Why your old salary is the wrong starting point
It's tempting to take a former salary, divide by 2,080 working hours, and call that your rate. That number is almost always too low, because a salary hid a lot of costs. An employer paid half your payroll taxes, covered the hours you weren't productive, paid you during holidays and sick days, and bought your equipment and software. As a freelancer, all of that moves onto your invoice.
To work backward from the take-home you actually want to the rate that delivers it, the freelance rate calculator does the full calculation.
The costs your rate has to cover
Taxes. Self-employment tax alone is 15.3% on top of income tax. Your rate has to be high enough that what's left after tax still meets your goal.
Unbillable time. A full-time freelancer rarely bills 40 hours a week. Sales calls, proposals, invoicing, admin, and marketing are real work that no client pays for directly. Many established freelancers bill 20 to 30 hours in a typical week, and the rate has to cover the rest.
Time off. Nobody pays a freelancer for vacation, holidays, or sick days. If you plan four weeks off plus holidays, your billable weeks are closer to 46 than 52, and the rate absorbs the difference.
Business costs. Software, equipment, insurance, and everything else you now buy yourself.
The billable-hours number is the one people get wrong
The single biggest error in freelance pricing is assuming you'll bill 40 hours a week. Set that expectation honestly and everything else falls into place; set it optimistically and your real income lands far below target no matter how good your rate looks on paper. The billable hours calculator shows how utilisation affects what you actually earn.
Charging by project instead of by hour
Many freelancers move to flat project fees, and there are good reasons to: it ties your pay to value rather than time, and it stops clients watching the clock. Even then, your hourly rate is a useful floor. Estimate the hours a project will take, multiply by your rate, and you have the minimum the project needs to earn to be worth doing. The project quote calculator builds a fixed bid with a risk buffer.
When clients resist the number
Price resistance often reflects positioning and the type of client more than the number itself. The rate your goals require is the rate your goals require; if the market you're selling to won't support it, the levers are your target income, your costs, or the clients you target, not just discounting. Knowing your real floor is what lets you tell the difference between a client who can't afford you and one who simply hasn't been sold on the value.
Work out your number
The right rate falls out of your target income, your costs, and your real billable hours. These tools do the math: