How to Calculate Your Freelance Hourly Rate
The biggest mistake new freelance video editors, designers, and creators make is setting their hourly rate based on a standard 40-hour work week salary. Freelancing doesn't work like that.
The "Billable Hours" Trap
When you work a full-time job, you get paid for 40 hours a week, regardless of how much time you spend on administrative tasks. As a freelancer, you spend hours every week pitching clients, doing bookkeeping, and marketing yourself. These are non-billable hours.
Most successful freelancers only average 20 to 25 billable hours per week.
Factoring in Expenses and Taxes
Your baseline rate may need to account for business expenses, taxes, non-billable work, vacation, downtime, and benefits. This calculator uses the salary, expenses, billable weeks, and billable hours you enter; consider the other costs separately when setting a practical rate.
Hourly vs Flat Rate
Once you know your internal hourly rate, you should transition to charging flat rates for projects. Flat rates reward efficiency. If you get faster at editing a video, your effective hourly rate goes up under a flat-rate model, whereas you would get paid less under an hourly model.
Find Your Target Rate
Input your target salary and see an estimate of what you need to charge per hour.
Go to Freelance Calculator