Exchange rates as of July 2026 · refreshed periodically, not live
Your Pay
$
Pay Period
Unpaid vacation
Subtract 2 weeks of unpaid time off
Weekly overtime
Add regular extra hours to your week
Overtime hours / week
5
Your Hourly Rate
$0.00
Based on 2,080 working hours / year
$0
Per Day (8h)
$0
Per Week
$0
Per Month
$0
Per Year
Freelance Invoice Rate +30%
$0.00 / hr
What to charge clients to cover self-employment taxes, health insurance, and unpaid admin time — your employee rate × 1.3.

How the Freelance Rate Calculator Works

A standard full-time job runs 2,080 working hours a year (40 hours × 52 weeks) — divide your salary by that to get your base hourly rate. Toggling unpaid vacation or overtime reveals your real rate once actual time worked is accounted for, and the Freelance Invoice Rate adds a 30% markup to cover self-employment tax, benefits, and unbillable admin time freelancers carry that employees don't.

  1. Base rate: Annual salary ÷ 2,080 hours (or monthly × 12 ÷ 2,080, or weekly × 52 ÷ 2,080).
  2. Unpaid vacation: Drops paid weeks from 52 to 50 (2,000 hours) — the same salary now covers less actual work time, so the real hourly rate goes up.
  3. Overtime: Adds your extra weekly hours to the total — the same salary spread across more hours means a lower true rate than the standard math suggests.
  4. Freelance Invoice Rate: Employee rate × 1.3, covering the 15.3% self-employment tax plus health insurance and unpaid admin time.
  5. Platform fees: If you bill through a marketplace charging a service fee (often 5–20%), add that percentage on top of the 30% markup so your take-home — not just your invoice — hits your target.

All calculations run locally in your browser. No data is stored or tracked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use Convert Salary, Build From Expenses, or Market Benchmark?

Use whichever matches what you actually know. If you have a salary figure in mind (maybe from a past job offer or what a similar full-time role pays), start with Convert Salary. If you know your real monthly costs and want to work forward to a rate that covers them, use Build From Expenses. If you have neither and just want a sanity check on what others in your field typically charge, use Market Benchmark. Most freelancers find it useful to check two of the three against each other rather than relying on just one.

Why is the freelance rate higher than my equivalent salary rate?

An employee's paycheck doesn't have to cover self-employment tax, health insurance, retirement contributions, or the unpaid hours spent on invoicing, admin, and finding clients — an employer absorbs all of that separately. The 30% markup in Convert Salary approximates rolling those costs into your invoice rate, so your take-home ends up comparable to the salaried version, not lower.

What if a platform takes a cut of what I invoice?

Add the platform's fee percentage on top of whatever rate this calculator gives you. If a marketplace charges 15% and you need to actually receive $75/hr, you'd need to bill roughly $75 ÷ 0.85 ≈ $88/hr so the after-fee amount still lands where you need it — otherwise the fee comes directly out of your target take-home without you noticing until later.

What counts as "billable hours" in Build From Expenses?

Only the hours you actually invoice a client for — not the hours you spend on unpaid admin, proposals, invoicing, or your own marketing. Most freelancers bill meaningfully fewer hours per week than they actually work; entering your total working hours instead of just billable ones will understate the rate you actually need.

Do the Market Benchmark ranges apply to my specific situation?

Only as a rough starting point. The ranges are synthesized from several current freelance-rate surveys and rounded to sensible numbers, but real rates vary enormously by location, specific niche, portfolio strength, and local demand — a benchmark range can't know any of that about you. Treat it as a sanity check against your own number from the other two modes, not as a target to hit exactly.