Freelance Rate Calculator

Work backwards from the take-home pay you want: add your business expenses and health insurance, then add self-employment tax and income tax on top, then divide by realistic billable hours (not 40 × 52). This calculator does the tax math precisely using 2026 rates — the common shortcut of "salary ÷ 2,080 × 1.3" underestimates for most people.

Three reasons: you now pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare (15.3% self-employment tax), you cover costs an employer used to (health insurance, equipment, software), and you can't bill every working hour — admin, proposals, and marketing are unpaid. A salary's equivalent freelance rate is typically 50–100% higher than the salary's nominal hourly figure.

Most established freelancers bill 20–30 hours of a 40-hour week — the rest goes to finding work, admin, and email. New freelancers often bill less. The calculator defaults to 25 hours and 46 weeks (allowing for holidays, sick time, and dry spells); adjust to your reality rather than your hopes.

Use your hourly number as a floor for pricing projects, not as the price you quote. Project pricing rewards you for working efficiently and anchors the conversation on value rather than time — but always estimate the hours honestly and check the implied rate against this calculator's answer.

No — state income tax varies from 0% (TX, FL, WA and others) to over 13% (CA). If your state has an income tax, add roughly its rate on top of the calculated gross revenue target.