Freelancer Day Rate Calculator

Use the gross salary you want to replace or improve on. Ignore any one-off bonuses; include regular ones in the perks field.

Total up employer pension contributions you’ll lose, private health, life insurance, gym, cycle-to-work, training budget. £2,000–£5,000 is common for mid-level professionals.

The tool uses the UK region’s specific ASHE earnings and SOC 2020 occupation category to benchmark you. Use the closest match if your exact job title isn’t listed.

UK statutory minimum is 28 days. Most seasoned contractors plan 25–32 holiday days and 5–10 sickness days. Target billable days = the days you hope to invoice for; 180 is a solid mid-range starting point.

The hero card shows your minimum day rate. The 70/80/90% stress test shows what happens at realistic utilisation. The benchmark tab compares your rate to ONS ASHE percentiles for your region and occupation.

The minimum is your break-even. Quote the p75 benchmark for your region and trade down only if you must. Every £50 extra per day = £9,000+ a year on 180 billable days.

As an employee, your employer paid 15% NI on your salary above £5,000 (since April 2025) — typically £6,000–£12,000/year you never saw. As a freelancer there is no employer to pay this; you must build it into your rate. This single item is the #1 reason naive rate conversions undershoot.

Typical UK solo freelancer overheads: professional indemnity insurance £150–£400, accountancy £350–£1,300, business bank account £0–£100, software/SaaS £300–£1,500, hardware depreciation £400–£1,000, training £500–£2,000, marketing (website, directory listings) £100–£500. That’s £1,800–£6,700/year, typically 5–10% of revenue.

If the contract is "inside IR35", the end-client’s payroll deducts PAYE on your invoices and the Ltd-company / freelance tax advantages vanish. Add 5–10% to the minimum rate to compensate. If the contract is outside IR35, your Ltd-company structure works normally and the pure-tax delta in this calculator applies.

Operating via a limited company, you can pay up to £60,000/year as an employer pension contribution — deductible from Corporation Tax and avoiding all NI. As a sole trader, personal pension contributions reduce taxable profit. Either way, a pension is one of the last big tax reliefs freelancers can still use — don’t waste it by "keeping things simple".

Once your sustainable profit sits above £60,000–£80,000, a limited company usually produces a noticeable tax saving, gives you liability protection, and opens access to the £60k pension allowance via employer contributions. Use our Sole Trader vs Limited Company calculator to see the exact crossover for your numbers.