The CozyJobs Rate Calculator
What should you charge?
Not a guess — a business plan. Start from your real life: what it costs, how much you want to work, and the taxes and slow months nobody warns you about. Out comes your target hourly rate — plus what to quote per project, where in the world that rate goes furthest, and the live jobs that pay it.
your real numbers in, your honest rate out
templates are just a head start — every number below is yours to change
Your life
Monthly personal expenses — turn annual costs into monthly chunks. Savings count: pay yourself like a bill.
✏️ every number below is editable — tap it and make it yours
subtotal — personal$4,400/mo
Your business
The costs a paycheck used to hide. Some of these are new if you’re going full-time freelance — that’s the point of pricing them in.
✏️ tap to edit — and add anything we forgot
subtotal — business$900/mo
Your time
Not every working hour is a billable hour. Proposals, client calls, invoices, and marketing all eat the week — subtract them first.
proposals, discovery calls, marketing, invoicing — the unbillable grind
vacation + sick days + holidays. You’re the benefits department now.
25 − 5 = 20 billable hrs/wk × 4.0 wks/mo = 80 hrs/mo
4 weeks off = the classic “× 4 weeks a month” — you’ve earned the vacation
Cushions
Freelancing is feast-or-famine and the IRS doesn’t withhold for you. Build both into the rate itself.
self-employment + income tax on what you keep. Everyone’s different — talk to a CPA.
margin above break-even so a slow month doesn’t become a crisis
Show the math (the formula, live)
personal $4,400 ÷ (1 − 25% tax) + business $900 = $6,767/mo to collect
(25 − 5) hrs × 4.0 wks = 80 billable hrs/mo
$6,767 ÷ 80 hrs = $85/hr floor
× (1 + 15% buffer) = $97/hr target → quote $100/hr
Set both cushions to 0% and this is the base formula: (personal + business) ÷ (billable hours × 4 weeks). The tax gross-up applies only to personal spend — business costs are deductible.
Your raise plan
Almost everyone’s target lands above what they charge today — that’s normal, and it’s the whole point. You don’t have to start at your target rate: you work up to it, one project at a time.
Does the number feel high?
Don’t panic — that reaction is the math working. It means your old rate was subsidizing your business.Think in weeks.
Your target week is $1,945. Chunked that way, a big annual goal becomes a Tuesday problem.Fixed bids beat hourly.
Price projects above their hourly math — you’re selling the outcome (and your speed), not the clock.📌 Price the project, not the hour
Clients buy deliverables. Here’s your rate translated into fixed-project quotes — each range is the hours it honestly takes at $100/hr, and quoting above it is allowed (encouraged, even).
| Deliverable | Honest hours | Quote at least | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📝 Blog post (~1,500 words) | 4–6 hrs | $400–$600 | research, draft, one revision |
| 💌 Newsletter issue | 3–5 hrs | $300–$500 | recurring? pitch a retainer |
| 📊 Case study | 6–10 hrs | $600–$1,000 | includes a customer interview |
| 📬 Email sequence (5 emails) | 5–8 hrs | $500–$800 | strategy + copy + subject lines |
| 🖥️ Website copy (5 pages) | 10–16 hrs | $1,000–$1,600 | messaging + two revision rounds |
| 📄 White paper | 15–25 hrs | $1,500–$2,500 | interviews, outline, long-form draft |
| 🎬 Script (10-min video) | 6–12 hrs | $600–$1,200 | concept, draft, table read |
| ✂️ Editing (per 5k words) | 3–6 hrs | $300–$600 | line edit, not a rewrite |
per-word math, if an editor asks: ≈ $0.40/word at a careful 250 words an hour, $0.20 if you fly at 500
🌍 Where your rate goes furthest
Remote means your rate is portable. At your target rate you’d clear $5,161/mo after business costs and taxes — enough to live comfortably (with 25% headroom) in 45 of 46 cities below. Estimates cover a nice one-bedroom, food, transit, and fun for one person.
🇹🇼 Taipei
Taiwan
2.6×a comfortable month
~$2,000/mo to live well · bank $3,161/mo
55% less than your current budget
Among the safest streets anywhere + night markets + fiber.
🇬🇪 Tbilisi
Georgia
3.7×a comfortable month
~$1,400/mo to live well · bank $3,761/mo
68% less than your current budget
A year visa-free for many passports, wine country next door.
🇵🇹 Funchal, Madeira
Portugal
2.7×a comfortable month
~$1,900/mo to live well · bank $3,261/mo
57% less than your current budget
A purpose-built nomad village, fiber + levada hikes.
🇹🇭 Chiang Mai
Thailand
4.3×a comfortable month
~$1,200/mo to live well · bank $3,961/mo
73% less than your current budget
The original nomad base camp — temples and cheap cowork.
🇵🇱 Kraków
Poland
2.9×a comfortable month
~$1,800/mo to live well · bank $3,361/mo
59% less than your current budget
Storybook old town with serious literary history.
🇭🇷 Split
Croatia
2.7×a comfortable month
~$1,900/mo to live well · bank $3,261/mo
57% less than your current budget
Adriatic terraces inside a Roman palace, literally.
🇯🇵 Osaka
Japan
2.5×a comfortable month
~$2,100/mo to live well · bank $3,061/mo
52% less than your current budget
Tokyo’s funnier cousin, food capital of Japan.
