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Freelance Rate Calculator
Find the hourly rate you need to charge to hit your income goal after taxes, costs and unpaid time. Enter your numbers, then press Calculate.
Written by TopicDrill Editorial Team·Updated June 2026
Where each dollar of revenue goes
Your take-home pay$80,000
Business costs$8,000
Taxes$29,333
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How the freelance rate calculator works
Setting a rate is not just picking a number that sounds fair. You have to work backward from the life you want to fund. The calculator starts with your target take-home pay, adds your yearly business costs, then grosses the total up so that what survives tax still covers both. That is the revenue your freelance business actually needs.
The second half is how many hours you can truly bill. Unpaid time on sales, admin and learning eats into a working week, so your billable hours are well below your working hours. Dividing the revenue you need by those billable hours gives a rate that holds up in the real world.
A quick example
Say you want $80,000 take-home, have $8,000 of business costs, face a 25% effective tax rate, and can bill 25 hours a week for 48 weeks. You need about $117,000 in revenue across 1,200 billable hours, which works out to roughly $98 an hour, or close to a $780 day rate.
Things to keep in mind
Treat the result as your minimum sustainable rate, not your ceiling. Specialised skills, tight deadlines and high-value outcomes all justify charging more. For guidance on self-employment taxes in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service is the authoritative source. Compare your options with our other free calculators.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set my freelance hourly rate?
Start from the take-home pay you want for the year, add your business costs, then gross that up to cover taxes. Divide the total by the hours you can actually bill in a year. The result is the rate that keeps you whole after every deduction.
Why are billable hours lower than my working hours?
A large share of freelance time goes to admin, marketing, invoicing, learning and finding clients, none of which you can invoice. Many freelancers bill only half of their working week, so basing your rate on a 40 hour week leaves you underpaid.
Should I charge an hourly rate or a day rate?
Both work. A day rate is simply the hourly rate times the hours in a working day, often eight. Day and project rates can feel cleaner to clients and reward you for efficiency, while hourly billing protects you when scope is uncertain.
Does this include self-employment taxes?
The tax rate field is meant to capture your full effective tax burden, including income tax and self-employment or payroll taxes. Use a realistic blended rate for your situation, and treat the result as a floor rather than a ceiling.
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