What Should I Charge Calculator

Sustainable freelance pricing starts with how much you need to keep, plus business expenses and tax, spread across real billable days. Picking a rate because it sounds normal often leaves a gap between revenue and living costs.

This calculator grosses up take-home target for tax, adds annual expenses, and divides by billable days to show a required day rate and hourly equivalent.

Picking a day rate because it sounds normal often leaves a gap between revenue and living costs. Sustainable pricing starts with target take-home, adds tax and annual expenses, and spreads the total across real billable days and hours.

This calculator grosses up your after-tax target, adds expenses, and divides by capacity to show a required day rate and hourly equivalent for quotes and proposals.

Treat the output as a floor, not a ceiling — premium positioning, rush fees, and value-based projects can sit above it. Use with billable days calculator for honest capacity.

Target take-home £60,000 at 28% tax implies about £83,333 before tax. Adding £9,000 annual expenses gives required revenue of £92,333.

Spread across 180 billable days, the required day rate is about £513. At 7 billable hours per day, that is roughly £73 per hour.

If the market will not pay £513/day, the gap is in billable days (too low), expenses (too high), or positioning — not necessarily that the maths is wrong.

Target take-home £60,000 at 28% tax implies about £83,333 before tax. Adding £9,000 annual business expenses gives required revenue of £92,333 for the year.

Spread across 180 billable days, the required day rate is about £513. At 7 billable hours per day, that is roughly £73 per hour for time-and-materials work.

If the market resists £513/day, the gap may be in billable days (too optimistic), expenses (too high), or positioning — not necessarily that the maths is wrong.

The calculated rate covers your inputs only. Premium positioning, rush fees, and value-based project pricing can sit above this floor. Retainers and productised offers may improve effective rate without more billable days.

Test sensitivity: add 10 fewer billable days or 5 points more tax. If the rate jumps sharply, your plan is fragile and needs buffer in pricing or pipeline.

Using salary comparison alone ignores expenses and non-billable time. Quoting hourly on projects without a day-rate floor can undercut sustainable pricing.

Forgetting annual expenses — software, insurance, professional fees — makes required rates look artificially low.

Required pre-tax income = target take-home ÷ (1 − tax rate ÷ 100). Required revenue = pre-tax income + annual expenses. Day rate = required revenue ÷ billable days. Hourly rate = day rate ÷ billable hours per day.

Tax rate should reflect your structure — sole trader, limited company, or mixed salary and dividends. Use a rate you consider realistic for planning, not the lowest possible guess.

Billable days should come from tracked history or the billable days calculator, not from multiplying weekdays by 52.

Recalculate when you change personal income goals, take on higher business costs, lose a major client, or realise billable utilisation is lower than planned. Annual review is sensible even if numbers feel stable.

Before undercutting on a new client, check whether the offered day rate meets your floor after their expected hours and payment terms. A small discount on a long contract can cost thousands over a year.

Forward the day-rate result into day rate take-home calculator with gap days to see whether a quoted rate actually delivers your target.

Increase billable days through retainers, better sales pipeline, or productised services — not unpaid overtime.

Reduce expenses without cutting insurance or tools that win work.

Narrow niche to support higher positioning and stronger case studies.

Raise target income slowly if the floor is aspirational — model phased increases.

Compare retainer vs hourly with retainer vs hourly calculator if clients prefer fixed monthly fees.

This page should target what should I charge calculator, freelance rate calculator, consultant rate calculator, day rate from income goal, and freelance pricing calculator searches.

It works backwards from target take-home income, annual expenses, estimated tax rate, billable days, and billable hours to calculate a required day rate and hourly equivalent. It does not set market rates, write proposals, calculate legal minimum wage compliance, decide tax structure, or replace pricing research.