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What should you actually charge?

Most freelancers and agencies price by gut feel and quietly undercharge. Enter your goal, your costs, and the hours you can really bill, and see the rate the math demands.

Free forever · Nothing leaves your browser

Your numbers

$
What you want to pay yourself, after business costs.
$
Software, equipment, rent, contractors, marketing, everything.
The hours you can actually invoice, not the hours you work. Most bill 20 to 30.
Leave room for holidays, sick days, and time off.
A cushion on top for taxes, slow months, and reinvestment.
Charge at least
$0
per billable hour
Day rate (8h)$0
Target income$0
+ Business costs$0
+ Buffer$0
= Revenue needed$0
÷ Billable hours/yr0

Why most freelancers charge too little

The common mistake is to take a salary you would like, divide by 2,080 hours, and call that your rate. That math ignores two things: your business costs, and the fact that you cannot bill 40 hours a week. Once you subtract admin, sales, marketing, and unpaid revisions, a full-time freelancer bills closer to 25 hours a week. Price on the fantasy number and you work all year and still fall short.

The honest formula

This calculator uses the version that actually holds up:

The result is a floor, not a ceiling. It is the rate below which you are quietly losing money. Value-based pricing can and should take you higher, but you should never knowingly go under this number.

Turn the rate into a real number

A rate only matters if you track whether you hit it. If you plan for 25 billable hours a week but only log 15, your effective income drops by 40 percent, and no rate on paper fixes that. Measuring your real billable hours is where the plan meets reality.

A rate you do not track is just a wish.

AgencyKit runs a timer on every task, so you can see the billable hours you actually work and whether each client earns the rate you set. It starts at $9 a month.

Track your real hours free for 14 days
FAQ

Rate calculator questions.

The calculator adds your target take-home income and your annual business costs, adds a profit buffer on top, then divides by the billable hours you actually work in a year. Billable hours are the hours you can invoice, which is always fewer than the hours you work.
A large share of your week goes to admin, sales, marketing, and unpaid revisions. Most freelancers bill 20 to 30 hours in a 40-hour week, so using a realistic billable number keeps your rate honest and your income on target.
Yes. A margin on top of your income and costs covers slow months, taxes you set aside, new equipment, and reinvestment. Even a 10 to 20 percent buffer makes your business far more stable.
Yes, completely. It runs in your browser with no signup, and none of your numbers are sent anywhere.
AgencyKit tracks the billable hours you actually work with a built-in timer, so you can compare your real utilization against the plan and see whether each client and project earns the rate you set. It starts at $9 a month.
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