What should you charge as a freelancer? This is how you calculate your hourly rate

The first assignment is almost always priced too low. The reason is simple: many base their calculations on their old monthly salary divided by 160 hours. But an hourly rate should cover significantly more than the salary you receive.

Start with the salary you want

Decide on a target gross monthly salary. If you want 40,000 kr in gross salary, the assignments need to finance both the salary and employer contributions (arbetsgivaravgifter) of 31.42 percent, which means approximately 52,568 kr in payroll costs each month.

Add fees and costs

On top of the payroll costs comes the invoicing fee – with Pay2me 1.95–5.95 percent depending on the invoice amount – as well as your own costs: equipment, software, insurance, training, and travel that are not invoiced separately.

Expect that not all hours are billable

Quotes, marketing, your own planning, client meetings, and holidays are working hours for which no one pays directly. Expect 100–130 billable hours per month for full-time work, which is about 60–70 percent billable time.

Simple model

Take the month's payroll cost plus your other costs, including the invoicing fee, and divide by the number of billable hours. With 52,568 kr in payroll costs and 3,000 kr in other costs, you need to invoice approximately 55,568 kr. Divided by 120 billable hours, you end up around 463 kr per hour excluding VAT. If you want a margin for holidays and quieter months, add 10–20 percent.

Price is not just mathematics

The market pays for results, not for hours. Experience, specialist knowledge, short lead times, and responsibility justify a higher price. Research what agencies charge for the same service – they rarely have a lower price than an experienced freelancer. A fixed price per delivery is often better than an hourly rate when you are quick and experienced.

Common mistakes

Lowering the price to get the assignment, forgetting travel time and material costs, never raising prices for existing clients, and submitting a quote without calculating what will be left after tax and fees.

Test before you submit a quote

Enter the intended invoice amount in the calculator below. You will then immediately see what remains as gross salary, and can adjust your hourly rate before sending the quote instead of afterwards.