Hourly rate calculator
Start from what you need to earn, subtract the weeks you won't work, and be honest about how many hours a week are genuinely billable.
- Revenue needed
- 68,000.00
- Billable hours a year
- 1,012.00
- Day rate (8 hours)
- 537.55
- Hourly rate
- 67.19
Why the billable hours number is the one that matters
Most people who price themselves too low do it by assuming a 40-hour billable week. In practice, admin, sales calls, quoting, invoicing, learning and dead time between jobs eat a large share of the week. Twenty to twenty-five billable hours is a common reality for a solo freelancer, and using that figure instead of 40 roughly doubles the rate the maths asks for.
What belongs in business costs
- Software, hosting, phone and internet
- Insurance, accountancy and bank fees
- Equipment you replace every few years, spread over its life
- Travel, workspace or desk rent
Tax is not in that list. This calculator gives you the revenue you need to bill; what you owe afterwards depends on where you are and how you're set up, and that's a conversation for an accountant.
Sanity-check it against the market
The number the maths produces is a floor, not a price. If it lands well above what your market pays, the fix is usually fewer, better clients or a shift to fixed-price work rather than shaving the rate.
Happy with the figure? Bill it on a freelance invoice.