UK freelance day rate calculator
Work out what to charge per day as a UK freelancer from the pay you want, what the business costs to run and the days you can actually bill. UK tax for 2026/27 is built in, any other currency works too, and nothing you type leaves this page.
Your pay
What you'd like to land in your account over the year, after tax. £32,000 is roughly what the UK median full-time salary (£39,039, ONS 2025) leaves a sole trader.
Income tax and Class 4 National Insurance for a sole trader in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, at the 2026/27 GOV.UK rates. In Scotland, or with a student loan, use your own rate instead.
Business costs
What it costs to be a freelancer for a year, before any pay. These are starting guesses: change the amounts, rename them, add your own, remove what you don't pay for.
Costs a year: £7,560
Working time
Nobody works 52 weeks a year, and nobody bills every day they work. That's 33 days off (6.6 weeks), leaving 227 days of work.
With 8 bank holidays, 20 matches the 28 days an employee gets.
8 in England and Wales. Change it for where you live.
UK workers averaged 4.4 in 2024 (ONS).
Most plan on 5. Four works too.
The rest goes on pitching, quoting, admin, invoicing and chasing payment. 65 to 75% is fair once clients rebook you; start nearer 50% if you're new.
Billable days a year: 158.9 days
Buffer
Extra on top of pay and costs, for quiet months, late payers and a bit of profit. 10% is gentle; go to 20% if your work comes in bursts. Use 0 to leave it out.
Your day rate
£330
Exactly £321.12, rounded up to the nearest £10.
- Half day
- £200
- 60% of a day
- Week (5 days)
- £1,650
- Hourly, 8 hour day
- £42
- Hourly, 10 hour day
- £33
- Typical film day
Where each day's fee goes
- Your take-home
- £201 a day£32,000 a year
- Tax and NI
- £43 a day£6,827 a year
- Business costs
- £48 a day£7,560 a year
- Buffer
- £29 a day£4,639 a year
(£38,827 + £7,560 + £4,639) ÷ 158.9 days = £321.12
Pay before tax, plus costs, plus buffer, divided by billable days.
In a slow year
If you only bill 50% of your working days (113.5 days), £330 a day brings in £37,455: about £25,391 after costs and tax. To keep the same year at 50%, you'd need £450 a day.
A starting point for your own thinking, not financial or tax advice. If the numbers matter (they do), run them past an accountant.
Worked out in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent.
A free tool from Spark, the video reference library for creative teams.
How to use the UK freelance day rate calculator
Five steps, two minutes, no account.
Pick a currency and the pay you want
Type the take-home you'd like for the year, or the salary it would be as a job. In pounds the calculator adds UK income tax and National Insurance; in any other currency, give it your own estimated tax rate.
List what the business costs
Software, kit, insurance, an accountant, travel, a pension. Start from the suggestions, change the amounts, add your own and remove what you don't pay for, monthly or yearly.
Set your time off and billable share
Holidays, bank holidays, sick days, how many days a week you work, and the share of working days someone actually pays for.
Add a buffer
A percentage on top for quiet months, late payers and a bit of profit. 10% is a gentle start.
Read, copy or share your rates
Day, half-day, hourly and weekly rates update as you type. Copy a summary, or copy the link to come back to these exact numbers.
How the maths works
One sum: what the year has to bring in, divided by the days you'll bill. Here it is with the starting numbers.
Say you want £32,000 a year in your pocket. Under 2026/27 UK rules a sole trader needs £38,827 of profit to keep that, because £6,827 goes on income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. Add £7,560 of business costs and a 10% buffer (£4,639), and the year has to bring in £51,025.
Five days a week for 52 weeks is 260 days. Take off 20 days of holiday, 8 bank holidays and 5 sick days and 227 days are left. Bill 70% of those and you have 158.9 days to earn it in. £51,025 ÷ 158.9 days is £321.12, which the calculator rounds up to £330. Rates always round up, because rounding down quietly pays you less than you need.
The half day is 60% of the day rate (£200), since a half day rarely leaves room for another job. The hourly figures are the day rate split over 8 and over 10 hours, because film and TV days are often 10.
