A common mistake when starting out freelancing is picking an hourly rate based on what an employee in a similar role earns, without accounting for the fact that not every hour worked is billable, and that business expenses come directly out of that rate.
This calculator works backward from your target take-home income, adds in your annual business expenses, and divides by your realistic billable hours per year (accounting for weeks actually worked and hours actually billable per week) to find the rate you need to charge.
Most freelancers can only bill a fraction of their total working hours, since time also goes toward admin, marketing, and unpaid work between projects — being realistic about billable hours per week, rather than assuming a full 40, produces a far more sustainable rate.
Because everything runs locally in your browser, results appear instantly and nothing you type or upload is ever sent to a server.
Bookmark this page if you expect to use this tool regularly — it loads fast and behaves the same way every time, with no account needed.
This kind of task shows up constantly in everyday writing, coding, design, and admin work, which is exactly why a dedicated, focused tool saves so much back-and-forth.
A tool that does one job well, without a cluttered interface or unrelated features competing for attention, tends to be faster to use than a heavier all-in-one app.
If you find yourself needing this conversion or calculation often, keeping this page open in a tab is usually faster than digging through a bigger software suite's menus.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't billable hours the same as total hours worked?
Freelancers spend real time on unbillable work — finding clients, admin, invoicing, learning — so billable hours are typically well under a standard 40-hour week, even for a busy freelancer.
Should I include taxes in my target income?
Yes, since freelance income is usually taxed differently than employment income, factor in your expected tax burden when setting your target take-home figure to make sure the rate covers it.