Freelance
Utilisation Rate Calculator
Your utilisation rate is the share of your available time that you spend on work you can bill. Freelancers, consultants and agencies use it to see whether the diary is full enough to pay the bills.
Enter your billable hours and your available hours to see the percentage. Add your hourly rate to see what the unbilled time is worth, or switch modes to find how many billable hours a target rate requires.
Calculator
Fill in the boxes above and your answer appears here.
Worked examples
Real numbers, worked out by the same calculator. Press “Use these numbers” to try one above.
1,200 billable hours out of 1,600, at £50 an hour
- Utilisation rate
- 75%
- Non-billable hours
- 400
- Revenue from billable time
- £60,000.00
- Value of unbilled time
- £20,000.00
1,200 billable hours out of 1,600 available is 75% utilisation.
How many billable hours for 80% of 1,600?
- Billable hours needed
- 1,280
- Hours that can be non-billable
- 320
To be 80% utilised over 1,600 available hours, you need 1,280 billable hours.
900 billable hours out of 1,500
- Utilisation rate
- 60%
- Non-billable hours
- 600
900 billable hours out of 1,500 available is 60% utilisation.
The formula
Utilisation rate = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100. 1,200 ÷ 1,600 = 75%.
Billable hours for a target = available hours × target utilisation. 80% of 1,600 hours = 1,280 hours.
The hours not billed are your non-billable hours, and if you know your hourly rate, you can see what that unbilled time would have earned at full rate.
What counts as “available”?
There are two common ways, and they give different answers, so pick one and stick with it:
- Paid hours: everything you're contracted or expect to work, including admin and internal work. This gives the lower, more honest picture.
- Working hours after leave: the hours in a normal week times the weeks you're not on holiday or sick. This is the version to use for a freelancer planning income.
Non-billable work such as quoting, invoicing, training and finding clients is real work and belongs in “available”, not in “billable”.
What's a good utilisation rate?
There's no single answer. It depends on the role, on how much admin the job involves and on whether you're building a business or serving a full contract. Compare your own figure over several months, and use it alongside your rate: a lower utilisation needs a higher hourly rate to reach the same income (see the hourly rate calculator).
Frequently asked questions
What is utilisation rate?
The percentage of your available working time that is billable to clients. It shows how much of your time earns money directly.
How do I calculate utilisation rate?
Divide billable hours by available hours and multiply by 100. 1,200 billable out of 1,600 available is 75%.
Can utilisation be over 100%?
Only if you worked more hours than you counted as available, for example overtime. If you see it, check your available hours.
What should count as billable?
Time you can invoice a client for. Internal meetings, admin, quoting and marketing are usually not billable.
How does utilisation affect my rate?
The lower your utilisation, the higher your hourly rate must be to earn the same income, because you have fewer hours to spread your costs over.
Related tools
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- FreelanceHourly Rate CalculatorWork out the hourly rate a freelancer needs to charge to hit an income target, or convert an annual salary into an hourly rate. Free and instant.
- FreelanceProject Profitability CalculatorSee what a project really paid per hour after expenses, how it compares with your target rate, and what fee would have hit that target.
- Everyday calculationsDate CalculatorCount the days, weeks and working days between two dates, or add or subtract days from a date. Handles leap years. Free and instant.
Formulas tested against hand-worked answers. Last reviewed 29 September 2026. These calculators do arithmetic only; they are not financial, tax or legal advice.