Calculator

Consulting Rate Calculator

Set a consulting or contractor rate from real business math, not salary nostalgia and panic.

Use your income goal, expenses, working weeks, billable hours, savings buffer, and business assumptions to estimate the hourly rate your consulting or contractor work needs to support.

How much should I charge for consulting? Contractor hourly rate formula

Your assumptions

Enter the numbers this rate actually has to carry: owner draw, business costs, reserves, and real billable capacity. Honest denominator, honest target.

Currency

Formatting only. No exchange rates, no fake market magic.

Desired annual owner draw

What you want the business to pay you before personal income tax.

Monthly business expenses

Software, insurance, bookkeeping, hardware, training, office costs, and the other little gremlins.

Capacity mode

Direct uses your known billable hours. Derived calculates billable hours from total working hours minus admin time.

Billable hours per week

Invoiceable hours only. Admin, sales, revisions, and doom-scrolling do not count.

Working weeks per year

Leave room for vacation, sick days, holidays, and weeks where clients vanish into the fog.

Tax reserve

Planning reserve only. Not a tax calculation.

Savings reserve

Long-term savings/retirement reserve.

Profit / slow-month buffer

Slack for slow months, late invoices, and business resilience.

Premium uplift

Quote buffer for negotiation, scope wobble, and clients who treat ‘quick question’ like a lifestyle.

Current hourly rate (optional)

Leave blank if you are setting a rate from scratch.

Result

Healthy rate: $134/hr

This is the hourly floor that covers owner draw, expenses, tax reserve, savings, and a slow-month buffer before pricing strategy gets fancy.

Premium quote rate suggestion: $145/hr

Rate tiers

Minimum

$95/hr

Covers owner draw and core expenses. Floor, not quote.

Sustainable

$116/hr

Adds tax reserve. Better, but still not much slack.

Healthy

$134/hr

Adds tax, savings, and slow-month buffer. Default target.

Premium

$145/hr

Healthy plus quote buffer, rounded for proposals.

Revenue targets

Annual gross revenue required: $160,840
Monthly revenue target: $13,403
Weekly revenue target: $3,351
Annual billable hours: 1,200
Monthly billable hours: 100

Verdict: Healthy

This is workable. Quote from healthy or premium, and keep minimum in the basement where it belongs.

Next actions

Set project minimums (now): Turn your healthy rate into a project minimum next. Hourly is math. Quotes are strategy.

Assumptions used

Capacity mode: direct
Billable hours definition: Invoiceable hours only
Tax reserve: Planning reserve input, not tax advice
Premium uplift: 10%
Rounding policy: Quote rates round to nearest 5 below 150, nearest 10 at 150+

Breakdown details

Annual expenses	$14,400
Monthly billable hours	100
Annual billable hours	1,200

Educational estimate only. Not tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice.