Freelance day rate calculator
Turn the salary you want into the day rate you need to charge — once holiday, sick days, admin and overheads have been taken out of the year.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Take the salary you want, divide by 260 working days, and you have a day rate that will quietly underpay you all year. There are 260 weekdays in a year, but nobody bills 260 of them. Holiday, illness, public holidays, admin, invoicing, marketing, and the gaps between contracts all come out first.
Forty-six billable weeks is an optimistic-but-defensible starting point for an established freelancer with steady work. If you are starting out, or your work arrives in projects with gaps between them, forty is closer to the truth.
target salary 78000 | + | 78,000 |
overheads 9000 | + | 9,000 |
billable weeks: 46 | = | 46 |
day rate: (target salary + overheads) / (billable weeks * 5) | = | 378.26 |
hourly rate: day rate / 7.5 | = | 50.43 |
| Total | 87,000 |
A sheet that mixes money with plain counts or ratios will put a currency symbol on all of them. Set the selector above the results to none when that bothers you. It is display only and changes nothing in the arithmetic.
So a 78,000 salary needs roughly a 380 day rate, or 50 an hour — not the 300 that dividing by 260 would have suggested. That gap, about 80 a day, is the whole difference between a freelance year that works and one that does not.
What counts as an overhead
Everything the business spends before you pay yourself. Software subscriptions, professional insurance, an accountant, hardware amortised over its life, a phone line, training, a co-working desk, and your pension contribution. Nine thousand sounds like a lot until you list it out; it usually is not far off.
Tax is deliberately not in this calculation. The 78,000 here is the amount the business pays you, out of which you pay income tax like anyone else. Mixing tax into the day rate makes the number impossible to compare against a salaried job.
Turning the rate into a quote
Once the rate is settled, a quote is just days at that rate, plus anything specific to the job:
discovery 3 days @ 380 | + | 1,140 |
build 12 days @ 380 | + | 4,560 |
revisions 2 days @ 380 | + | 760 |
rush fee +15% | + | 969 |
deposit paid -2500 | − | 2,500 |
| Total | 4,929 |
The rush fee is 15 per cent of the running total above it, so it scales automatically if the day count changes. The total is what remains to invoice after the deposit.
Quote in days rather than hours wherever you can. Hourly billing rewards you for being slow and punishes you for being experienced, and it invites a conversation about your speed instead of the outcome.
Sense-checking against a salary
A common shorthand is that a freelance day rate should be somewhere near a salaried equivalent divided by 100 — a 60,000 role suggesting roughly 600 a day. It is crude, and it varies by field, but if your calculated rate is a long way under it, check your billable weeks before you check your ambition.
Work out your own rate →Questions
How many days a year can a freelancer actually bill?
Far fewer than the 260 weekdays in a year. After holiday, illness, public holidays, admin, invoicing, marketing and gaps between contracts, 46 billable weeks is an optimistic-but-defensible figure for an established freelancer, and 40 is more realistic when work arrives in projects with gaps.
Should my day rate include tax?
No. Calculate the rate on the amount the business pays you, then pay income tax out of that like anyone else. Folding tax into the rate makes it impossible to compare against a salaried job.
What should I count as overheads?
Everything the business spends before it pays you: software, professional insurance, an accountant, hardware, phone, training, a desk, and your pension contribution. Listing them usually produces a bigger number than people expect.
Should I charge by the hour or by the day?
By the day where you can. Hourly billing rewards slowness and penalises experience, and it turns the conversation towards how fast you work rather than what the work is worth.
How do I add a rush fee?
Write it as a percentage line, such as rush fee +15%. It applies to the running total above it, so it rescales automatically if the number of days changes.