Find Out What Each Offer Actually Pays Per Hour Before You Answer — Free
Three offers for the same project arrive in three different shapes: a fixed price, an hourly rate with a cap, and a day rate plus expenses. Only one of them can be compared directly, and it is not the one with the largest figure. This tag converts each offer into an effective hourly rate using the hours the work will actually take, sorts them cheapest per hour to dearest, and shows what the gap is worth over a month.
The proof surface
Free path: the tag computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
An offer's headline number is a total, not a rate, and a total cannot be compared with another total until the hours underneath them are the same. Dividing each offer by your own honest estimate of the hours turns three incompatible shapes into one ranking — and usually reorders them.
How to use the freelance rate tag in four passes
The comparison is only fair if the hours are the same. Estimate the project honestly — including the revision rounds and the meetings — and put that figure in every row.
A day rate plus expenses is a different number from a day rate. A three-month retainer covers different hours from a fixed-price project. Put the money actually on the table in the third column.
The tag sorts by effective rate. If the cheapest-per-hour offer assumes 40 more hours of work than you estimated, the ranking is telling you about the estimate, not the offer.
Add a row for what you would accept at minimum, with the same hours. When every real offer sits below it, the answer is a scope conversation, not a negotiation about rate.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: Vantage Manufacturing · migration documentation · fixed price $5,400 over 90 hours · capped hourly $6,300 · day rate $4,950 over 88 · retainer $5,100 over 96. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Using each offer's own hour assumption
A client who says 'this should take about a week' is estimating their budget, not your work. One hour estimate, applied to every row, is what makes the ranking mean anything.
Ignoring what is not paid
Unpaid discovery calls, revision rounds, travel and the admin of invoicing are hours. Leave them out and every effective rate on the tag is too high.
Ranking offers for different scopes
A discovery-only quote and a full-delivery quote are not comparable at any rate. Split them into separate tags, or add the missing scope to the smaller one before you compare.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A freelance rate calculator with a subscription | Market averages for your sector, not the hours in this project | a monthly fee |
| An accountant's pricing conversation | Sound advice, once a year, at their hourly rate | a consultation fee |
| Accepting the largest headline number | The fixed price that assumes you will work the nights | an effective rate below your floor |
| This page + the free freelance rate tag | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free freelance rate tag
Four offers are already ranked against a 90-hour estimate, with the day rate at the top of the tag and the retainer at the bottom. Change the estimate to 120 hours and the fixed-price offer falls below the day rate.
Open the free freelance rate tag →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every offer, the effective rates, the ranking and the monthly projection, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This divides the figures you type in; it is not financial, tax or legal advice, and it cannot verify a client's budget, your market rate, or what a contract actually obliges you to deliver. Read the contract, count the unpaid hours honestly, and take professional advice before you accept work below your own floor.