What is a good utilization rate for a freelancer?
By SoloWOS teamPublished
IN SHORT
Billable utilization is billable hours divided by available working hours. A freelancer working 40 hours a week with 26 billable hours has 65% utilization. Many solo freelancers land between 50% and 75%, because sales and admin take the rest. Each 5-point drop in utilization raises the hourly rate you need by roughly 7% to 10%.
Prices and limits as of .
Key takeaways
- Utilization = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100. 26 billable hours in a 40-hour week is 65%.
- At 60% utilization a 40-hour week holds 24 billable hours; at 75% it holds 30.
- On an $88,000 revenue goal and 1,840 available hours, the required rate is $95.65 at 50% utilization, $79.71 at 60% and $63.77 at 75%.
- Federal pay math uses 2,087 hours as a work year, but a freelancer's available hours should leave out holidays, vacation and sick days.
Utilization is the number that connects your calendar to your rate. It answers "how many of my working hours does a client pay for?" and it is the main reason freelancers who copy an employee's hourly wage end up short. This post belongs to the time and projects hub and builds on billable vs non-billable hours.
The utilization rate formula
Billable utilization = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100. Available hours are the hours you intend to work, not the hours in a week. If you plan a 40-hour week and bill 26 of those hours, utilization is 26 ÷ 40 = 65%. Over a year, available hours are your weekly hours times the weeks you actually work.
Two denominators are in common use. Available hours (what you planned to work) is the one to price from, and it is what the free billable utilization calculator uses. Tracked hours (what you actually logged) is useful week to week, but it flatters you in a slow week where you simply worked less.
How many available hours are in a freelance year?
The federal government computes hourly pay by dividing a salary by 2,087 hours, about 52.2 weeks of 40 hours (OPM). That figure includes paid holidays and leave, because salaried employees are paid for them. A freelancer isn't, so start from weeks worked instead. 2026 has 11 federal holidays (OPM's 2026 schedule), which is already 88 hours of a 40-hour week year. Add three weeks of vacation and a week of sick time and you are near 46 working weeks, or 1,840 hours at 40 hours a week. Full-time employees worked 8.1 hours on an average day they worked in 2025 (BLS American Time Use Survey), so a 40-hour plan is a reasonable baseline, not a lazy one.
Utilization vs the hourly rate you need
| Utilization | Billable hours per week | Billable hours per year | Required rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 20 | 920 | $95.65 |
| 55% | 22 | 1,012 | $86.96 |
| 60% | 24 | 1,104 | $79.71 |
| 65% | 26 | 1,196 | $73.58 |
| 70% | 28 | 1,288 | $68.32 |
| 75% | 30 | 1,380 | $63.77 |
| 80% | 32 | 1,472 | $59.78 |
Read the table from the bottom up and it explains a common trap. A freelancer who prices at $64 assuming 75% utilization, then spends a quarter selling and bills only 50%, earns 920 × $64 = $58,880 in revenue instead of $88,000. The freelance rate calculator reruns the table with your own goal, expenses, tax share and weeks off.
What is a good utilization rate for a freelancer?
There is no published benchmark for solo freelancers we could confirm against a primary source, so treat any single number with care. In practice, a solo freelancer does their own sales, admin and bookkeeping, and between half and three quarters of working hours being billable is a realistic range. Above 80% usually means no time is going into finding the next client, which shows up as a gap two or three months later. Below 50% means either too little work or too much unpaid admin.
- New freelancers: expect the low end while you build a pipeline; price for it.
- Retainer-heavy freelancers: higher utilization is realistic because sales time drops.
- Project freelancers with many small clients: more proposals and onboarding mean lower utilization.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Worked example: a month of tracked time
In October you planned 4 weeks × 40 hours = 160 available hours. Time Tracking shows 152 total tracked hours, of which 98 are billable. Utilization against available hours is 98 ÷ 160 = 61.3%. Against tracked hours it is 98 ÷ 152 = 64.5%. Price from 61%: at $88,000 of annual revenue and 1,840 available hours, that needs about $78 an hour.
How to raise utilization without working more
Cut the non-billable work that repeats: proposals from a template, clients booking their own calls, and follow-up emails that send themselves (see automations every freelancer should set up). Bill time you already do but give away, like long project email threads, once your contract allows it. Or raise your rate, which lifts revenue even when the percentage stays the same.
In SoloWOS
To measure it, track billable hours and non-billable work in the same place, switching Billable off on admin entries. Time Tracking > Reports, set to This month or Last month, shows Total hours and Billable hours side by side, and By project shows which clients eat unbilled time. Divide billable hours by your planned hours for the same range.
Questions
How many billable hours a week can a freelancer realistically work?
On a 40-hour week, 20 to 30 billable hours is a realistic range for a solo freelancer who also does their own sales and admin. That is 50% to 75% utilization. Weeks above 32 billable hours are possible, but usually only when no time is going into finding the next project.
Is utilization the same as productivity?
No. Billable utilization counts only hours a client pays for. Writing a case study or improving your templates is productive but not billable. Some agencies track both; a freelancer pricing their rate needs the billable figure.
Should I use 2,080 or 2,087 hours to work out my rate?
Neither, for a freelancer. Those figures include paid holidays and leave, which employees get paid for and freelancers don't. Start from the weeks you will actually work, for example 46 weeks of 40 hours, which is 1,840 available hours.
Does a fixed-price project count toward utilization?
Yes. Hours spent on a paid fixed-price project are billable in the sense that a client pays for them, even though they don't appear as hourly lines. Track them anyway; they also tell you your effective hourly rate.
Sources
Facts checked against these sources on October 18, 2026. Rules and amounts change, so confirm them at the source before you file or sign.
- OPM: Computing hourly rates of pay using the 2,087-hour divisor
- OPM: Federal holidays (2026 schedule)
- BLS: American Time Use Survey, 2025 results (released June 25, 2026)
Last reviewed:
SoloWOS tools mentioned here
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