Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Start from the take-home you need, gross it up for tax, add your business costs, then divide by billable hours — not total hours. A 40-hour week at 60% utilisation over 46 weeks is 1,104 billable hours, not 2,080.

The share of your working hours that a client pays for. Sales, admin, invoicing, proposals and unpaid revisions all come out first. Sixty percent is a realistic target for an established freelancer and 40% is common when starting out.

Because that counts every hour as billable and ignores tax, business costs and the weeks you do not work — all things your employer was covering. It typically undercharges by 80 to 100%.

Software subscriptions, professional insurance, accountancy, equipment and its replacement, workspace, training, pension you now fund yourself, and any unpaid time chasing invoices. Anything an employer used to provide is now a line item.

Fixed pricing rewards you for being fast, hourly billing penalises it. Hourly is safer when scope is uncertain; fixed is more profitable once you know the work well enough to estimate it.

At least annually to hold against inflation, and on evidence — a rate that never loses a client is probably below market. Raising for new clients first, then existing ones at renewal, is the lowest-risk sequence.

Sixty percent is a solid target for an established freelancer with steady work. Forty percent is normal in the first year, when sales and setup consume most of the week. Anything above seventy is either a long-term retainer or unsustainable.

Project pricing rewards efficiency and protects the client's budget; hourly protects you when scope is uncertain. A common compromise is a fixed price with an explicit scope and a stated hourly rate for anything outside it.

With notice, tied to a renewal or a new phase rather than mid-project, and framed against market rather than need. Raising for new clients first gives you evidence the higher rate holds.

A premium that reflects what it displaces — typically 25 to 50% — because urgent work pushes other commitments and consumes the buffer that makes your schedule work. Charging normal rates for urgent work trains clients to make everything urgent.

It depends on your turnover, your location and your client's location, and cross-border digital services have their own rules in several regions. Registration thresholds change, so check current rules rather than a remembered figure.

Set aside a fixed percentage of every invoice into a separate account on the day it lands, rather than reconciling later. The percentage depends on your jurisdiction and income, but the discipline of separating it at receipt is what prevents the January problem.