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Effective Rate Calculator

See What You’ll Make per Hour Based on a Project Fee

When a client offers a flat fee for a project, it can be hard to know if it’s a fair deal. This tool helps you understand how much you’re effectively being paid per hour by breaking down the project fee against your estimated hours. We also show what your rate would be if you underestimate your hours—a common issue for freelancers. That $500 budget hits different when you realize you made more money per hour while babysitting.

The flat fee offered or quoted for this project

Estimated Hours

Estimated Project Hours

Time spent researching and/or mood-boarding
Initial concept sketches and ideation
First round of creative work (include time spent preparing presentation decks)
Second round of creative work (include time spent preparing presentation decks)
Third round of creative work (include time spent preparing presentation decks)
Final file preparation, organization, and delivery
Client meetings, emails, project management, and other administrative tasks

Effective Rate

Effective Hourly Rate: —
Based on — estimated hours

Note: Freelancers often underestimate how long it will take to complete a project. Here’s what your effective rate would be if the project takes longer than expected or if the client asks for work out of scope.

20% underestimate: —
30% underestimate: —
50% underestimate: —

Get paid more with Studioworks We charge no additional transaction fees—unlike Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Honeybook, Bonsai, Wave, and nearly every other competitor. We use Stripe as our financial infrastructure and pass along their wholesale rates directly to you without taking a cut. That means the lowest rates possible (even lower than Stripe’s own invoicing product!), especially for bank transfers, which have a rate of 0.8% with a maximum of $5, no matter how big of an invoice you send. You can save hundreds or thousands per year by invoicing with Studioworks!