Freelance Rate Calculator
Work out the hourly rate to charge as a freelancer from your income goal, billable hours and overheads.
Formula last reviewed 4 August 2026 · How we verify our calculators
Rate to charge per hour
- Gross revenue needed
- ₹20,00,000
- Billable hours per year
- 1,200
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
Start from your target take-home income, gross it up for overheads and taxes, then divide by the hours you can actually bill in a year. This tool does that in one step.
Freelancers spend significant time on admin, sales, invoicing and learning that clients do not pay for. Assuming 20–30 billable hours keeps your rate realistic.
Software subscriptions, hardware, internet, coworking space, insurance and professional fees. Express the total as a percentage of revenue and enter it here.
Freelancers pay their own income tax and, above the threshold, GST. Setting aside a tax buffer in your rate prevents nasty surprises at filing time.
To keep ₹12,00,000, you have to invoice ₹20,00,000
That gap is exactly what a salaried employee's mental hourly-rate math misses when they go freelance. Want a ₹12,00,000 take-home, billing 25 hours a week across 48 working weeks, with 20% overheads and a 20% tax buffer? Since 40% of every rupee invoiced is earmarked for overheads and tax combined, you actually need to bill ₹20,00,000 in gross revenue to keep ₹12,00,000 net. Divide that by 1,200 billable hours a year (25 × 48), and the rate to charge comes out to ₹1,666.67 an hour — a number that would look inflated to a salaried employee earning the same take-home, right up until you remember they don't fund their own overheads or taxes out of their hourly rate.
Why "billable hours" is always the smaller number
The single most common freelance pricing mistake is starting from a full 40-hour work week and dividing income by that. In reality, proposals, invoicing, admin, client communication and unpaid learning time eat a large share of every working week — none of it billable, all of it necessary. That's why this calculator defaults to 20–30 billable hours even for someone working full-time hours; using a higher number will always produce an artificially low, unsustainable rate.
What actually belongs in "overheads," and why the tax buffer isn't optional
Overheads should capture the real recurring costs of running solo — software subscriptions, hardware, internet, coworking space, insurance, professional fees — expressed as a single percentage of revenue. The tax buffer exists because freelancers are responsible for their own income tax and, past the registration threshold, GST — building that obligation into the rate up front avoids a painful surprise at filing time rather than scrambling to find the money later. Treat the resulting number as a floor, not a ceiling: genuine demand, scarce skills and delivered value can all justify pricing above it. Revisit the calculation whenever your costs, capacity or income goals shift, since a rate set months ago against old assumptions quietly stops reflecting your actual business.