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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Freelancers

Freelancer Rate Calculator

Use this when you need a freelance rate that covers real business costs instead of just sounding competitive.

This page helps freelancers turn annual goals, operating expenses, and realistic billable capacity into a rate floor they can actually use.

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.

Established freelancer

A freelance practice that needs both income and operating costs covered cleanly.

$103.50required hourly rate

Load this example

Part-time independent work

Lower billable capacity pushes the hourly rate up even if the income target is lower.

$107.93required hourly rate

Load this example

FAQ

Quick answers

Short answers for the questions that usually come up first.

Is this rate meant to cover taxes too?

It is a planning rate, not a tax calculator, so many freelancers use the buffer to create a little extra room beyond direct income and expenses.

What if my workload is seasonal?

Use conservative billable hours for the year or planning period so the resulting rate is strong enough during slower periods too.