Open Margin · free tool
What should you charge?
Most freelancers set an hourly rate by guessing, then discover the guess didn't cover taxes, admin, or August. Work backwards instead: start from the life the rate has to pay for.
What you actually want to keep after taxes — your salary, not your revenue.
Software, hardware, insurance, coworking, courses — the bills the work has to cover.
A rough percentage of revenue to put aside. Adjust to your situation.
Vacation, sick days, breathing room. Time you don't bill is part of the rate.
Everything you're willing to work — client time, admin, and craft together.
Pitches, email, invoicing and admin don't bill. Most solo freelancers land between 50% and 70%.
Your numbers
Your minimum. Quotes below this mean you're paying to work.
- Revenue to aim for
- $75,135 / year
- Working weeks
- 46
- Billable hours
- 1,104 / year
Your numbers as a shareable card — pin it above your desk or post it.
A rate is a floor, not a ceiling. Price each project from its own shape — scope, milestones, and the buffer that protects your capacity.
Price the whole project, not just the hour →Run the math once. Keep the result.
Get a printable one-page rate card — fill in your floor, comfortable rate, day rate, and project minimum, and keep it where quotes happen. It's a PDF you can use digitally or print. We'll also send the occasional calm note on pricing and planning. No noise.
How the math works
Take-home + business costs is what your year actually costs. That number gets grossed up by your tax set-aside, because revenue isn't the same as income.
Billable hours are working weeks minus time off, hours minus the share eaten by pitches, email, invoicing, and admin. Only billable hours pay the bills — the rest of the week still needs a salary.
Minimum rate = what your year costs, divided by the hours that actually earn. Treat it as a floor: specific projects can price higher, never lower.
Rates are rounded up to the nearest $5. This is a planning estimate, not tax or financial advice — adjust the tax slider to your own situation.
The fillable version · $7
Take the math offline — and keep it.
The Freelance Rate Calculator PDF works through the same math on paper: your number, a reality check on your billable hours, a rate card you fill once, and a one-page quote builder you copy for every project. Fill it digitally or print it — no account, no subscription.
One-time · instant download
Know the rate. Now price the project.
The Freelance Client Kit turns your rate into quotes: a pricing worksheet, proposal template, client questionnaire, and onboarding guide — one fillable, undated PDF.
Your rate isn't a one-time decision.
The Rate Raise Kit takes this page's math one step further: what your rate should be now, the six signals it's time, the exact letter to send, and calm answers to every kind of pushback. Fillable, undated PDF.
Quoted the work? Now get paid for it.
The Paid on Time Kit covers the other half: invoice terms worth pasting, four reminder scripts from friendly to final, polite late-fee language, and a fillable tracker. Fillable, undated PDF.
Planning the rest of the week? The Creative Energy Check-In is a free one-page reset for what the rate can't fix: a week that never stops.