How is the hourly rate calculated?

It adds your target income to your annual expenses, divides that by your realistic billable hours per year, then layers on your profit margin — the same logic professional pricing guides use.

What's a realistic billable-hours percentage?

Most freelancers can only bill 60–80% of their working hours once you account for admin, marketing, and finding clients — the calculator defaults to a conservative estimate you can adjust.

Can I use this for a fixed-price project quote?

Yes. Once your hourly rate is set, enter your estimated hours for the project and the calculator produces a suggested fixed price you can include in a proposal.

Does it account for taxes?

Add your estimated tax rate as part of your expenses or profit margin — the calculator gives you the gross rate to charge; what you keep after tax depends on your local tax rules.

Freelance Rate & Proposal Calculator

Finance

Turn your income goals into an hourly rate and project quote.

Income & time

Set your income goal and how much you actually work.

Currency

Target annual income

Annual business expenses

Working weeks / year

Hours / week

Billable hours (%)

Profit margin (%)

Project quote

Turn your rate into an estimate for a specific project.

Project name (optional)

Client name (optional)

Estimated project hours

Your rates

Based on 1,176 billable hours a year.

Hourly rate

$81.16

Day rate (7.0h)

$568.15

Weekly rate

$2,840.77

Total working hours / year: 1,680
Billable hours / year: 1,176
Income + expenses: $83,000.00
With profit margin: $95,450.00

Estimated project total

20 hours at $81.16/hr

$1,623.30

About this tool

Work out the hourly and day rate you actually need to charge based on your income goal, expenses, and billable hours — then turn it into a project estimate you can drop straight into a proposal.

How to use Freelance Rate & Proposal Calculator

1
Enter your target annual income and yearly business expenses.
2
Set how many weeks a year you work and your billable hours per week.
3
Add your desired profit margin to see the recommended rate range.
4
Enter estimated project hours to get an instant project quote you can copy into a proposal.

Frequently asked questions

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