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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Rates

Hourly Rate Calculator

Use this when you want a cleaner hourly baseline than guesswork or a copied market rate can give you.

This calculator helps sellers, freelancers, and solo operators turn income goals and operating costs into a rate that is easier to defend.

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.

Solo service business target

An hourly rate built from annual income goals, expenses, and realistic billable hours.

$103.50required hourly rate

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Leaner freelance practice

A smaller expense base with fewer billable hours still produces a meaningful rate floor.

$94.95required hourly rate

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FAQ

Quick answers

Short answers for the questions that usually come up first.

Why include business expenses in an hourly rate?

Because your hourly rate needs to recover both the income you want and the cost of running the business that delivers the work.

How should I estimate billable hours?

Use the hours you can realistically invoice, not total working hours, so the rate reflects admin, sales, and downtime honestly.