Teams & projects
Utilization rate calculator
Enter billable hours, available hours per week, the number of weeks and your target; get the utilization rate and what is missing.
Available hours usually exclude public holidays and approved leave; keep the definition the same every period.
How utilization rate is calculated
Billable utilization is the share of available working time that is billed to clients: utilization = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100. Available hours are hours per week × weeks in the period. The target in hours is available hours × target %, and the gap is the target minus what was billed.
Example: over 4 weeks of 40 hours, 160 hours are available. If 112 were billable, utilization is 112 ÷ 160 = 70%. Against a 75% target you needed 120 billable hours, so 8 are missing, about 2 a week. At $100 an hour that is $11,200 billed and an $800 gap. The other 48 hours went to non-billable work such as internal meetings, admin, sales and training.
| Utilization | Billable hours per 40-hour week | Billable hours per year (2,080 h) |
|---|---|---|
| 50% | 20 | 1,040 |
| 60% | 24 | 1,248 |
| 70% | 28 | 1,456 |
| 75% | 30 | 1,560 |
| 80% | 32 | 1,664 |
| 90% | 36 | 1,872 |
The yearly column uses 2,080 hours, a full 52-week year; subtract holidays and leave from available hours for a more realistic figure.
What a good utilization rate looks like
Targets depend on the role. Delivery staff in consulting, agencies and accounting firms are often set targets around 70–85%, while managers, who spend time on hiring, reviews and sales, typically sit much lower. A target of 100% is never realistic: email, internal meetings, training and holidays all need time, and a team that bills every hour has no slack to handle a rush job.
The most frequent mistake is a moving denominator. If one month counts 40 hours a week and the next only the hours left after leave, the rates cannot be compared. Pick a definition, write it down and apply it to everyone. Also track the reasons behind low utilization, since a gap caused by a lack of client work calls for sales effort, while a gap caused by too much internal work calls for cutting meetings or automating admin.
Utilization measures how busy people are, not how profitable the work is. Pair it with realization, the share of billed hours actually paid at the standard rate, to see whether the billed time turns into revenue.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate utilization rate?
Divide billable hours by available hours and multiply by 100. 30 billable hours in a 40-hour week is 75% utilization; for a month, use the total billable and available hours of that month.
What is a good billable utilization rate?
For client-facing consultants and agency staff, targets of roughly 70–85% are common. Leaders and support roles usually aim lower, and rates above 90% for long periods tend to cause burnout.
Should holidays count as available hours?
Most firms remove public holidays and approved leave from available hours so people are not penalised for time off. What matters most is using the same rule every period and for every person.