Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Enter your desired annual income, business expenses, and how many billable hours you actually work per week to calculate the hourly rate you need to charge.
How the Freelance Hourly Rate formula works
Working backward from your income goal to a rate:
Required rate = (Desired annual income + Annual expenses) / (Billable hours per week × Weeks worked per year)
Step-by-step calculation
- Add your desired annual income and your annual business expenses to find total revenue needed.
- Multiply billable hours per week by weeks worked per year to find total billable hours.
- Divide total revenue needed by total billable hours to get your required hourly rate.
Worked example
A freelancer wanting $80,000/year, with $8,000 in annual expenses, billing 25 hours/week over 48 working weeks: Required rate = (80,000 + 8,000) / (25 × 48) = 88,000 / 1,200 ≈ $73/hour.
Frequently asked questions
Why is billable hours per week usually less than total hours worked?
Freelancers spend real time on unbilled work — admin, marketing, invoicing, finding clients — so billable hours are typically well below a 40-hour work week; 20–30 billable hours per week is common even for someone working full-time hours overall.
Should taxes be included in 'desired income' or 'expenses'?
Since self-employment tax and income tax both apply to freelance earnings, many freelancers build an estimated tax reserve into their target income or list it as an annual expense, so the resulting rate accounts for take-home pay after taxes.