How do I work out my freelance hourly rate?

Start from the income you need, add your business costs and tax set-aside, then divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a year — not the hours you will work. That last distinction is what separates a rate that works from one that does not.

How many hours can I actually bill in a year?

Far fewer than a full working year. After holidays, sick days, admin, sales and downtime between projects, many freelancers bill 60–70% of their available hours. Pricing on the assumption of 100% is the most common costly mistake in independent work.

Should I charge hourly or by the project?

Project pricing rewards you for working efficiently and gives the client certainty, but only if the scope is genuinely clear. Hourly suits open-ended or exploratory work. Either way, you need to know your hourly number first, because it is what tells you whether a project fee is acceptable.

How do I calculate a day rate from an hourly rate?

Multiply by the hours in your working day, then decide whether to discount. Many people offer a small reduction for a committed full day, but be careful: a booked day usually blocks other work, so the discount is not free.

Does the timesheet calculator handle overnight shifts?

Yes. When the finish time is earlier than the start time, the shift is treated as crossing midnight and the hours total correctly.

Should I include tax in my rate calculation?

You should include a set-aside for it. Working from gross figures and dealing with tax later is how people end up short at the deadline. Treat it as a cost that comes out before the income you actually keep.

How often should I review my rate?

At least annually, and whenever your costs or demand change materially. Rates that stay fixed for years quietly lose value to inflation while your experience increases.

Productivity

Planning and tracking tools for people who bill for their time — working out a rate that actually covers your costs, and adding up the hours you have already worked.

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If you sell time, two numbers decide whether the business works: what you charge for an hour, and how many hours you can genuinely bill. Most people who go independent get the first one by looking at what they used to earn and dividing by 2,080, which produces a rate that quietly loses money from the first month.

The reason is the second number. A salaried year contains paid holiday, sick leave, training and a great deal of time that is not billable but is still paid. Working for yourself, none of that is covered by anyone else, and neither is the time you spend on sales, admin, invoicing and the work you do not win. After all of it, many freelancers bill 60–70% of their available hours. Pricing on 100% is the most common and most expensive mistake in independent work.

These tools make both numbers explicit. Work backwards from the income you need to the rate that produces it, with holidays, business costs and tax set-aside included — then track the hours you actually bill so the assumption gets tested against reality rather than staying a guess.

Free

Hourly Rate Calculator

Almost every pricing problem an independent worker has traces back to a rate set too low at the start. This works backwards from your target income, factoring in time off, business costs, tax set-aside and a realistic billable percentage, and shows the hourly, daily and project rates that follow — plus how much the answer moves if your utilisation slips.

Open Hourly Rate Calculator

What it does

Target take-home income as the starting point
Accounts for holidays, sick days and admin time
Includes business costs and tax set-aside
Hourly and daily rate outputs
Billable-utilisation sensitivity

Start from the income you need
Work backwards from take-home pay to the rate that produces it, rather than forwards from a number that felt about right.
Unbillable time counted honestly
Holidays, sick days, admin and sales all consume hours you cannot invoice. Leaving them out is what makes a rate look adequate and behave otherwise.
See how sensitive the rate is
Change your assumed billable percentage and watch the required rate move. The relationship is steeper than most people expect.
Hours added up without a spreadsheet
Start and finish times with breaks, totalled by day and week, including shifts that cross midnight. No formula to copy wrong.
Hours priced as you go
Tracked time converts straight into a billable value at your rate, so the gap between what you worked and what you invoice stays visible.
Exports that go somewhere useful
Get totals out as CSV so they can go to a client, an accountant, or straight into an invoice, instead of being retyped.

A developer going independent
Setting a first rate that actually works
You have a target take-home figure and a former salary to anchor against. Factoring in unpaid holiday, software costs, insurance, tax set-aside and a realistic 65% billable rate produces a number noticeably higher than the naive salary-divided-by-hours calculation — and one that still leaves you solvent in a quiet month.
A consultant
Deciding whether a day rate is worth it
A client offers a fixed day rate for a three-month engagement. Converting it against your required hourly rate, and accounting for the work you cannot take on while committed, shows whether the security is worth the discount.
An agency
Turning a month of hours into an invoice
Timesheets arrive as start and finish times with breaks. Totalling them by week, applying the overtime threshold and multiplying by the client's rate produces the billable figure that goes straight onto the invoice, without a spreadsheet anyone has to maintain.

Get started with productivity

Every tool here is free, needs no account, and runs in your browser. Pick one and start working.

Open Hourly Rate Calculator See all categories

Productivity

About productivity

The one to start with

Hourly Rate Calculator

What it does

All productivity

What makes these productivity worth using

Start from the income you need

Unbillable time counted honestly

See how sensitive the rate is

Hours added up without a spreadsheet

Hours priced as you go

Exports that go somewhere useful

How these tools get used

Setting a first rate that actually works

Deciding whether a day rate is worth it

Turning a month of hours into an invoice

Productivity questions

Get started with productivity

Productivity

About productivity

The one to start with

Hourly Rate Calculator

What it does

All productivity

What makes these productivity worth using

Start from the income you need

Unbillable time counted honestly

See how sensitive the rate is

Hours added up without a spreadsheet

Hours priced as you go

Exports that go somewhere useful

How these tools get used

Setting a first rate that actually works

Deciding whether a day rate is worth it

Turning a month of hours into an invoice

Productivity questions

Get started with productivity

About productivity

The one to start with

Hourly Rate Calculator

What it does

All productivity

What makes these productivity worth using

Start from the income you need

Unbillable time counted honestly

See how sensitive the rate is

Hours added up without a spreadsheet

Hours priced as you go

Exports that go somewhere useful

How these tools get used

Setting a first rate that actually works

Deciding whether a day rate is worth it

Turning a month of hours into an invoice

Productivity questions

How do I work out my freelance hourly rate?

How many hours can I actually bill in a year?

Should I charge hourly or by the project?

How do I calculate a day rate from an hourly rate?

Does the timesheet calculator handle overnight shifts?

Should I include tax in my rate calculation?

How often should I review my rate?

Related categories

Get started with productivity

About productivity

The one to start with

Hourly Rate Calculator

What it does

All productivity

What makes these productivity worth using

Start from the income you need

Unbillable time counted honestly

See how sensitive the rate is

Hours added up without a spreadsheet

Hours priced as you go

Exports that go somewhere useful

How these tools get used

Setting a first rate that actually works

Deciding whether a day rate is worth it

Turning a month of hours into an invoice

Productivity questions

How do I work out my freelance hourly rate?

How many hours can I actually bill in a year?

Should I charge hourly or by the project?

How do I calculate a day rate from an hourly rate?

Does the timesheet calculator handle overnight shifts?

Should I include tax in my rate calculation?

How often should I review my rate?

Related categories

Get started with productivity