Billable hours: how much of your week can you bill?

Billable hours are the hours a client pays for. They are always fewer than the hours you work, and the gap decides your rate.

Why the share matters

Suppose you want to earn 800,000 a year and have 46 working weeks. At 40 billable hours a week you would need about 435 an hour. At 20 billable hours a week you need about 870 an hour. The number of hours you can bill, not the hours you work, is what sets your rate.

Where the other hours go

Finding work: pitches, networking, a portfolio, replies to enquiries that never become jobs.
Running the business: quotes, invoices, accounts, taxes, backups, learning tools.
Client management: calls, messages, waiting for answers, revisions that are not paid.
Idle time: gaps between projects that cannot be filled.

Measure it for two weeks

Use a timer or a note on your phone. Write down each block of work with a category. At the end, add the hours for each category and enter them below. The share it gives is the figure to use in the rate calculator.

Raising your share without working longer

Batch admin: do invoices and accounts in one block, not between jobs.
Set limits on revisions: unpaid extra rounds are the commonest leak.
Say no to poor-fit enquiries early: a short, polite reply saves an hour of quoting.
Use templates: a quote, a welcome email and an invoice that you can reuse take minutes, not an hour.
Raise the rate instead: if you cannot bill more hours, a higher price for the same hours has the same effect.

Different jobs, different shares

A tutor booked by the hour may bill 60 to 70 percent of the hours they work. A designer who also sells projects may bill 45 to 55 percent. A consultant who spends a lot of time on proposals and travel may bill under half. These are examples, not benchmarks: your timesheet is the only number that matters.

Common questions

Is 100 percent billable possible?

No. Even employees do not bill every hour. If a quote assumes all your working hours are billable, your income will fall short of the plan.

Should I count travel as billable?

Only if the client pays for it. Otherwise it counts as unpaid time, or you should build it into the price.

Keep going

Example figures on this site are made up to show the working. They are not market rates or averages. Tax, social-insurance, sales-tax and holiday rules differ by country and change, so this site does not state them: ask the tax authority of your country or an accountant. Checked 14 November 2026.