:root {
–primary-color: #6c5ce7;
–secondary-color: #a29bfe;
–bg-color: #f9f9f9;
–text-color: #2d3436;
–border-radius: 8px;
}
body {
font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
line-height: 1.6;
color: var(–text-color);
max-width: 800px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 20px;
background-color: var(–bg-color);
}
.calculator-wrapper {
background: #fff;
padding: 30px;
border-radius: var(–border-radius);
box-shadow: 0 4px 15px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
margin-bottom: 40px;
border-top: 5px solid var(–primary-color);
}
.calc-title {
text-align: center;
margin-bottom: 25px;
color: var(–primary-color);
}
.input-group {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.input-group label {
display: block;
margin-bottom: 8px;
font-weight: 600;
font-size: 0.95rem;
}
.input-group input {
width: 100%;
padding: 12px;
border: 1px solid #dfe6e9;
border-radius: var(–border-radius);
font-size: 1rem;
box-sizing: border-box;
transition: border 0.3s;
}
.input-group input:focus {
border-color: var(–primary-color);
outline: none;
}
.input-row {
display: flex;
gap: 20px;
flex-wrap: wrap;
}
.input-col {
flex: 1;
min-width: 200px;
}
.calc-btn {
width: 100%;
padding: 15px;
background-color: var(–primary-color);
color: white;
border: none;
border-radius: var(–border-radius);
font-size: 1.1rem;
font-weight: 700;
cursor: pointer;
transition: background-color 0.3s;
margin-top: 10px;
}
.calc-btn:hover {
background-color: #5649c0;
}
.results-container {
margin-top: 30px;
padding: 20px;
background-color: #f1f2f6;
border-radius: var(–border-radius);
display: none;
}
.result-item {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
align-items: center;
padding: 10px 0;
border-bottom: 1px solid #dfe6e9;
}
.result-item:last-child {
border-bottom: none;
}
.result-label {
font-weight: 500;
}
.result-value {
font-weight: 800;
font-size: 1.2rem;
color: var(–primary-color);
}
.big-result {
text-align: center;
margin-bottom: 20px;
padding-bottom: 20px;
border-bottom: 2px dashed #b2bec3;
}
.big-result .result-value {
font-size: 2.5rem;
display: block;
}
.article-content h2 {
color: var(–primary-color);
margin-top: 35px;
}
.article-content ul {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.article-content li {
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.info-tooltip {
font-size: 0.8rem;
color: #636e72;
margin-top: 5px;
}
Calculating Your Worth: The Freelance Designer Rate Guide
Pricing your services as a freelance designer is one of the most challenging aspects of running a creative business. Unlike a salaried employee, your rate isn't just your salary divided by hours worked; it must cover your overhead, your taxes, your downtime, and your profit margin. This Freelance Designer Rate Calculator uses a "bottom-up" approach to determine exactly what you need to charge to sustain your desired lifestyle.
How This Calculator Works
To accurately determine your hourly rate, we need to reverse-engineer the math starting from what you want to keep in your pocket. Here is the breakdown of the inputs:
- Target Annual Net Income: This is your "take-home" pay. This is the money used for personal rent, groceries, and savings.
- Annual Business Expenses: As a designer, you have costs. Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, Figma plans, font licenses, hardware upgrades, and home office utility portions all count here.
- Estimated Tax Rate: Freelancers pay self-employment tax. Depending on your location, you should set aside 20-30% of your gross income. The calculator adjusts your gross revenue requirement to ensure you still hit your net target after the government takes its share.
- Billable Hours vs. Worked Hours: This is critical. You might work 40 hours a week, but you likely only bill for 20-25 hours. The rest is spent on emails, marketing, accounting, and learning. If you input 40 billable hours, you are setting yourself up for burnout.
The "Unpaid" Time Factor
One of the biggest mistakes new freelance designers make is assuming they will bill 52 weeks a year. You need to account for:
- Vacation: Everyone needs a break to avoid creative block.
- Sick Days: You won't get paid time off (PTO) from a client.
- Holidays: National holidays where clients aren't working.
If you plan for 4 weeks off, you only have 48 weeks to earn your annual revenue. This calculator compresses your annual revenue requirement into those working weeks, naturally raising your hourly rate to cover the time off.
Hourly vs. Project-Based Pricing
While this calculator outputs an hourly rate, you should often use this merely as an internal baseline. Project-based pricing (or value-based pricing) is often superior for designers.
For example, if the calculator says your minimum rate is $85/hour, and you estimate a logo project will take 10 hours, your floor price is $850. However, if the value of that logo to the client is significantly higher, you might quote $2,500. The hourly rate calculated here is your "break-even" point—never price below it.
Example Scenario
Let's look at a realistic scenario for a mid-level web designer:
- Goal: $70,000 Net Income
- Expenses: $8,000 / year (Laptop, Software, Coworking space)
- Taxes: 25%
- Availability: 48 weeks/year (4 weeks off)
- Billable Time: 25 hours/week
The Math: To keep $70k net with $8k expenses and 25% tax, the business needs to gross roughly $104,000. With only 1,200 billable hours available in the year (48 weeks × 25 hours), the designer needs to charge approximately $86.66 per hour.
function calculateDesignerRate() {
// 1. Get input values
var targetNetIncome = parseFloat(document.getElementById('targetNetIncome').value);
var annualExpenses = parseFloat(document.getElementById('annualExpenses').value);
var taxRate = parseFloat(document.getElementById('taxRate').value);
var billableHours = parseFloat(document.getElementById('billableHours').value);
var weeksOff = parseFloat(document.getElementById('weeksOff').value);
// 2. Validate inputs
if (isNaN(targetNetIncome) || isNaN(annualExpenses) || isNaN(taxRate) || isNaN(billableHours) || isNaN(weeksOff)) {
alert("Please enter valid numbers in all fields.");
return;
}
if (taxRate >= 100) {
alert("Tax rate must be less than 100%.");
return;
}
if (weeksOff > 52) {
alert("Weeks off cannot exceed 52.");
return;
}
// 3. Perform Calculations
// Calculate tax multiplier.
// Formula: Gross = (Net + Expenses) / (1 – TaxRateDecimal)
// Example: If I want 75 net, have 0 exp, and 25% tax.
// I need 100 gross. 100 * 0.25 = 25 tax. 100 – 25 = 75 net.
var taxDecimal = taxRate / 100;
var grossRevenueNeeded = (targetNetIncome + annualExpenses) / (1 – taxDecimal);
// Calculate total working weeks
var workingWeeks = 52 – weeksOff;
// Calculate total billable hours per year
var totalBillableHoursYearly = workingWeeks * billableHours;
// Prevent division by zero
if (totalBillableHoursYearly <= 0) {
alert("Total billable hours cannot be zero. Please check Weeks Off and Billable Hours.");
return;
}
// Calculate rates
var hourlyRate = grossRevenueNeeded / totalBillableHoursYearly;
var dailyRate = hourlyRate * 8; // Assuming a standard 8 hour day, though billable might be less
// 4. Update HTML
document.getElementById('hourlyRateResult').innerText = formatCurrency(hourlyRate);
document.getElementById('dailyRateResult').innerText = formatCurrency(dailyRate);
document.getElementById('grossRevenueResult').innerText = formatCurrency(grossRevenueNeeded);
document.getElementById('totalHoursResult').innerText = Math.round(totalBillableHoursYearly).toLocaleString();
// Show result container
document.getElementById('resultContainer').style.display = 'block';
}
function formatCurrency(num) {
return '$' + num.toFixed(2).replace(/\d(?=(\d{3})+\.)/g, '$&,');
}