What this calculator does
This billable hours calculator turns your hourly rate and work schedule into concrete revenue figures. It multiplies your rate by the hours you actually bill, scales that up to weekly and annual totals, and reports how much of your working time is billable (your utilization rate) and what you effectively earn per hour once non-billable time is counted.
The formulas
- Weekly billable revenue: hourly rate x billable hours per day x days worked per week.
- Annual billable revenue: weekly revenue x weeks worked per year (the default assumes 48 working weeks, leaving room for vacation and holidays).
- Utilization rate: billable hours divided by total hours worked, expressed as a percentage — the share of your day that is billable.
- Effective hourly rate: annual revenue divided by every hour worked, billable and non-billable. It equals your posted rate multiplied by your utilization.
Interpreting the output
The effective hourly rate is often the most revealing number: a high headline rate paired with low utilization can earn less per working hour than a modest rate billed consistently. Because annual revenue scales directly with billable hours, days, and weeks, small changes to any of them move the total noticeably — try adding or trimming one billable hour per day to see the yearly effect.
Getting accurate results
- Use realistic billable hours: most people cannot bill every hour they are at work, so separate billable time from total time worked.
- Set weeks per year to reflect your real time off — billing 48 weeks instead of 52 lowers annual revenue by roughly 8%.
- For invoicing, tax, or contract decisions, treat the output as a planning estimate and confirm specifics with an accountant or the terms of your engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate billable hours revenue?
Multiply your hourly rate by billable hours per day, by days worked per week, by weeks worked per year. For example, $150 per hour x 6 billable hours x 5 days x 48 weeks is $216,000 of billable revenue a year, or $4,500 a week.
What is a utilization rate?
Utilization is billable hours divided by total hours worked. If you bill 6 of the 8 hours you work each day, your utilization is 75%. There is no single correct figure — firms compare it to their own target — but higher utilization means more of your worked time is actually invoiced.
What is an effective hourly rate?
The effective hourly rate is total revenue divided by every hour you work, billable or not. It equals your posted rate times your utilization: a $150 rate at 75% utilization is an effective $112.50 per hour. It shows what your time is really worth once non-billable work is included.