Freelance designer day rate: how to work out what to charge

Design work often gets quoted by project, but a project quote is only as good as the day rate underneath it. Knowing your real daily cost tells you whether a fixed price is worth taking before you commit to it.

Work backwards from the take-home you want

Decide what you want to end the year with in your account, after tax. That is the figure everything else in the sum protects.

Add back tax and National Insurance

You need to earn enough that your target take-home is what is left once tax and National Insurance come out. The gross figure depends on your total income and allowances, so work it out with an accountant or from your tax authority's guidance. That gross number, not the take-home, is what the rest of the calculation uses.

Add your real business costs

Software, insurance, equipment, an accountant, a share of your workspace, the time spent finding the next contract. These come out before any of the money is yours.

Divide by the days you can honestly bill

Revisions, moodboarding, and the back-and-forth that does not appear on an invoice all eat into billable days. Planning on 160 to 190 is realistic for most solo designers.

Take your working days in the year and subtract holiday, sick days, admin, quoting, marketing and the gaps between contracts. Divide your target by that smaller number, not by 260, or you have built a rate that only works in a year that does not exist.

Check the jobs you actually take

The rate is a floor. Once you are working, the question becomes whether the projects you quoted actually paid it. That is worth tracking job by job.

This is a planning method, not financial or tax advice. Check your own position with an accountant or your tax authority.