Your rate should fund your life—not just fill your calendar.
Build a defensible freelance rate from the full picture: take-home pay, taxes, overhead, benefits, non-billable time, time off, and room to grow.
Recommended target
$112/hrBUILD YOUR RATE PLAN
One number is not a pricing strategy.
See your break-even floor, confident target, and high-risk rate—then turn them into practical quotes.
Build from your real year
Project quote settings +
Built to produce $161,863 across 1,166 realistic billable hours.
Covers the plan, no resilience margin.
Default for well-scoped client work.
Reference for urgent or uncertain work.
At $65/hr, the plan is short by $74 for every billable hour.
Show calculation trail +
- Take-home + benefits$90,800
- Profit required before estimated tax$124,384
- + Annual business costs$13,200
- Revenue floor$137,584
- ÷ 85% after resilience margin$161,863
- ÷ 1,166 billable hours$139/hr
THE HIDDEN MATH
Salary ÷ 2,080 is the fastest route to undercharging.
Employees are paid through admin, holidays, training, and slow periods. Independent professionals must price those realities into fewer billable hours.
$80,000 divided by 2,080 working hours
Income + tax + costs across 1,250 billable hours
Illustrative example only. Your plan should use your own effective tax rate, costs, and tracked capacity.
GO DEEPER
Choose the calculator that matches the decision.
Each focused tool uses the same transparent pricing logic without forcing one formula onto every kind of work.
Day rate calculator
Convert a sustainable hourly target into full-day, half-day, and weekly booking rates.
Open tool →02 / TRANSITIONSalary → freelance
Compare employment compensation with the revenue a solo business needs to replace it.
Open tool →03 / SCOPEProject price calculator
Turn hours, revisions, external costs, and delivery risk into a fixed-fee quote.
Open tool →A RATE YOU CAN EXPLAIN
The formula, without the finance fog.
RatePilot works backward from what the business must produce, then divides that target by time you can actually invoice.
Review the methodology →- 1
Fund the person
Start with take-home income plus benefits and retirement—not a vague gross salary.
- 2
Fund the business
Add software, insurance, equipment, marketing, accounting, and one-off operating costs.
- 3
Gross up for tax
Translate the amount you want to keep into the profit required before estimated taxes.
- 4
Use billable capacity
Divide by workable client hours after admin, sales, time off, and the realities of a pipeline.
- 5
Add resilience
Keep separate rates for sustainability, growth, and work with unusual scope or urgency.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Before you send the quote.
Use the number as a decision aid, then apply market context and professional judgment.
What is a realistic number of billable hours?+
For many solo professionals, 50–70% of working time is billable after sales, admin, bookkeeping, learning, and gaps between projects. Use your own tracked average when possible.
Should my rate include taxes?+
Yes. Start with the amount you want to keep, then gross it up using an estimated effective tax rate. This calculator keeps taxes visible instead of treating them as an afterthought.
Is the recommended rate my final client price?+
Treat the floor as the minimum that makes your plan work. The target rate adds room for reinvestment. Urgent, uncertain, or high-value work may justify a higher project quote.
How should I price fixed-fee projects?+
Estimate the real delivery hours, include project management and revisions, then apply a scope reserve. Fixed fees should also reflect the value, risk, and rights transferred—not only time.
Does RatePilot store my financial information?+
No. Calculations happen in your browser. Settings are saved only on your device so you can return to your plan.
STOP GUESSING
Build the rate your next year needs.
Five minutes of honest inputs can change every proposal that follows.
Calculate my rate ↑