What you actually need to charge
Most people set a rate by looking at what other people charge, then feel vaguely underpaid for years. The other way round is to start from what you need, what it costs you to work, and how many hours you can genuinely put on an invoice, and see what falls out. It is usually higher than the number in your head.
The calculation
Fill in what you know. The default figures are a reasonable starting point rather than a recommendation, so change them to your own.
Why the answer surprises people
Because of one line: the share of your working hours you can actually invoice. A freelancer who works forty hours does not bill forty hours. Some of that week goes on quoting for work that never lands, writing proposals, invoicing, chasing invoices, bookkeeping, updating a portfolio, answering enquiries that go nowhere, and the admin of running a business that has no admin department.
Sixty per cent is a realistic figure for someone established with steady clients. Newer freelancers, or anyone doing a lot of pitching, are often nearer forty. At forty per cent you need to charge half as much again as you would at sixty for exactly the same take-home. That single number moves the rate more than anything else on the form, which is why it is on the form.
The other thing it exposes
Holiday and illness are unpaid. Nobody covers them, and if you price at fifty-two weeks you have quietly decided to work every week of the year or take a pay cut. Forty-six is a normal working year with four weeks off, a week of illness, and a week lost to the parts of the year that are not work but are not holiday either.
What to do with the number
Treat it as a floor, not a price. It is the point below which you are subsidising the client out of your own time, and it says nothing about what the work is worth to them, which is usually the more important question and always the more profitable one. Value, scarcity, urgency and how much money the work makes or saves are all reasons to charge more than the floor. There is no good reason to charge less than it.
If the floor comes out higher than what you currently charge, that is the useful outcome. The gap is not a sign you are doing something wrong; it is the amount you are currently absorbing.
Questions people ask
Should I charge by the hour at all?
Often not. Hourly pricing caps what you can earn at the hours you can stay awake, and it penalises you for getting faster, which is the opposite of how expertise should pay. The hourly number is still worth knowing, because it is what tells you whether a fixed project fee was any good once the work is finished. Work out the floor, price by the project, then check the project fee against the floor afterwards.
What should the invoiceable percentage really be?
Track it for a month rather than guessing. Note the hours you could put on an invoice against the hours you worked. Most people who do this for the first time find the figure is lower than they assumed, often between forty and sixty per cent, and that the difference explains why the money never quite adds up.
Does this account for tax properly?
No, and it does not try. It applies one percentage you supply to cover income tax, self-employment or national insurance contributions, and anything else you set aside. Real tax is progressive, varies by country and by how you are structured, and depends on deductions this page knows nothing about. Use a figure your accountant gives you. This is arithmetic, not tax advice.
Is my income sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in this tab, there is no account, no email box and no analytics on the numbers you type, and nothing is kept when you close it. You can check that: open the network tab and watch, or turn off your wifi and use the page anyway.
Next
Everything on this page is worked out in your browser. The numbers you type are never sent anywhere, there is no email box, and nothing is stored when you close the tab. That is worth saying because most rate calculators are lead capture with arithmetic attached, and your income is not a thing you should have to hand over to find out what to charge.