Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
This calculator translates your desired monthly revenue, operating costs and availability into the hourly rate you need to charge. Freelancers and consultants often mix billable and non-billable work, so the billable ratio estimates how much of your working hours are actually charged to clients.
Enter the revenue you want to bring in, the number of weeks you plan to work, how many hours you can realistically bill each week, and any recurring operating costs. The script turns those values into a yearly revenue requirement and divides it by the billable hours to give you an hourly target.
Applying the result in real scenarios
Imagine you want to clear $6,000 every month, work 48 weeks each year with 35 hours of billable time spread across those weeks, and maintain 80% billable time while covering $1,200 of monthly operating costs. The tool adds the $72,000 revenue goal to the $14,400 annual costs, yielding $86,400 that must be earned through 1,344 billable hours. That scenario produces a recommended rate near $64.29 per work hour.
Adjust the inputs when you plan shorter work seasons, want to increase the billable ratio, or need to cover higher overhead. Use the calculator to test how reducing billable hours forces a higher rate or how trimming costs lowers the hourly requirement, ensuring the numbers stay realistic for your market.