Why billable days matter most
Nobody bills every working day. Pitching, quoting, chasing invoices, updating the showreel, learning the new version of the software and waiting for a client to confirm all eat days you can't charge for. The billable slider is the share of your working days that someone actually pays for.
It moves the answer more than anything else. In the example, 70% billable needs £330 a day. At 60% it's £380, at 50% it's £450, and at 80% it drops to £290. Compare that with costs: every £1,000 a year of software or kit adds about £7 a day. If you're new, or your work comes in bursts, start at 50 to 60%. If you have regular clients who rebook you, 70 to 80% is realistic.
Want to sense-check against published figures? Bectu's rate cards cover many UK film, TV and events grades. Some are recommended minimums and some are going rates to negotiate up from, so read them as context for your own number, not a replacement for it.
How to quote
A day rate is a starting point. The quote is where you protect it.
Day rate or project rate. A day rate suits work where the scope moves, like an edit that grows with every round of notes. A project rate suits a tight brief. Build it from your day rate (days you expect, plus a day or two for the unexpected) and say how many rounds of changes it includes.
Kit is its own line. If you bring a camera package, an edit system or a lighting kit, charge for it separately rather than burying it in your rate. Clients compare day rates, and kit that's priced on its own is easier to defend.
Say what a day is. Film and TV days in the UK are often quoted as 10 hours plus an hour for lunch. Put your day length on the quote, and what happens after it: overtime by the hour past 10, at time and a half for example, is easier to agree before the shoot than at hour eleven.
Put cancellation in writing. A held day you turned other work down for has a cost. One simple version: half the fee if the job is cancelled within 72 hours, all of it within 24. Agree it when they book, not when they cancel.
Raising your rate
Costs go up every year whether you ask or not.
New clients first. Quote your new rate to every new enquiry. It costs you nothing to test, and the yeses tell you the old rate was low.
Existing clients once a year. Give a couple of months' notice and a date, by email. Most good clients expect it; the ones who leave over a fair rise were often the ones paying least.
Watch your diary. If you're turning work down most months, your rate is behind your demand. That's the clearest signal there is.
Guides for freelancers
Browse every guide on the Spark blogPutting a pitch deck together? Our free video to GIF converter turns a reference clip into a GIF that plays on the slide.
Day rate questions
How do I calculate my freelance day rate?
Add up what the year has to bring in: the pay you want before tax, your business costs and a buffer for quiet months. Then divide by the days you'll actually bill, which is your working days after holidays and sick days, times the share you get paid for. The calculator at the top of this page does exactly that, live.
How much should I charge as a freelancer in the UK?
At least enough to cover the year you want, which is what this calculator works out. With its starting numbers (£32,000 take-home, £7,560 of costs, 70% billable) that's £330 a day. Your skills, your clients and where you work then decide how far above that floor you can go.
What day rate should a freelance video editor or designer charge?
It depends on the work, the client and your experience far more than the job title, so we don't print a single number. Work out your own floor here first, then compare it with what people at your level charge. For UK film and TV grades, Bectu publishes rate cards. Our guide to calculating your freelance day rate goes further.
How many billable days does a freelancer have in a year?
A full-time year is 260 weekdays. Take off 28 days of holiday and bank holidays and a few sick days and you have about 227 working days, but you won't bill them all. At 70% that's about 159 days, and at 50% it's about 114, which is why the billable share matters more than any other number you type.
Does the calculator include tax and National Insurance?
In pounds, yes: income tax and Class 4 National Insurance for a sole trader in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, using the 2026/27 rates from GOV.UK. It doesn't cover Scottish income tax, student loan repayments, VAT or payments on account, so if any of those apply, switch to your own estimated tax rate. In other currencies you always give your own estimate, because we'd rather not guess at tax rules we haven't checked.
Should I charge by the hour, the day or the project?
Day rates are the norm for crew, editors and most creative freelancers, because a day booked is a day you can't sell to anyone else. Hourly suits small, fiddly jobs. A project fee suits a clear brief, as long as you build it from your day rate and say how many rounds of changes it includes.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No. The sums run in your browser and nothing is sent to Spark or anyone else. The address bar updates with your numbers so you can bookmark or share them, and that link only holds the figures, the currency and your cost names.
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