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Break-Even and Billing Rate Calculator

Find the hourly rate below which your studio loses money on every hour it sells.

Why this exists. The best methodology in the profession is locked behind an email wall as Excel files, and the one good browser version is US dollars only.

United States, Canada and UK
2,080 is a full year at 40 hours a week before any leave.
Deducted to give the hours actually available to work.
All indirect expense divided by direct labour. Industry runs roughly 90% to 220%.
Share of available hours that are billable to projects.

Everything here is calculated in your browser. Your numbers are never sent anywhere, stored or seen by us.

Charge at least$120 / hourTo hit a 20% margin at 65% utilisation.
Direct hourly cost (salary only)
$38.46
Break-even multiplierIndustry average 2.59×
2.50×
Break-even hourly rate
$96.15
Break-even adjusted for utilisationThe number that actually matters
$163.67
Effective multiplier at your billing rateIndustry average 3.1×, strong performers 3.3×
3.13×
Billable hours per year
1,222 hrs
Revenue at this rate
$146,875
Fully loaded annual cost
$200,000
Contribution after cost
$-53,125

At 65% utilisation your real break-even is $164 an hour, not $96. Non-billable hours have to be carried by the billable ones.

At this rate and this utilisation, this person does not cover their own fully loaded cost.

How this is calculated

  • Overhead rate is total indirect expense divided by direct labour. It already includes non-billable salaries, rent, software, insurance and marketing.
  • The billing rate uses the margin convention, dividing by one minus the target margin. The markup convention multiplies instead and returns a lower number for the same stated percentage. Mixing the two is the most common error in fee calculators.
  • If you are a sole practitioner, treat your own drawings as owner compensation rather than profit, or the tool will tell you that you earn nothing.
  • Benchmarks are from BQE architecture benchmarking and the Deltek Clarity annual A and E study. The two samples differ, so ranges rather than single targets are shown.

This is a planning estimate, not professional advice. Read the full disclaimer.

Knowing the rate is one thing. Getting clients to pay it is another.

Studios that quote confidently are usually the ones with more enquiries than capacity. A free growth audit shows what it would take to get there.

Talk to the founder

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The thinking behind it

Where this number comes from.

Practice

Where an architecture firm’s margin actually leaks

Six places the fee disappears between the proposal and the bank, the published benchmark for each, and the uncomfortable finding that the two metrics everyone tracks barely predict profit at all.