🇻🇳 Da Nang
Vietnam
4.7×a comfortable month
~$1,100/mo to live well · bank $4,061/mo
75% less than your current budget
Beach mornings, mountain weekends, $2 bánh mì.
🇨🇿 Prague
Czechia
2.3×a comfortable month
~$2,200/mo to live well · bank $2,961/mo
50% less than your current budget
Storybook streets and beer cheaper than bottled water.
Directional estimates (mid-2026), Numbeo-style safety indices, single person incl. one-bedroom rent. Ranking is the equal-weight average of your selected metrics, each normalized across the list. Check visas, local taxes, and current conditions before booking a one-way flight.
🗺️ Same life, different state
Your business costs travel with you, but your living costs don’t. Reprice your exact monthly life by state cost-of-living — and see the target rate that same life would need there.
| State | Cost index | Your life there / mo | Target rate there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi🏆 | 86 | $3,784−14% | $90/hr |
| Oklahoma | 86 | $3,784−14% | $90/hr |
| Kansas | 87 | $3,828−13% | $90/hr |
| Alabama | 88 | $3,872−12% | $90/hr |
| Missouri | 88 | $3,872−12% | $90/hr |
| West Virginia | 88 | $3,872−12% | $90/hr |
| Arkansas | 89 | $3,916−11% | $90/hr |
| Iowa | 90 | $3,960−10% | $90/hr |
| Tennessee | 90 | $3,960−10% | $90/hr |
| Georgia | 91 | $4,004−9% | $90/hr |
C2ER-style state index estimates (US average = 100). States hide big metro-vs-rural spreads — treat as a compass, not a lease.
💼 Now go find the jobs that pay it
A target rate is a compass, not a wish — these are the highest-paying freelance and contract roles live on the board right now, measured against your $85 floor.
Pulling live listings…
Method: your real costs ÷ real billable hours, computed live. Your numbers stay in your browser unless you save them to your profile.
How to price freelance work, in short
Your freelance rate isn’t a guess — it’s total monthly costs ÷ real billable hours, plus a cushion for self-employment taxes and slow months. Add up your living and business expenses, divide by the hours you can actually bill each month (work hours minus admin and proposals), then pad for taxes and time off. The result is your target hourly rate — usually higher than what you charge today, because a salaried paycheck quietly hides payroll taxes, benefits, and paid time off that you now cover yourself. As a rule of thumb, a freelance rate runs 1.5–2× the equivalent salaried hourly wage.
Quick salary ↔ hourly converter
Comparing a staff job offer, or reality-checking a posting? Convert any salary to an hourly rate — or the other way around — per hour, week, month, and year.
$60,000
Per year
$5,000
Per month
$2,308
Every 2 weeks
$1,154
Per week
$231
Per day
$28.85
Per hour
Based on 40 hours/week × 52 weeks (2,080 hours/year) and 260 working days. Before taxes.
Common salary-to-hourly conversions
At 40 hours/week (2,080 hours a year), before taxes.
| Per year | Per hour | Per month | Per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $120.19 | $20,833 | $4,808 |
| $200,000 | $96.15 | $16,667 | $3,846 |
| $150,000 | $72.12 | $12,500 | $2,885 |
| $120,000 | $57.69 | $10,000 | $2,308 |
| $100,000 | $48.08 | $8,333 | $1,923 |
| $90,000 | $43.27 | $7,500 | $1,731 |
| $80,000 | $38.46 | $6,667 | $1,538 |
| $75,000 | $36.06 | $6,250 | $1,442 |
Frequently asked
How do I calculate my freelance hourly rate?
Add up your monthly personal expenses and monthly business expenses (health insurance, software, marketing, legal fees). Divide that total by your billable hours per month — the hours you want to work each week, minus admin time for proposals and client calls, times about 4 weeks. Then add a cushion for self-employment taxes and a buffer for slow months. That number is your target hourly rate.
Why is my target freelance rate higher than my current rate?
That is normal — for almost everyone, the target comes out above what they charge today. An employee hour comes with hidden extras (employer payroll taxes, health insurance, paid time off, equipment), and a freelancer only gets paid for billable hours, not admin time. If your calculated rate feels high, it usually means your current rate has been quietly subsidizing your business. You do not have to jump straight to it: raise your rate roughly 20% with each new client until you get there.
What is a good freelance writer hourly rate?
Working freelance writers commonly land between $50 and $150+ per hour depending on specialty, with technical, UX, and healthcare writing at the high end. But the honest answer starts from your own costs: a rate is only "good" if it covers your life, your business expenses, taxes, and time off on the billable hours you actually have.
$50,000 a year is how much an hour?
$50,000 a year is $24.04 an hour, based on a 40-hour week (2,080 hours a year), before taxes.
$60,000 a year is how much an hour?
$60,000 a year is $28.85 an hour, based on a 40-hour week (2,080 hours a year), before taxes.
$70,000 a year is how much an hour?
$70,000 a year is $33.65 an hour, based on a 40-hour week (2,080 hours a year), before taxes.
$100,000 a year is how much an hour?
$100,000 a year is $48.08 an hour, based on a 40-hour week (2,080 hours a year), before taxes.
Keep exploring
⚖️ Not financial advice. This calculator is for planning and education. Everyone’s taxes, deductions, and business setup are different — please talk to an accountant or CPA before you act on these numbers.