Hourly rate planning works best when you recover both income and operating costs from the hours you can realistically bill.

Required hourly rate: $103.50
Monthly revenue target: $10,350.00
Annual revenue target: $124,200.00

Target income
$90,000.00
Business expenses
$18,000.00
Buffer %
15.0%
Billable hours
1,200

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Consultants

Consultant Rate Calculator

Use this when you want a consulting rate that supports both delivery time and the cost of winning and managing the work.

This calculator helps consultants turn revenue expectations, operating overhead, and limited billable capacity into a rate that makes the practice sustainable.

How to use this page

Start with your best current estimate, adjust the inputs until the result feels realistic, and use the related tools below when you want to pressure-test price, profit, or payout from another angle.

Work backward from your income target, expenses, and billable hours to an hourly rate.

Use the calculator with the examples below to test ideas quickly and come back to the same setup later.

Worked examples

Start from a realistic scenario

Each example opens the same calculator with shareable URL state.

Independent advisor

A consulting rate target with healthy room for overhead and downtime.

$154.47required hourly rate

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Specialist consultant

More limited billable capacity pushes the required rate higher.

$217.22required hourly rate

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FAQ

Quick answers

Short answers for the questions that usually come up first.

Why can consulting rates look high compared with payroll wages?

Because consulting rates need to recover overhead, sales time, gaps between projects, and the cost of running the practice in addition to income.

Should I use total working hours here?

No. Use realistic billable hours so the rate reflects the time you can actually monetize.