Freelance Hourly Rate
Back-solve hourly rate from income goal, billable hours, utilization, and overhead.
Inputs
$
Results
Rate needed
$75.89
≈ 5 movie tickets
Billable hours / yr1,400
Gross at that rate$106,250.00
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter your Target Net / Owner Income — what you want to take home annually after expenses.
- Set Available Work Hours / Year — the total hours you could bill in a year (2,000 = full-time).
- Adjust Billable Utilization % to reflect how much of your time actually gets billed (70% is realistic for most freelancers).
- Set Overhead + Tax Buffer % to cover self-employment taxes, software, and other business expenses (25–35% is common).
- Read the Rate Needed output — this is the minimum hourly rate to achieve your income target; use it as your floor when quoting clients.
Ad Placeholder
Ad Placeholder