Free tool
Freelance rate calculator
Most of us picked our rate by looking at what other people charge and going a bit lower. Then admin, sales calls and "one quick thing" ate half the week. Put in real numbers and see the rate you actually need, and what you're really earning per hour right now. No signup, nothing leaves your browser.
To take home $60,000 you need to bill at least
$0 an hour
You charge . After unpaid extras and unbillable time, your real rate per hour worked is .
Raising your rate is scary. Stopping the free work isn't. Lock the scope, get the client to approve it, and send a priced change order for every "can you also". Same clients, more paid hours. Scopease does that with one approval link. Free to start, and the first 10 new signups get 6 months of Pro free, automatically.
How the math works
Take-home pay grossed up for tax, plus your expenses, is the revenue you need. Then figure out how many hours you can actually charge for: weeks you work, times hours per week, times the share that's billable, minus the share you hand out free. Revenue needed divided by those hours is your floor. Not your ideal rate. Your floor.
Why your rate is probably too low
Nobody bills 40 hours a week. Most solo freelancers bill somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of the time they work, and that's before the free stuff. A 15 percent scope creep habit on top of 60 percent billable means only about half your week is paid. If you priced as if every hour was billable, you're underpaid by roughly double.
Two ways to fix it
Raise the rate, or stop working for free. The second one is easier and nobody gets mad. Write the scope down, get it approved, and when something new shows up send a change order with a price. Not sure how to word it? Steal a reply from how to say no to clients. Want to see the yearly damage in one number? Try the scope creep calculator. Before your next quote, run the brief through the client red flag checker and start from a scope of work template.
Get paid for every hour, start free
This is a planning tool, not tax or financial advice. Use your own tax rate.