Setting Your Freelance Rate
Setting an hourly rate as a freelancer requires accounting for expenses that salaried employees take for granted: taxes (typically 25–35% of income), health insurance, retirement contributions, software subscriptions, and non-billable hours spent on admin, marketing, and business development. Freelancers typically bill only 60–70% of their working hours.
This calculator works backwards from your target annual income: add up your expenses, account for non-billable hours and vacancy time, then solve for the rate you need to charge per billable hour. The result often surprises people — the right freelance rate is significantly higher than your equivalent salaried hourly rate. Use this number as your floor, not your starting point.