Freelance pricing

How to Calculate Billable Hours

A simple way to estimate billable hours so your pricing math is not built on wishful thinking.

Billable hours are the hours you can realistically invoice, not the hours you are awake and working.

Start from your total available work time, then subtract admin, sales, meetings, learning, invoicing, and time off. What remains is the billable pool.

For many freelancers, this number is much smaller than they expect. That is exactly why pricing based on salary math often fails.

If you track billable hours for a month, you will get a better estimate than trying to guess your way to a rate.

Once you know the number, plug it into the calculator and see how the hourly floor changes.

Educational planning content only. This is not tax, legal, investment, or financial advice.