Toptal premium freelance income.

Toptal connects developers/designers with high-paying clients. Toptal pays freelancer 100% of agreed rate; client pays Toptal markup of 25-40% on top. So 80/hour developer rate = 100-112/hour client cost. No platform fee on developer side - rare in gig economy.

80/hour × 40 hours × 48 weeks = 153,600 annual gross. Client pays Toptal 200,000 (30% markup). Developer takes 153,600. Strong developer earnings - Toptal's 'Top 3%' positioning enables premium rates impossible on other freelance platforms (Upwork developers average 20-40/hour).

Toptal screening process: 10-15% acceptance rate. Multi-stage: language test, technical test, live coding/design review, real-world project. Process takes 2-4 weeks. Once accepted, freelancers get steady premium-rate work. Most Toptal freelancers earn 100-250k/year - much higher than typical freelance.

A worked example

Try the defaults: hourly rate of 80, hours per week of 40, weeks billable of 48, toptal markup of 30%. The tool returns 153,600.00. You can adjust any input and the result updates as you type — no submit button, no reload. That's the real power here: seeing how sensitive the output is to one or two assumptions.

What moves the number most

The result responds to Hourly Rate, Hours per Week, Weeks Billable, and Toptal Markup %. Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

The formula behind this

Annual gross = rate × hours × weeks. Client pays = gross × (1 + markup). Everything the calculator does is shown in the formula box below, so you can check the math against your own spreadsheet if you want.

What the headline number hides

Gross pay, net pay, and what actually lands in your account can differ by thousands depending on tax code, benefits, pension contributions, and student loan deductions. This tool isolates one piece of that picture — always pair it with a take-home calculator for the full view.

What this doesn't capture

Tax bands, pension contributions, student-loan deductions, and benefits-in-kind sit outside this calculation. The figure is the headline; your actual position depends on local tax rules and personal circumstances. Pair with a dedicated take-home calculator for the full picture.