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How to set a freelance hourly rate after platform fees

If you take a monthly take-home goal and divide it by hours you can bill, you will miss the goal on Fiverr, Upwork, and any marketplace that skims the top.

The wrong formula

Goal $100. Eight billable hours. $100 ÷ 8 = $12.50/hour. After a 20% platform fee you keep $10/hour × 8 = $80. The goal is gone before tax or unpaid proposals.

The formula that hits take-home

hourly floor = goal ÷ (1 − fee) ÷ billable hours

$100 ÷ 0.8 ÷ 8 = $15.63/hour. Same eight hours, $100 actually lands. Then raise it again for unpaid admin (proposals, revisions) and a tax set-aside. If the fee is 10%, use 0.9 instead of 0.8.

Do it without a spreadsheet

The Freelance Rate & Invoice Kit is $12. It runs that math, then includes a printable invoice. Open the calculator demo first if you want to see it.

Platform-specific: Fiverr, Upwork. Then send the invoice.