Day Rate Calculator.

Work out what to charge per day based on your income goal, working pattern, and unbillable time. Adjust for hours, holidays, and admin overhead.

✓ Free 💼 For freelancers

Day Rate Calculator

Work out what to charge per day.

Target annual income What you want to take home before tax

Country / Currency

Billable days per week

Days you actually work for clients

Hours per day

Your typical billable hours in a day (1–24)

Weeks off per year

Holidays, sick days, and downtime

Unbillable time buffer

0%50%

Admin, pitching, invoicing, and gaps between projects. Most freelancers lose 20–30% of their time this way.

Enter your target income above to calculate your day rate.

Your minimum day rate

—

per billable day

— /hr

hourly equivalent

Annual incomeYour target take-home

—

Billable daysWorking days per year

—

Weekly incomeAt full utilisation

—

Monthly incomeApprox. average

—

Billable time Buffer — %

—

Helpful tips

💸

Your rate is a floor, not a ceiling

This calculator shows the minimum you need to hit your income goal. Your actual rate should sit above this to cover tax, savings, and quiet months.

📆

Fewer billable days than you think

A standard year has 260 weekdays. Subtract holidays, sick days, and admin time and most freelancers are left with 180 to 200 genuinely billable days.

📈

Raise your rate once a year

At minimum, increase annually to keep pace with inflation. If you are consistently fully booked, that is a clear signal demand exceeds supply and your rate is below market.

🧾

Set aside tax from day one

Your day rate is pre-tax income. Move 25 to 35% of every payment into a separate account immediately. Future you will be grateful.

How day rate calculation works

The number behind the number
you quote clients

Most freelancers set their rate by guessing what sounds reasonable or by looking at what others charge. Both approaches usually result in undercharging. A day rate should be derived from what you need to earn, not from what you think the market will accept. Start with your income goal, then work backwards.

The key variable most freelancers forget is unbillable time. Every hour spent on admin, proposals, invoicing, and chasing clients is an hour you are not billing. If you lose 20% of your working time to non-billable tasks, you need to earn 25% more per billable day just to hit your original target. This calculator folds that reality into the result rather than leaving it to guesswork.

The output is your minimum viable rate: the floor below which you cannot hit your income goal regardless of how hard you work. Your actual quoted rate should sit above this to leave room for tax, retirement savings, and the months where you are not fully booked.

Billable days (52 − weeks off) × days/wk

With buffer billable days × (1 − buffer %)

Day rate income ÷ adjusted days

FAQ

Common questions

It depends on how you are set up. If you are a sole trader invoicing clients directly, your day rate is typically quoted before tax and you are responsible for setting aside a portion for your tax bill. A common approach is to treat your calculated rate as your pre-tax target, then add 25 to 35% on top when quoting, depending on your country and income level. If you operate through a limited company, the calculation differs because your take-home splits across salary, dividends, and corporation tax. The calculator gives you the pre-tax floor. What you actually quote should be higher to leave room.

For most freelancers, 20% is a reasonable starting point, which works out to roughly one day per week lost to admin, emails, proposals, and the gaps between projects. If you are newer to freelancing and still building your client base, 30% is more realistic because you will spend more time pitching and less time billing. If you have a stable roster of repeat clients and very little admin overhead, you might manage 10 to 15%. Be honest here. Most people underestimate how much time non-billable work actually takes until they track it properly.

This is one of the most common feelings in freelancing and it is almost never a sign that your rate is actually too high. A few things worth checking: first, clients are paying for your output and expertise, not your time, so comparing your day rate to an equivalent employee salary is the wrong frame. Second, if your minimum rate genuinely exceeds what clients in your market will pay, the lever to pull is specialisation, not price reduction. Specialists command significantly more than generalists in every field. Third, check whether your income target is realistic for your experience level. You may need to work towards your target rate over 12 to 18 months rather than charging it from day one.

Both have their place and most experienced freelancers use a mix. Day rates work well for ongoing retainers, consulting, and work where scope is genuinely hard to define upfront. They protect you when projects expand. Project rates work better when you can scope accurately, because they let you capture the upside if you work efficiently. A project that takes two days but is quoted at four days of work pays double your day rate. The key is that your project rate should always be derived from your day rate multiplied by your realistic time estimate, then rounded up, never down.

At minimum, once a year to keep pace with inflation. In practice, the right trigger is when you are consistently turning away work or fully booked more than a month ahead. That is a clear signal that demand for your time exceeds supply, which means your rate is below market. A useful rule of thumb: if fewer than one in five prospects push back on your rate, you are probably undercharging. Raise your rate with new clients first, then bring existing clients up at renewal time with reasonable notice. Most long-term clients accept a 10 to 15% annual increase without issue if the relationship is strong.

Practically, a day rate is quoted and invoiced as a single unit for a full working day, usually assumed to be 7 to 8 hours. An hourly rate is billed per hour tracked. Day rates tend to suit strategic or consultative work because they reduce the friction of tracking exact hours and create a cleaner unit for both sides. Hourly rates suit production-focused tasks where time varies significantly. This calculator shows both: your day rate is the primary figure, and the hourly rate shown in the breakdown is simply your day rate divided by eight. If a client asks for an hourly rate, that is the number to quote.