Free tool

Freelance rate calculator

Work out what to charge as a freelancer. Start from the take-home you want, then add back the taxes, benefits, and unbillable time an employer used to absorb. The result is the rate that actually keeps the income you targeted.

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A freelance rate is not a salary divided by 2,080 hours. As a freelancer you cover the costs an employer used to carry, and you only get paid for the hours you can actually bill. Enter the take-home you want, your expenses, and how your week really splits, and this calculator gives you the hourly and day rate that gets you there. The benchmark table below shows where the add-ons come from, sourced to the IRS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

You should charge

per billable hour

Gross revenue needed

Billable hours / year

Day rate (8 billable h)

Why a freelance rate is higher than the salary equivalent

An employer quietly pays for a lot on top of a salary. As a freelancer you fund it yourself, so it has to be inside your rate. The big three, with public sources:

What an employer used to cover	Typical size	Source
Self-employment (payroll) tax you now pay in full	15.3% of net earnings (12.4% Social Security + 2.9% Medicare)	IRS ↗
Employee benefits (health, retirement, paid leave) you self-fund	~30% of total compensation (30.1% for private industry, Mar 2026)	BLS ECEC ↗
Hours you can actually bill (the rest is sales, admin, learning)	50-70% of working hours (industry norm, not a fixed figure)	Industry norm

Sources: IRS, Self-Employment Tax; BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (March 2026). The Social Security portion of the 15.3% applies up to the annual wage base, which the IRS resets each year. Verified 2026-08-13 by the JupiterInvoice team.

Once you have the number

Convert a salary to hourly

Just want the straight math from a salary to an hourly rate? Use the salary-to-hourly calculator.

Learn more →

The same math, employee framing

Our hourly rate calculator runs the identical model with a slightly different walkthrough.

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Bill at your new rate

Drop the rate into an hourly invoice tied to a timesheet.

Learn more →

Freelance rate FAQ

How do I calculate my freelance rate?

Start from the yearly take-home you want, add your business expenses, add back the taxes an employer used to split with you, then divide by the hours you can actually bill, not 2,080. After vacation, admin, and sales time a full-time freelancer really bills 1,200 to 1,400 hours a year. This calculator does that arithmetic for you.

How much should I add for self-employment tax?

In the US, self-employment tax is 15.3% of net earnings (12.4% for Social Security up to the annual wage base, plus 2.9% for Medicare), per the IRS. As an employee you paid roughly half of that and your employer paid the rest; as a freelancer you pay all of it, so it has to be inside your rate.

What billable percentage should I use?

Sixty-five percent is a reasonable starting point for an established freelancer. New freelancers, who spend more time on sales, should use around 50%. Specialists with steady demand can use 75%. Above 80% is hard to sustain. There is no official figure, so treat it as a planning assumption and adjust to your own reality.

Is a freelance rate the same as an employee's hourly wage?

No, and it should be meaningfully higher. Beyond taxes, an employer's benefit costs average about 30% of total compensation (health, retirement, and paid leave), per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A freelancer funds all of that, plus equipment and downtime between projects, out of the rate.

Should I quote per hour or per project?

Per project is usually better for finished deliverables, because it rewards efficiency and frames your value rather than your time. Per hour fits ongoing or open-scope work. Either way, your hourly rate is the floor: divide the project price by your honest hour estimate and it should not undercut it.

Last updated August 5, 2026