Freelancer hourly rate calculator
Work out the minimum hourly and day rate you need to charge to hit a target annual take-home income, from the days a week you can bill, how much of that time is genuinely non-billable, and your paid holiday and business overhead.
This is a floor rate, the minimum before profit margin or market positioning, not a suggested market rate. A planning-level tool, computed entirely in your browser.
Your target and time
What you want left in your pocket for the year, before this calculator adds back your business overhead.
Days a week you set aside for client work, not necessarily days you are fully booked.
Time each billable day that goes to admin, marketing, proposals, sick days and gaps between clients, not actual paid work. 20% is a common starting estimate.
Weeks a year you plan to take off but still want to be paid for, via the rate you charge on working weeks.
Software subscriptions, internet, coworking, accounting fees, anything the business pays for regardless of workload.
Minimum hourly rate
Rs 805
Floor rate to hit your target, before margin
Minimum day rate
Rs 6,438
Billable hours / year
1,536
Minimum revenue / month
Rs 1,03,000
Working weeks / year
48
A floor rate, not a suggested market rate. It only tells you the minimum you must charge to cover your target take-home and overhead across the hours you can actually bill, it adds no profit margin, buffer for unpaid invoices, or allowance for what clients in your market and skill level actually pay. Computed entirely in your browser. Not financial advice.
Your billable hours, then divide your target into them
Three steps turn a target income and your real working time into a rate.
Find billable hours per year
Billable days a week times 8 hours, minus your non-billable percentage, gives billable hours a week. Multiply by the weeks you actually work, after paid holidays, for the year's total.
Add overhead to your target
Your target take-home income plus a year of business overhead, software, internet, coworking, gives the total revenue your rate needs to recover.
Divide revenue by hours
Total revenue needed divided by total billable hours gives your minimum hourly rate, multiply by 8 for the equivalent minimum day rate.
Setting the rate is only half the picture, once you invoice international clients in foreign currency, how that income is taxed in Nepal matters just as much. Our IT export tax calculator works out the 5% final tax that can apply to qualifying foreign-currency IT and software export income.
Freelance rates, answered
How do I set my freelance rate in Nepal?+
Start from a floor, the minimum you must charge to cover your target take-home income and business overhead across the hours you can actually bill in a year, that is what this calculator gives you. Then adjust upward for your skill level, the client's budget, demand for your specialisation and what comparable freelancers in Nepal and abroad charge for similar work. Never quote below the floor, doing so means working for less than your own target income once non-billable time and overhead are accounted for.
What counts as non-billable time?+
Any hour in your working day that a client does not pay for directly, writing proposals and quotes, chasing invoices, bookkeeping, marketing yourself, learning new tools, sick days, and the gaps between finishing one project and landing the next. Most freelancers underestimate this heavily when they are new, 20% is a common starting estimate, but it climbs closer to 30 to 40% for freelancers who also handle their own sales and client acquisition.
Should I charge in NPR or USD for international clients?+
Many Nepali freelancers working with international clients charge and get paid in USD, since it is the default currency on most freelance platforms and payment services, and it tends to hold its value against the rupee over time. If that describes your work, foreign-currency IT and software export income in Nepal can qualify for a 5% final tax under Finance Act 2082, rather than slab-rate income tax, use our IT export tax calculator to see what that means for your take-home once the rate you set here starts converting into actual invoices.
How often should I revisit my rate?+
At least once a year, and sooner if your overhead, target income or non-billable workload changes meaningfully, a new laptop lease, a slow quarter that pushes your non-billable percentage up, or a jump in your target income. Existing clients rarely mind a modest, well-communicated annual increase, new clients only ever see your current rate, so there is little cost to keeping it current with your actual costs and time.
Sources & data note
The rate uses standard freelance-pricing arithmetic: target take-home income plus a year of overhead, divided by total billable hours in the year (billable days per week, minus non-billable time, across the weeks actually worked after paid holidays). It is a break-even floor, not a suggested market rate, and does not account for taxes on that income, unpaid invoices, or what clients in your market actually pay. Figures here are indicative and depend entirely on what you enter, not financial advice.