Enter your target annual income, business expenses, and how many hours you can realistically bill each week. The calculator returns the minimum hourly rate you need to charge to hit that goal.
US freelancers: 25-35% (self-employment + federal + state).
52 minus vacation, sick, and holidays.
Realistic: 20-30 hrs/week. Rest goes to admin, sales, learning.
Minimum hourly rate to hit your goal
$98.89 / hr
Total revenue needed: $118,666.67 across 1,200 billable hours.
When new freelancers pick an hourly rate, they usually divide their old salary by 2,080 (a 40-hour year) and call it done. That ignores three killers: self-employment taxes (~15.3% on top of income tax in the US), business expenses (software, insurance, home office, hardware), and unbillable time (admin, sales, invoicing, learning — easily 30-50% of your week).
This calculator asks for all three so you get the real minimum rate to hit your take-home income goal.
Rate = (Target income ÷ (1 – tax rate) + expenses) ÷ (working weeks × billable hours)
You want to take home $80,000/yr. Expenses: $12,000. Tax rate: 28%. Working 48 weeks at 25 billable hours per week (1,200 hours). Target revenue = $80,000 ÷ 0.72 + $12,000 = $123,111. Divide by 1,200 hours = $102.60/hr minimum. Round up to $105 or $110/hr.
Once you know your rate, plug it into our free invoice generator or send a formal quote to the client.