Calculate your minimum hourly rate, day rate, and project minimum β based on your real income goals and working hours.
What you want in your pocket after taxes
Software, equipment, accountant, insurance, etc.
The rest goes to admin, sales, marketing, accounting. 60% is typical for solo freelancers.
Annual revenue needed
To hit your income goal after taxes + expenses
Billable hours per year
48 weeks Γ 24h/week
Minimum hourly rate
$99.5/hr
Below this, you're not hitting your goals
β¨ Recommended hourly rate
$124.4/hr
Minimum + 25% buffer for slow months, negotiation room
Day rate
$597.2
5h day
Weekly rate
$2,986
24h week
Minimum project fee
$497.7
Don't take projects smaller than this (admin overhead kills margin)
Got your rate? Make sure you get paid it. π
Chaser automatically follows up on overdue invoices so you spend zero time chasing clients β and more time on billable work.
Start free trial βMost freelancers set their rate by guessing, copying competitors, or adding a small markup to their old salary. All three approaches typically result in undercharging. The right way to set a freelance rate starts with what you actually need to earn.
Your freelance rate needs to cover three things: (1) your desired take-home income, (2) your business expenses, and (3) your tax bill. The formula is:
For example: $80,000 take-home + $6,000 expenses, at 25% tax rate = $114,667 revenue needed per year.
This is where most freelancers go wrong. If you work 40 hours per week, you're not billing 40 hours. Time goes to email, sales calls, admin, accounting, and professional development. Industry average for solo freelancers: 55β65% of working time is billable.
Add vacation and sick time: most freelancers take 4β6 weeks off per year (even if they don't plan to). So 52 β 5 = 47 working weeks Γ 40 hours Γ 60% billable = 1,128 billable hours per year.
Your minimum rate is just enough to hit your goals if everything goes perfectly β 100% of clients pay on time, no slow months, no unexpected expenses. Reality is messier. Add 20β30% to your minimum rate as a buffer. This also gives you negotiation room without dropping below your floor.
If a client takes 60 days to pay a net-30 invoice, your effective hourly rate for that project drops β you completed the work but the money sat unpaid for an extra month. For a $100/hr freelancer with $10,000 in outstanding invoices, a 60-day average payment delay costs roughly $100β200 in effective lost earnings (based on opportunity cost / cost of capital).
Consistent, automated invoice follow-up through a tool like Chaser typically reduces average payment time by 7β14 days β which at your rates adds up to meaningful recovered earnings.