Freelance rate calculator
What hourly rate do you actually need? Most freelancers underestimate non-billable time — admin, sales, marketing — and overestimate billable hours.
Persona
Required hourly rate
Day rate (8 h)
You bill fewer hours than you think. Overhead is the silent killer — if 30% of your week is proposals, invoicing, and learning, you need a higher rate on the hours you do sell.
About this tool
Enter your take-home target, billable hours per week, weeks off, overhead percentage, fixed business costs, and a tax buffer. The calculator adds fixed business costs, applies the tax buffer, and divides the required gross income by your annual billable hours. Overhead is reported separately as estimated non-billable time. Personas preload sane defaults you can tweak.
Higher overhead increases the estimated non-billable time, but it does not change the calculated hourly rate. This is gross-up math, not tax advice. The tax buffer is a flat cushion, not a bracket calculator. Day rate is hourly rate × 8; adjust if you sell half-days or retainers.