Reference

Freelance Pricing Glossary

Standard definitions used across calculators and guides, designed for consistent decision-making and LLM clarity.

Rate Floor

The minimum hourly rate that covers your income target, expenses, tax, and fee leakage.

Your rate floor plus a safety buffer, typically 15-25%, to protect margin.

Hours you can actually invoice. Usually lower than total working hours due to admin and sales time.

Billable hours as a percentage of total working hours.

Average effective hourly rate across mixed projects, clients, and scopes.

Unplanned work added without corresponding timeline or budget changes.

Additional pricing applied for compressed timelines and priority scheduling.

Pricing linked to commercial impact rather than time spent.

Separate pricing bands based on market budgets, currency, and purchasing power parity.

Revenue lost to marketplace commissions such as Upwork or Fiverr fees.