This is not the homepage calculator
The freelance rate calculator on the homepage is the live tool: salary tab, profitable-rate tab, day tab, invoice totals, 50+ currency labels, a tax buffer you set. Example there: $80,000 ÷ (1 − 0.30) ÷ (48 × 25) ≈ $95.24/hr. This page does not redo that division and does not reuse those four defaults. Job of this URL: show why a keep-floor is 2–3× an employee hourly when you type fewer than 2,080 invoiced hours — then send you to the hub to run your numbers.
Nearby searches (“freelance hourly rate calculator”, “freelance rate calculator”) belong on the hub. If you landed here from those queries, the calculator is realratecalc.com. Stay only if you want the 2080 math in prose.
This is not a day rate
A day package is hourly floor × hours that booking actually buys. That product lives on the day-rate guide (their typed example is $95 × 7h = $665, plus half-day and a desk share you type). This page stops at the hourly keep-floor. Do not multiply $98.81 × 7 here and call it a day rate — that clone would compete with a URL that already does it.
The 2080 identity, inverted
Employee blogs divide a salary by 2,080 because 52 × 40 = 2,080. Freelancers invoice a slice of that clock. Sales, admin, unpaid pitches, sick days, and weeks off are not billable unless you put them on an invoice — and you usually cannot.
Gross = keep ÷ (1 − buffer you type). Then floor = gross ÷ (weeks × hours you type). Buffer 0 is “I already grossed the keep.” Buffer 0.28 on $72,000 is the $100,000 in the example. You type 0.25 or 0.35 from your own set-aside, not from this sentence. This is not FICA. Not a 50-state engine. Not UK VAT. The hub slider is where that buffer belongs when you actually quote.
Worked example 2 — 15 invoiced hours a week
Same $72,000 keep, same 28% buffer, same 46 weeks, but you only invoice 15 hours a week while you ramp. Hours = 46 × 15 = 690. Floor = $100,000 ÷ 690 = $144.93/hr. The 2080 number is still $34.62. The hole if you billed $34.62 on 690 hours: 690 × $34.62 = $23,888 vs $100,000 gross — $76,112 short. Fewer billable hours raise the floor. This page will not tell you to “charge less as a beginner.” Prefer smaller scope over a $34 sticker you cannot keep.
The sticker still is not take-home
$98.81/hr is the quote floor before the payout rail. A $988.10 ten-hour invoice on Stripe’s published US domestic card schedule (2.9% + 30¢, planning figure on Stripe vs Wise) is not $988.10 in the bank. Invert the rail there so the keep-floor still lands. PayPal invoicing is a third rail on PayPal invoice fees. Do not paste 2.9 into the tax-buffer box on this page — tax set-aside and processor cut are different subtractions.
Untracked links until tags exist. No affiliate IDs. Confirm the live cut in your Stripe, Wise, or PayPal dashboard.
What this page will not do
- Will not rebuild the homepage salary or profitable-rate tools (expenses, utilization %, margin, currency labels).
- Will not convert hourly × hours-in-a-day, half-day shares, or agency desk shares — that is /day-rate-guide.
- Will not invent an industry rate table by craft, city, or “2026 average.”
- Will not add Stripe, Wise, or PayPal affiliate IDs.
- Will not treat marketplace take-home as a keep-floor. Upwork / Fiverr cuts live on Upwork / Fiverr take-home.
FAQ
Why is salary ÷ 2080 not a freelance hourly rate I can keep?
$72,000 ÷ 2,080 = $34.62/hr. 2,080 is 52 × 40. Type 46 weeks and 22 invoiced hours: 1,012 hours. Gross $72,000 at 28% → $100,000. $100,000 ÷ 1,012 = $98.81/hr. Billing $34.62 on those hours invoices $35,035 and misses $64,965. You type the buffer and the hours. Not a mill.
How do I set a freelance rate floor I can keep in 2026?
Keep ÷ (1 − buffer you type) ÷ (weeks × hours you type). Typed: $72,000 ÷ 0.72 ÷ 1,012 = $98.81/hr — that is the quote floor, not banked cash. Do not paste Stripe 2.9% into the tax-buffer box; tax set-aside and processor cut are different subtractions. At 15 invoiced hours/week (46×15=690): floor = $100,000 ÷ 690 = $144.93/hr; billing the ÷2080 $34.62 on those hours leaves a $76,112 hole. Run your own keep on the homepage calculator. Day package = floor × hours on the day-rate guide. Rails: Stripe vs Wise · All KEEP hubs.
Is this the freelance hourly rate calculator?
No. The calculator is realratecalc.com (homepage). This page is the 2080 vs keep-floor story with a typed $72,000 example so the title matches “set a floor you can keep,” not a second copy of the hub.