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Hourly Rate Calculator

Find an hourly rate that accounts for your income goal, business expenses, working schedule, and time spent on non-billable tasks.

Your financial goals

All monetary inputs are in US dollars (USD).

Your target personal income before tax.

Software, equipment, insurance, and other costs.

Your working schedule

Allow for holidays, sick days, and time off.

Time spent on admin, marketing, and meetings.

A simplified planning estimate, not a country-specific tax calculation.

How to use the hourly rate calculator

Enter your annual income goal and business expenses. Then estimate how many weeks and hours you will work and what proportion of that time will be non-billable. Add an estimated effective tax rate to see the revenue target and hourly rate implied by those assumptions.

Why non-billable time matters

Freelancers rarely invoice every hour they work. Administration, finding clients, preparing proposals, and bookkeeping all take time. Your rate needs to account for those hours instead of assuming every working hour generates revenue.

Understand the estimate

This calculator assumes the income goal is the amount you want to retain after the estimated tax represented by the input. It divides your income goal plus business expenses by the remaining after-tax proportion, then divides that revenue target by annual billable hours. It does not model progressive tax brackets, deductions, VAT, or other jurisdiction-specific rules.