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About this tool
Work out the freelance hourly rate you need from target income, billable hours, expenses and tax.
Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator works backwards from the income you want to keep to the rate you must charge. It grosses your target take-home up for tax and contributions, adds annual business expenses and an optional profit buffer, then divides by the hours you can genuinely bill after holidays, sick days and unpaid admin. The output is an hourly rate, a matching day rate and a monthly invoicing target — the numbers freelancers, consultants and contractors need before quoting.
Open Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
Tax and contributions are added on top, so the rate protects the amount you actually keep.
Holidays, sick weeks and unpaid admin are removed before the division, which is where most low rates come from.
See the same target as a rate per hour, a day rate and the revenue you need to invoice each month.
Add your target take-home, tax, business expenses and a profit buffer to get the revenue you need, then divide by your realistic billable hours for the year. Dividing by 2,080 hours instead of billable hours is the classic mistake.
Far fewer than they work. After four weeks of holiday and a week of sick or admin time, a 40-hour week gives about 1,880 worked hours, and typically only 50 to 70 percent of those are billable once sales, invoicing and learning are removed.
Usually yes. As a freelancer you fund your own leave, pension, equipment, insurance and downtime between clients, none of which an employer salary rate has to cover.
Use the effective rate you expect on your business profit, including income tax and any social security or self-employment contributions. Rates differ by country and business structure, so this tool is informational — confirm your figure with an accountant.
Add the Freelance Hourly Rate Calculatorwidget to your blog or website — free, responsive, no signup. Just keep the “Widget by AltFTool” credit link visible.
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