Freelance Rate Calculator
Estimate the floor hourly rate that covers a take-home target, expenses, and a tax reserve.
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Runs entirely in your browser. Your income, expenses, and reserve never leave this device.
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Inputs
gross = (take-home + expenses) ÷ (1 − reserve ÷ 100); rate = gross ÷ (hours × working weeks × utilisation ÷ 100). Money rounds half-up to the cent; hours to two decimals. Planning estimate only — not a market or tax recommendation.
Result
No inputs yet.
Enter a target take-home and annual business expenses above.
Freelance Rate Calculator turns the income you want to take home into the hourly rate you have to charge, by accounting for the things a salary hides: business expenses, a tax reserve and the fact that not every working hour is billable. You supply the take-home target, your annual costs, the reserve percentage you want to set aside and the share of your week you can realistically sell, and the page returns the floor rate and the annual revenue that rate has to produce. The tax reserve is a percentage you choose rather than a rule the tool applies, because it knows nothing about your jurisdiction, and the page says that plainly. Utilisation is bounded between one and a hundred percent, and the model assumes every billable hour is sold at a single rate - two simplifications that keep the arithmetic honest rather than pretending to model a real calendar. It is a planning floor, not a market rate and not accounting advice. Use it before quoting, and re-run it when a retainer fills half your week at a fixed price. The tax reserve is a percentage you supply rather than a rule the calculator applies, because it encodes no jurisdiction's thresholds, and utilisation is capped inside the one-to-hundred-percent band.
How to use Freelance Rate Calculator
- Enter your target take-home and annual business expenses.
- Add a tax reserve percentage, vacation weeks, weekly billable hours, and utilisation.
- Read the suggested floor rate with the annual and monthly breakdown, or copy the summary.
What you get
- A floor hourly rate derived from a take-home target, business expenses and a tax reserve you supply.
- The annual revenue that rate has to produce, given your utilisation assumption.
- A stated ceiling on utilisation between 1% and 100%, so the arithmetic cannot imply more sellable hours than exist.
When to use Freelance Rate Calculator
- Set a floor rate before quoting, given a target take-home and a 25% reserve.
- See how four weeks of vacation and 75% utilisation change the rate you must charge.
- Re-check the floor after a client asks for a retainer that fills half your week at a fixed price.
Frequently asked questions about Freelance Rate Calculator
How does the tax reserve change the rate?
It grosses the revenue needed upward, because part of every invoice is set aside. Take-home plus expenses is divided by one minus the reserve percentage before hours are applied.
Why is the result called a floor rate?
It is the lowest rate your own assumptions support. It is a planning estimate calculated from your inputs, not a market rate or a tax recommendation.
What does utilisation mean here?
It is the share of your working hours that becomes billable. Lower utilisation means fewer paid hours, so the same revenue target pushes the rate higher.
Is this tax advice?
No. The reserve is a number you choose to plan with. Real tax depends on rules, thresholds, and jurisdictions this tool does not model.
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