Your numbers
Your clients
Hours are billable hours per month. For one overall figure enter a single line called All clients. The leave chance is your own honest guess for each client.
Fill in your numbers and clients, then click Calculate.
Result
By client
| Client | Hours / month | Old rate | New rate | Leave chance | Revenue before | Expected after | Change | Raise pays? |
|---|
The same clients at other raises
| Raise | Hours you can lose and break even | Expected monthly revenue | Change per month |
|---|
How it is calculated
Break-even loss: a raise of r keeps income equal when the share of hours lost is r ÷ (1 + r), or r ÷ ((1 + r) × (1 − refill)) if you refill part of the lost hours. Expected hours after: hours × (1 − leave chance × (1 − refill share)). Expected revenue after: expected hours × new rate, where new rate is old rate × (1 + raise). Change: expected revenue after − revenue before. Raise pays? yes when that client's leave chance is at or below the break-even loss. Hours freed: hours before minus expected hours after. Revenue per hour: revenue divided by hours worked. Ladder: the same book at other raises with each leave chance held where you typed it.
Not modelled: taxes, the time to find replacement clients, contract terms and notice periods, scope changes, and how a bigger raise raises the odds that a client leaves. Unverified: tested on hand-calculated examples, not on a real freelance business's books. It computes arithmetic; it does not tell you what clients will accept.
Common questions
How much can I lose after raising my freelance rate and still earn the same?
If you raise your rate by r, you can lose a share r ÷ (1 + r) of your billable hours before income falls. A 10% raise breaks even at 9.1% fewer hours, 20% at 16.7%, and 30% at 23.1%. If you can refill some of the freed hours at the new rate, the break-even share is higher. The tool computes this for your own mix of clients.
Why does a rate increase usually beat taking on more clients?
A raise applies to hours you already work, so there is no extra selling, onboarding or context-switching. Losing a few low-paying clients also frees hours you can sell again or keep. The tool shows the hours freed next to the income change so you can see both.
How do I estimate the chance a client leaves?
Use your own history: how long they have stayed, how often they push back on invoices, whether they have alternatives, and how much of their work is core to them. Be honest, since an optimistic zero makes every raise look free. The tool treats the figure as your guess, not a prediction.
Should I raise everyone at once?
Not necessarily. The tool flags clients whose leave chance is above the break-even point for the raise you typed. Those are the ones to raise later, raise by less, or leave alone while you raise the others. Run it with different percentages to compare.
What does the refill share mean?
It is the share of hours lost to departing clients that you expect to refill at the new rate. Zero is the cautious setting: freed hours stay empty. Fifty means half of the lost hours are replaced. It does not model how long that takes.
What does this leave out?
Taxes, ramp-up time to find new clients, contract terms and notice periods, scope changes, and how a raise changes the odds a client leaves. Each client's leave chance is held fixed in the ladder table even though bigger raises usually raise it. It is arithmetic on figures you type, not business, legal or tax advice.
Is my information uploaded?
No. The calculation runs in your browser from figures you type, nothing is sent to a server, there are no accounts, and it works offline after the page loads.