Freelance Rate Calculator

Undercharging is usually a math error, not a personality trait. You pick a number that “sounds reasonable,” forget tax, forget software, and forget that half the week is unpaid. By December the rate that felt polite in January has quietly funded your client’s margin instead of your rent. This calculator starts from the income you need and works backward.

Enter take-home target, business expenses, and a tax rate that is at least honest. Then enter working weeks and billable hours, not clock hours. Sales calls, invoices, and learning days are real work. They are not hours you can put on an invoice. If you pretend they are billable, the hourly figure comes out too low and you will feel busy and poor at the same time.

• ●Do not undercharge. You are a business.
• ●Factor in unpaid time (admin, sales, learning)
• ●Adjust for expertise and market rates
• ●Charge higher for rush jobs and difficult clients

The result is a floor, not a ceiling. Niche expertise, rush work, and clients who need hand-holding should sit above the floor. If the local market pays less than this number, you have a decision: cut costs, add billable hours, or find buyers who value the work. Silently matching a cheap competitor is how skilled people stay underpaid for years.

Use the hourly floor to build day rates and project quotes. A two-week website is not “a website price from Twitter.” It is your rate times the hours the job will actually take, plus a buffer. Put that quote into the Estimate Generator. When the work is done, bill it with the Free Invoice Generator. Incusia remembers line-item rates so you stop retyping them. Starter is $9 per month, locked at signup.