How to Calculate Your Freelance Rate (the Right Way)
5 min read·Updated June 2026
Start from the life you want, not a guess
The wrong way to set a rate is to glance at what others charge and pick something that feels safe. The right way starts with a real number: how much you want to take home in a year. Everything else works backward from there.
The formula
- Take the income you want to take home.
- Gross it up for tax: divide by 1 minus your tax rate.
- Add your annual business expenses. That is the revenue you need.
- Count your real billable hours: weeks worked times billable hours per week.
- Divide revenue by billable hours. That is your rate.
The number that ruins people
The step everyone skips is billable hours. Working 40 hours does not mean billing 40. Marketing, admin, quoting, and dead time are real, and they are unpaid. If you price as if every hour bills, you guarantee you fall short of your target.
Let a tool do it
You do not need a spreadsheet. Our free freelance rate calculator takes your target income and the rest, and hands you the rate. Then compare it to what your specific trade actually charges to see if the market supports it.
Get your number first
Free, no signup. See what you should charge in about ten seconds.
Open the pricing engine →What to SayAI
A client pushes back on price? Get the exact reply.
Paste what they said. A sales-psychology-trained AI writes the words that hold your price, in seconds. Free.
Get the reply →Keep reading
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