Free Freelance Rate Calculator
Work backwards from a take-home target, business expenses (Adobe, Figma, coworking), time off, and a quarterly tax set-aside to a minimum and recommended hourly rate.
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Rate planning model
Use this calculator to set a defensible floor rate and a buffered quote based on your income targets and workload assumptions. Final tax treatment and take-home still depend on your jurisdiction and business setup.
- Enter your own estimated tax set-aside % (we do not assume any country tax rates).
- Review processor fees, VAT/GST, and platform costs separately if they affect your pricing.
Price the year, then the hour
A freelance year holds 260 weekday slots. Remove 20 days of holiday and 5 sick days and 235 remain, which is 1,880 working hours, and at a 70% billable ratio the sellable part of that is 1,316 hours. The other 564 hours are real work nobody is invoiced for: writing proposals, scoping calls that go nowhere, chasing a payment that was due three weeks ago, the afternoon lost to a laptop that stopped charging. The usual arrangement sets a rate by copying whatever the last client agreed to, which quietly charges those 564 hours to you.
Run the defaults and the chain is visible. A $100,000 take-home target plus $6,000 of annual expenses is $106,000; divided by 0.7 for a 30% set-aside that becomes $151,429 of gross to bill; spread over 1,316 hours it sets a floor of $115 an hour, and the 15% buffer lifts the quote to $132. The instructive part is which input moves it. Dropping the billable ratio from 70% to 60% pushes the floor to $134. Raising the set-aside from 30% to 35% only reaches $124. How many hours you can sell governs the rate more than the tax assumption does.
"My market sets the rate, so working backwards from a target is academic." Where rates are posted, on a platform tier or an agency band, that is a fair objection. The floor still earns its place, because it prices what a discount costs. Agreeing to $95 an hour against a $115 floor reads as a $20 concession and works out as 1,316 hours sold at 83% of cost, or $26,320 across a full year. Quote the market rate if the market is what pays you. The floor is what tells you how much of the year you have just given away, and $26,320 is a number worth seeing before you agree to it.
The arithmetic behind the floor rate
The rate comes out of a chain of five inputs, and every link in that chain is an assumption you can change. These are the ones the page starts with.
What it assumes
- A working year of 260 weekdays, which is 52 weeks of 5 weekdays.
- An 8 hour working day, so 235 worked days become 1,880 hours.
- Holiday and sick days come off the year first, and the billable ratio applies to what is left.
- The tax set-aside comes off gross revenue, and the buffer is added on top of the resulting floor.
What it leaves out
- Public holidays, which sit outside the holiday days you enter.
- Any country tax rate. The set-aside percentage is yours to supply.
- VAT, GST and sales tax, which are collected from clients under separate rules.
- Processor, platform and payout fees, which reduce the amount that reaches you.
Where the numbers come from
- The 260 weekday baseline
- Our own assumptionCalendar arithmetic of 52 weeks times 5 weekdays, held in the page. It counts no public holidays, so it runs a little high for most countries.
- The 8 hour day
- Our own assumptionA working assumption used to turn worked days into sellable hours. Change the billable ratio if your day is a different length.
- Starting values for time off, ratio, set-aside and buffer
- Our own assumption20 holiday days, 5 sick days, a 70% billable ratio, a 30% set-aside and a 15% buffer. Round starting points, chosen to be adjusted.
Assumptions and sources checked 5 September 2026. Published figures move on their own schedule, so confirm anything you rely on against the authority that issues it.
How it works
- 01
Enter take-home goal
The annual cash you want to keep after expenses and taxes.
- 02
Add expenses and time off
Include SaaS subscriptions, equipment, insurance, and realistic non-billable weeks.
- 03
Pick a billable ratio
How much of your week you actually invoice for.
- 04
See your floor + quote rate
A minimum that protects your target and a recommended rate to quote.
Related guides
How to Calculate a Freelance Rate You Can Actually Get Paid On
The assumptions behind the result, including why an optimistic utilisation figure is what produces a rate you cannot live on.
Read the guideHow Much Should a Freelancer Save for Taxes? A Monthly Reserve Rule and Quarterly True-Ups
The calculator asks for a tax set-aside percentage and offers no basis for it. This sets that number with a monthly reserve rule.
Read the guideHow to Negotiate a Higher Rate with a New Client
A recommended rate only counts once a client agrees to it, so this covers the conversation and the private floor you hold to.
Read the guideFrequently Asked Questions
What does "estimated tax set-aside %" mean?+
Does this include VAT, GST, or sales tax?+
What is a "billable ratio" and how do I choose mine?+
Should I use the minimum or recommended rate?+
Does this include Stripe or PayPal processing fees?+
How should I use this estimate?+
Is my data private?+
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