Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
Build your minimum hourly rate from take-home goal, taxes, vacation, and billable-hours reality.
Income goal
Business overhead
Available time
Gross income needed (take-home + tax)
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Plus overhead → revenue target
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Working days / year (after vacation + holidays + sick)
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Total billable hours / year
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Minimum hourly rate
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Why your hourly rate is higher than employees per hour
A €60k salary employee at a company has a fully-loaded cost to the employer of ~€90k once you add taxes, social security, equipment, office, training, and benefits. As a freelancer you're charging the equivalent of that loaded cost — so your hourly rate is naturally 1.5–2× what a comparable employee "earns per hour" on their payslip.
Common mistakes that lead to undercharging
- Forgetting vacation — you don't get paid time off as a freelancer, so vacation has to come out of your billable hours.
- Assuming 40 billable hours/week — admin, sales, invoicing, learning, and gaps between projects make 40 unrealistic. 25-30 billable hours/week is closer to reality.
- Not factoring tax — €100/hour gross with a 35% effective tax rate is €65 in your pocket. Always quote and think in gross.
- No overhead — software subscriptions, hardware, insurance, accountant fees, conference tickets all add up. €5–10k/year is normal.
- Mistaking peer salary for peer income — if your employed friend earns €70k, you need to charge as if your gross is ~€105k+ to match net lifestyle, since you pay your own benefits.
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