Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Cover Self-Employment Tax, Time Off & Non-Billable Hours

As a freelancer, nobody covers your paid vacation, sick days, or the employer half of payroll taxes — your hourly rate has to build all of that in yourself, which is why it looks so much higher than an equivalent salaried wage. Tax rules vary by country; enter your own effective rate (income tax plus self-employment tax combined) rather than relying on a default here.
Your Target Income
$
$
Software, equipment, insurance, office space, etc.
Tax
Self-employment tax typically covers both the employee AND employer share of Social Security/Medicare (or your country's equivalent) — an employer normally pays half of this for you.
Your Working Time
Vacation, sick days, holidays combined.
Hours actually billed to clients — the rest goes to admin, marketing, invoicing.
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Why Freelance Rates Look High
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About This Calculator

This works backward from your target take-home pay to the hourly rate you actually need to charge. It starts from your target net monthly income, adds back your annual business expenses and effective tax rate to find the gross revenue you need to bring in, then divides that by your realistic billable hours per year — accounting for time off and the portion of your working time that goes to admin and business development rather than paid client work. The result is usually noticeably higher than a simple "salary divided by hours" guess, which is normal and by design: it's covering things an employer would otherwise pay for. Everything is calculated locally in your browser.