Day Rate Calculator
What should a full day of your work cost? Start from your annual target and get a day rate that holds up.
Many clients prefer to buy work by the day, not by the hour, because a day rate is easier to budget and easier to compare. This freelance day rate calculator works backwards from the annual income you want to take home, so your day rate is grounded in your real costs rather than a number copied from someone else. It adds your business expenses, adjusts for the effective tax rate you will actually pay, and divides the result by the number of days you can realistically bill, after holidays, admin time, and slow weeks are removed. It also shows the hourly equivalent, assuming an eight-hour day, and the weekly rate for longer bookings, so you can quote consistently whether a client asks for a day, a week, or an hour. If the day rate looks high compared with your market, check your billable days first: fewer billable days always means each day must earn more. All calculations run in your browser and nothing is stored.
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Your day rate
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How to use the result
- Use the day rate for full-day bookings and the hourly equivalent only for short tasks.
- Use the weekly rate for multi-week engagements, and check that it still covers weeks with no billable work.
- If the rate feels high, reduce expenses or increase billable days before cutting the rate itself.
Frequently asked questions
Day rate or hourly rate — which should I quote?
Quote day rate for full days and multi-day work, because it protects you from clients stretching a day into ten hours. Use hourly only for short, well-defined tasks.
Why assume an 8-hour day?
Eight hours is a standard reference so day and hourly quotes stay consistent. If your real working day is six hours, divide the day rate by six instead.
How often should I recalculate?
At least once a year, and whenever your target income, tax rate, expenses, or available days change.