Freelance Graphic Designer
Rate Calculator
Calculate a sustainable freelance graphic design hourly rate and project pricing based on your income goals, expenses, taxes, and actual billable hours.
Customize your numbers
We've pre-filled the baseline scenario for this profession. Adjust the inputs below to match your actual business goals.
Plan the business behind your income goal.
Start with what you want to take home. We'll work backward through taxes, expenses, time off, billable capacity, revenue, and pricing to build a practical freelance financial plan.
Start with a scenario, then customize the numbers.
Build your financial plan
Enter your goals and operating assumptions to calculate the revenue and rate your business needs.
What you want to personally keep after estimated taxes and business expenses.
Software, equipment, insurance, accounting, marketing, and other operating costs.
Only count time clients realistically pay you for—not proposals, admin, marketing, or unpaid meetings.
At 22 billable hours per week, you have roughly 18 hours each week for proposals, admin, sales, meetings, bookkeeping, and other non-billable work.
Weeks you plan to be away from billable client work.
Starting estimate for United States. Adjust this based on your own situation.
Tax calculations are estimates based on the percentage you provide. They are not a tax return, tax advice, or a substitute for advice from a qualified tax professional.
Based on your current assumptions
Recommended annual revenue
Revenue target designed to support your income goal while adding a 20% operating safety margin and local market adjustment.
Your income goal and billable workload create a realistic starting point for a sustainable freelance business.
Your plan at a glance
The numbers that matter most when planning your freelance business.
Where your required revenue goes
Your minimum revenue target must cover personal income, estimated taxes, and business operating expenses.
Can your schedule support the goal?
Your revenue target is directly connected to how much client-billable work you can realistically complete.
Your safety margin
Your recommended pricing target creates additional annual revenue above the minimum required to support your financial goal.
Turn the annual goal into a working plan
Your United States freelance business needs to generate $117,216 per year.
That supports your $65,000 take-home goal, accounts for $4,500 in business expenses and your estimated 28% tax rate, while including a 20% operating safety margin.
Your rate is more than your salary.
Freelance designers often spend significant time on revisions, client communication, proposals, and portfolio development that cannot always be billed directly. Your rate needs to account for that time as well as design software, hardware, fonts, and other business expenses.
A sustainable rate needs to account for the time you spend finding clients, answering emails, preparing proposals, managing projects, handling revisions, and doing administrative work.
Common Pricing Models
Highly-Billed Services
Explore Other Freelance Rate Benchmarks
Compare target rates, expenses, and pricing structures across other professions.
The Freelance Stack
Tools to help you run the business, track expenses, and get paid faster.
FreshBooks
Accounting & Invoicing
Track expenses, create invoices, manage projects, and keep your finances organized.
Wise Business
Cross-Border Payments
Receive international payments and manage multiple currencies with transparent rates.
Deel
Contracts & Compliance
Create contractor agreements and manage international freelance relationships.
Stop guessing your rate.
Build a freelance rate around the income you actually want, the expenses you actually have, and the hours you can realistically bill.