rate for a 20-hour project | $1,260.42 |
Example 2 — $40,000 target, $3,000 expenses, 15% tax, no cushion, 25 billable hours, 6 weeks off
| Target income + expenses | $43,000.00 |
| Gross revenue needed (15% tax gross-up) | $50,588.24 |
| With 0% profit cushion | $50,588.24 |
| Billable hours (25/week × 46 weeks) | 1,150 |
| Required hourly rate | $43.99 |
| Day rate (8 hours) | $351.92 |
| Rate for a 20-hour project | $879.80 |
A part-time schedule needs a real hourly rate too — fewer billable hours means each one carries more of the plan.
Example 3 — $100,000 target, $12,000 expenses, 25% tax, 15% cushion, 35 billable hours, 3 weeks off
| Target income + expenses | $112,000.00 |
| Gross revenue needed (25% tax gross-up) | $149,333.33 |
| With 15% profit cushion | $171,733.33 |
| Billable hours (35/week × 49 weeks) | 1,715 |
| Required hourly rate | $100.14 |
| Day rate (8 hours) | $801.09 |
| Rate for a 20-hour project | $2,002.72 |
Six-figure freelance incomes are mostly arithmetic: at senior billable hours, the rate has to clear $100 an hour.
When these fees apply — and the limitations
This calculator gives you the rate your costs and income target demand. Reality adds footnotes:
- The tax figure is a single blended estimate. Real tax is progressive, differs by country and business structure, and may include social contributions. Use the effective rate you actually expect to pay across the year, and take proper advice for anything consequential.
- Retirement and healthcare are not separate inputs — if your old employer funded them, price them into your target income or your expenses, or the rate will quietly underfund them.
- It assumes you sell every billable hour. A half-empty pipeline halves the result; the cushion helps, but utilisation is the risk no formula removes.
- The market may cap you. If your required rate sits far above what clients in your niche pay, the honest fixes are raising billable hours, cutting expenses or moving up-market — not pretending the arithmetic is wrong.
- Platform fees are not included — quote through Upwork or Fiverr and their fee comes off your rate; gross up with those calculators’ reverse modes.
Comparing your options
This calculator sets the rate you need to keep. If the work comes through a platform, the rate you must quote is higher: Upwork’s 10% freelancer fee means a $63.02 target needs a quote of about $70, and Fiverr’s 20% needs about $79 — both platforms’ calculators have a reverse mode that does that grossing-up exactly. Run this page first to find your number, then the Upwork fee calculator or Fiverr fee calculator to translate it into a platform quote.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out my freelance hourly rate?
Add your target income and annual business expenses, divide by (1 − your tax rate) to gross up for tax, add a profit cushion of around 10%, then divide by your realistic billable hours for the year — billable hours per week times the weeks you will actually work. On this page’s example that is ($60,000 + $6,000) ÷ 0.8 × 1.1 ÷ 1,440 = $63.02 an hour.
Why is my freelance rate so much higher than my old salary’s hourly rate?
Because an employer’s salary is only part of what an employee costs and only part of what a freelancer must fund. Your rate has to carry your tax, your expenses, your pension and healthcare, your holidays and sick days, and all the unpaid hours you spend winning and administering work — spread over perhaps 1,400 billable hours instead of the 2,080 you were paid for. A freelance rate 1.5–2 times the salaried hourly equivalent is normal arithmetic, not ambition.
How many billable hours should I assume per week?
For most freelancers, 20–30. A 40-hour week typically loses 10–15 hours to quoting, emails, marketing, invoicing, revisions and admin — work that is real but that no client pays for directly. Planning on 40 billable hours is the single most common reason a new freelancer’s rate comes out too low.
Should I charge by the hour, the day or the project?
Build all three from the same hourly rate, as this calculator does: the day rate is the hourly rate times eight, and a project price is the hourly rate times a realistic hour estimate, plus a buffer for the scope creep you know is coming. Quote per project when you can estimate confidently — clients prefer a fixed number and efficient work stops penalising you — and hourly when the scope is genuinely unknowable.
Does this rate cover Upwork’s or Fiverr’s fees?
No — this is the rate you need to end up with. If the work comes through a platform, quote higher so the fee still leaves you this rate: divide by (1 − the fee). For Upwork’s 10% fee that turns $63.02 into a quote of about $70; for Fiverr’s 20%, about $79. Both platform calculators on this site have a reverse mode that does it exactly.
Related calculators
Estimates only. Platforms can change their fees at any time; always confirm the rate on the platform’s own pricing page before making pricing decisions. ToolFees is not affiliated with the platform named on this page.