Free Calculator · Updated 18 May 2026
Consultant Hourly Rate Calculator, Australia
Work backwards from the take-home you actually want. Plug in utilisation, overheads, super and GST, get a defensible hourly rate, day rate, half-day rate, and project bands in seconds.
% of working hours that are billable (rest = sales, admin, ops)
SG minimum is 11.5% from Jul 2024; rises to 12% by 2025.
Buffer for income tax + non-billable risk (bad debts, scope creep)
52 − annual leave − public holidays − sick/training days
Project rate ranges
±15% band on hourly rate × estimated hours. Use for fixed-fee quoting.
Small (10 hr)
$1,446 to $1,956
Mid $1,701
Medium (50 hr)
$7,228 to $9,779
Mid $8,504
Large (200 hr)
$28,912 to $39,117
Mid $34,015
Happy with the rate? The next question is what it costs to bill it. Compare the AUD plans on the pricing page.
How To Use It
From target salary to defensible hourly rate, in four steps
Step 1
Start with the take-home you actually need
Not your old salary, the post-tax income that supports your life. Add the salary you'd earn doing the same work as an employee, then adjust for what consulting gives back (autonomy) and takes away (sick leave, predictability).
Step 2
Set realistic utilisation
Solo operators average 50 to 65% billable. The rest is sales, admin, learning, and downtime between contracts. Year-one consultants almost always overestimate, start at 50% and prove you can do better before you price like a 75%-er.
Step 3
Add overheads + super honestly
Software, co-working/rent, insurance, marketing, accounting, training, these add up fast. Super (12% from 1 July 2025) is not optional once you're drawing a wage. If you pay yourself through a company, it's a cost line.
Step 4
Layer a tax-effective margin
The default 25% covers income tax buffer plus non-billable risk (bad debts, scope creep, surprise expenses). For higher-risk work, long-cycle projects, novel scope, single-client revenue , push the margin to 35 to 40%.
Practical Tips
What this calculator can't see
Utilisation reality check
A 60% utilisation target on paper is closer to 45% in practice once you account for sales conversations that don't convert, meetings that should have been emails, and the first hour of every morning. Audit a real month before trusting the number.
Account for unpaid admin
Quoting, scoping, invoicing, BAS, follow-ups, GST returns, this is 8 to 12% of a solo consultant's week and zero of it is billable. Bake it into utilisation rather than pretending it's admin you'll do "in the evenings".
Value-based pricing is the upside
The number from this calculator is your floor. When the client outcome is high-value (revenue uplift, regulatory unblock, key hire), switch to fixed-fee tied to the outcome. The same 40 hours can be $8k or $40k depending on how you frame it.
GST registration timing
Mandatory once you hit $75k turnover in any rolling 12 months. Many consultants register voluntarily from day one, you get input credits on software and gear, and your B2B clients don't care because they claim it back. B2C consultants should hold off if their clients can't.
Once you have a floor rate, decide how to package it. Read the guide to project pricing models (hourly, fixed-fee, retainer, value-based) to see where hourly beats fixed-fee, and lock scope with the scope of work template for Australian service businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set my first hourly rate as a new consultant?
Work backwards from the take-home you need, not from what competitors charge. Plug your target annual income, expected utilisation (start conservative, 50 to 60% in year one), overheads, and super into the calculator. The output is your floor, the rate you need just to clear your target salary. Market rates may be higher; never go lower than your floor or you're paying clients to work with you.
Value-based pricing vs hourly, which is better?
Hourly is easiest to defend and easiest to lose money on (clients haggle the rate, you absorb scope creep). Value-based pricing, quoting a fixed fee tied to the client's outcome, almost always earns more per hour delivered but requires you to scope tightly and walk away from poorly-defined briefs. Most consultants run a hybrid: fixed-fee projects for new clients, hourly retainers for trusted ones.
What signals say a consultant is under-priced?
Three signals: (1) you're consistently fully booked 6+ weeks ahead, (2) your win rate on quotes is above 70% (suggests you're under-priced), (3) your annual cost base has grown but your rate hasn't moved in 12+ months. Re-run this calculator each January with updated overheads and super, the SG rate has stepped up steadily and it eats your effective rate if you don't repass it.
How do I deal with rate objections?
Most rate objections aren't about the rate, they're about perceived value or scope clarity. Before negotiating down, ask 'what would need to be different in scope for this to fit your budget?'. Offer a reduced scope at the same rate rather than discounting. Discounting your rate trains the client to expect it on every renewal.
How should I price a retainer?
Take your hourly rate, multiply by committed monthly hours, then apply a 5 to 15% discount for the commitment and predictability. Cap the carry-over (e.g. unused hours expire after one month) or you'll end up doing a year's worth of work in December. Bill in advance, not in arrears, retainers in arrears are just deferred invoices.
Project vs hourly, when does each make sense?
Project (fixed-fee) when scope is clear, deliverables are concrete, and the client cares about the outcome more than how you got there, e.g. a brand identity, a defined integration, an audit. Hourly when scope is genuinely uncertain (ongoing advisory, evolving software work) or when the client values your time directly. If you're quoting fixed-fee on fuzzy scope, you're underwriting the client's indecision, don't.
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Reviewed by Bishal Shrestha
Not a consultant? the general-purpose hourly rate calculator back-solves a rate from the take-home pay you want, for any trade or profession. This page stays on the consulting case: utilisation, overheads and the charge-out rate that falls out of them.
About the author
Bishal Shrestha
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal spent a decade running digital projects for Australian small businesses before founding OneBookPlus. He writes and maintains these pages, and publishes what OneBookPlus does not do alongside what it does.
Read the founder bioHow this page was researched
Every figure above is either linked to the body that published it or recomputable from the numbers shown on the page. Plan prices come from the OneBookPlus price registry, so the page and the checkout cannot disagree. Everything said about OneBookPlus describes what the product does today, and the page says so where it does not do something.
From the blog
Related reading for consultants
Practical guides and explainers from the OneBookPlus blog, grouped by topic.
More in this guide
Related resources
Start a Service Business
8-step founder guide, ABN, GST, PI, engagement letters, pricing, first 10 clients for consultants, agencies, and freelancers.
Read Start a Service BusinessOperator GuideProject Pricing Models
Hourly vs fixed-fee vs retainer vs value-based, when each model wins, AU benchmarks, and how to phase fees.
Read Project Pricing ModelsReferenceScope of Work Template
Drafting a tight SOW, deliverables, acceptance criteria, scope creep clauses, change-request workflow.
Read Scope of Work Template