Finance tool

Freelance Rate Calculator

Calculate your required hourly or daily freelance rate based on your desired annual take-home income, business expenses, billable hours, and tax obligations efficiently.

✓ Ready to use in your browser

Tool workspace

Free to use

Freelance Rate Calculator

$

Take-home pay after taxes/expenses

Usually 60-70% of total hours

$
%

Minimum Hourly Rate

$0

Daily Rate

$0

Weekly Rate

$1

To take home $80,000, you need a gross revenue of $0.

How to Calculate Your Freelance Rate

Determining your freelance rate can be tricky. It's not just about what you were paid as an employee. As a freelancer, you have overhead costs (health insurance, software subscriptions, office space) and unpaid admin time (invoicing, marketing).

Why charge more than your salary?

  • Taxes: You pay self-employment tax (social security/medicare) on top of income tax.
  • Unpaid Time: You don't get paid for vacation, sick days, or time spent finding new clients.
  • Expenses: You cover your own hardware, software licenses, internet, and utilities.

The 2-3x Rule of Thumb

Many experts suggest charging 2-3x your salaried hourly wage to account for these extra costs and risks. Use our calculator to find the exact number based on your financial goals.

About this free tool

Use Freelance Rate Calculator in your browser

Calculate your required hourly or daily freelance rate based on your desired annual take-home income, business expenses, billable hours, and tax obligations efficiently. It runs directly in your browser, so you can start straight away without creating an account or installing anything.

Simple to start

Open the workspace above, choose your options, and get the result when you need it.

Made for any screen

The controls are designed to stay usable on phones, tablets, and desktops.