FREELANCE · PRICING
Freelance Rate + Capacity Planner
Calculate freelance rate floors from income goals, utilization constraints, overhead, and tax assumptions.
Try a preset
Result
- Required hourly rate is high. Re-check scope, utilization, and target assumptions.
Rate Ladder
Anchor pricing between viable floor and stretch positioning.
Utilization vs Required Rate
Lower utilization quickly raises the hourly floor.
How to use it
- Enter target annual income, annual business overhead, tax rate, pricing buffer, working weeks, weekly hours, billable utilization, and typical project hours. These choices determine your real sellable hours and the annual revenue the business must produce after tax, not just the salary you want to keep.
- Read minimum viable rate, target rate, stretch rate, required day rate, required project rate, and billable hours per year. Utilization below 60% or fewer than roughly 800 billable hours usually pushes the hourly floor up fast enough to change your positioning strategy.
- Compare the target hourly rate to what your niche and client tier actually pay. If your required rate is 20-30% above market, the issue is usually utilization, overhead, or offer design rather than a simple quoting problem.
- Use the result to set a hard quote floor, then test three pressure cases: +10% buffer, -10 points of utilization, and -2 working weeks. If one of those cases makes your target rate unquotable, tighten scope, raise positioning, or reduce overhead before adding more clients.
- Re-run quarterly, and immediately after a new tool stack, contractor expense, time-off change, or rate increase. Track required rate versus realized average billed rate over time because a widening gap is an early warning that capacity or pricing discipline is slipping.
Questions people usually ask
What is the minimum viable rate?
It is the hourly floor needed to hit your income target after overhead and tax assumptions, before optional pricing buffer.
Why does utilization matter so much?
Lower billable utilization reduces sellable hours, which pushes required rate up sharply.
Can this be used for day rates and project rates?
Yes. The planner converts required hourly rate into day-rate and project-rate estimates.
Is this tool free and private to use?
Yes. AI Biz Hub tools are free, no-signup browser tools. Inputs stay in your browser unless you choose to share a URL.
Is this professional advice?
No. Outputs are business planning estimates — not legal, tax, or accounting advice.
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