Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator Free tool

Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator

Most freelancers set a rate by copying someone else's. This works backwards from the only number that matters: what you need to take home.

minimum hourly rate to actually hit your target

Why the honest number is higher than people expect

Two things quietly destroy the naive calculation. First, a big share of your week is not billable - admin, proposals, invoicing, and the client calls nobody pays for. Second, tax and social contributions come out of gross, not net. Miss either and you set a rate that mathematically cannot reach your target.

The output above is a floor, not a recommendation: it is the point below which you are structurally losing money. Value, scarcity and demand all sit above it.

If your rate is fine but renewals are where money leaks, the Client Retainer Renewal Kit covers the eight conversations where retainers quietly stay at year-one pricing.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, stored, or logged - there is no server involved and no analytics on this tool.

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