Free tool
Contractor cost calculator
What you pay to engage a contractor, in your currency, not what the contractor keeps. The rate is the small half; the fee, the margin and the extras are the rest.
The link carries your figures in the address itself. Nothing is stored on our side either way.
Where the money goes
| Line | Per month | Whole engagement |
|---|---|---|
| The breakdown appears here once your figures are in. | ||
How the total is worked out
Every step, in the open, so you can rebuild the sum in a spreadsheet and disagree with it if you want to. A calculator you cannot check is an ad.
The monthly base, and what a fixed fee does to it
The monthly base is the rate multiplied by the units you enter: hours per month, days per month or weeks per month. A monthly rate is taken as the base itself and ignores the units field. A fixed fee for the whole engagement is divided evenly by the number of months, so the monthly figure is an average rather than an invoice you will actually receive.
Fee, margin, extras and the one-off share
The platform or processing fee is a percentage of that base. The currency conversion margin is applied to the base plus the fee, because that is normally the amount converted; if your provider converts only the contractor's share, take the margin line down accordingly. Fixed extras are added as entered. One-off costs are divided by the engagement length and added as a monthly share, which is a budgeting convention rather than a cash-flow fact: you pay them once, usually at the start. The whole-engagement column is the monthly total multiplied by the number of months.
Withholding comes out of their side, not yours
Withholding is deducted from the contractor's base, not from your cost, and that is the point worth taking away: if you are required to withhold, your outgoing total does not fall, the contractor simply receives less and the difference goes to the authority. The tool does not know whether you must withhold or at what rate. It publishes no rates, no thresholds and no deadlines, because those differ by country, by the nature of the work, by the contractor's own registration and sometimes by treaty. Ask your accountant, enter their figure, and the arithmetic above will show its effect.
What this tool does not know
It is an estimate of what you pay. It is not tax, legal or accounting advice, and it is not a classification tool: whether someone should be a contractor at all is decided by how the relationship actually works, never by which arrangement is cheaper. Read contractor versus employee before you use a number like this to make that decision, and the guide to hiring global contractors for the wider picture.
For how agreements, invoices, payout references and jurisdiction-specific tax lines are kept together, see the contractor management module. Capstan records contractor payouts by reference and never moves money.
Questions with complete answers
Does this show the contractor's take-home pay?
No. It shows what leaves your account and, separately, what reaches the contractor before their own taxes. A contractor handles their own tax, insurance and any local registration out of the amount they receive, so what they finally keep depends on their country, their deductions and their own accounting, none of which this tool can see.
What does the platform or processing fee cover?
Any percentage a payment platform, marketplace, agency or aggregator adds on top of the contractor rate. Set it to zero if you pay the contractor directly and carry no such fee. The result breaks it out as its own line so you can see the base cost and the added cost side by side, which is the number worth arguing about at renewal.
Why is there a separate currency margin field?
Because paying someone in another currency almost never happens at the mid-market rate. Banks and payment providers take a spread on the conversion, and on a long engagement that spread is a real line in your budget that nobody puts in the contract. Enter the margin your provider actually charges, or zero if you pay in the same currency you hold.
Why does the withholding field default to zero?
Because we will not publish a withholding rate as fact. Whether you must deduct tax at source when paying a contractor, and at what rate, depends on the country, the nature of the work, the contractor's own registration and sometimes a treaty between two countries. Ask your accountant or the official source, enter the figure they give you, and the tool will show what it does to the amount the contractor receives. Note that withholding does not reduce your cost; it changes who receives the money.
Should I use this to decide between a contractor and an employee?
No, and it is worth being blunt about it. Whether someone is a contractor or an employee is a legal question decided by how the relationship actually works, not by which option is cheaper. Comparing the two numbers and picking the lower one is how misclassification happens, and it surfaces at the worst possible moment, in an audit or a dispute. Read the classification guide, then take the specific case to a qualified professional.
Does Capstan move the money?
No. Capstan records contractor payouts by reference and keeps the agreements, invoices and references in one place. It never holds funds and never moves money. Your bank or your payment provider does the actual paying.
One engagement priced. The agreement and the invoices still need a home.