Freelance rate calculator: the hourly and day rate you need
Enter the profit you want to keep in a year and what working for yourself costs you. The calculator works backwards to the day rate and the hourly rate that get you there, by the same method as our guide to setting a rate.
What you need to charge
Net: day rate €595 · hourly rate €75
- Day rate, net
- €595€87 for costs, €508 profit
- Hourly rate, net
- €75€11 for costs, €64 profit
- Billable days per year
- 138
- Billable hours per year
- 1,104
- Revenue needed per year, net
- €82,000
Rounded up to the whole euro. This is the least you need, not a price: check it against what your market pays.
How the calculator works it out
It works backwards, the way the guide to setting your hourly rate does: from the money you need, through the days you can really bill, to the rate.
- Working days. 365 days minus the days off in each of 52 weeks. A five-day week leaves 365 minus 104, which is 261.
- Available days. Working days minus vacation, public holidays and sick days.
- Billable days. Available days times the share you can bill, rounded down to whole days.
- Revenue needed. Your profit before tax plus your costs for the year.
- Day rate. Revenue needed divided by billable days.
- Hourly rate. Revenue needed divided by billable hours, which are billable days times the hours in a working day.
A worked example
The starting values are the example from the guide. Say you want to keep €70,000 a year before tax, and your business costs come to €12,000. Then you need €82,000 in revenue.
Five working days a week give 261 working days. Take off 30 vacation days, 10 public holidays and 8 sick days, and 213 are left. You bill 65 percent of them, because the rest goes on proposals, admin and learning: 138 billable days.
€82,000 over 138 days is €594.20 a day, which the calculator shows as €595. At eight hours a day that is 1,104 billable hours and €74.28 an hour, shown as €75. Both are rounded up to the whole euro, because they are the least you need, not the most you can ask.
What the result is, and what it is not
The result is a floor. It tells you what you need to charge for the year to work out, not what a client will pay. Check it against what people in your field and your region actually charge, and if the market pays more, charge more.
Every amount here is a net amount, and the target is your profit before tax.
Questions people ask
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Work backwards. Add the profit you want to keep to your costs for the year, and divide the total by the hours you can actually bill. Those hours are your working days, minus vacation, public holidays and sick days, minus the share of time nobody pays you for, times the hours in a working day.
How much of my time should I count as non-billable?
For most people 25 to 35 percent: proposals, sales, invoicing, admin and keeping your skills current. If you are new, or your work comes in short pieces, plan with 45 percent until you know better.
Why is the result so much higher than my old salary divided by 1,800 hours?
Because you will bill far fewer hours than you work, and because the costs an employer used to carry now sit with you: insurance, pension, equipment, and the weeks spent finding the next job. A salary divided by working hours gets you roughly half of what you need.
Should I quote exactly this rate?
Treat it as the least you can charge. Round it up, because round numbers negotiate better, then check it against what your market pays. If the market pays more, raise it: you calculated a floor, not a price.
Are my numbers stored or sent anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your browser, and the numbers you enter never reach us. If you copy the share link, your numbers are in the link itself, so anybody you send it to sees them.
Read next
Then charge it.
In Steerd you note the agreed rate on the project, track your hours on it, and turn those hours into the invoice.
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