Free tool · Calculator
What is the going day rate? Not from two data points, it isn’t.
Every published rate guide is a number without a sample size. This is a sample size that sometimes refuses to become a number — which is the only honest way to do it when the index behind it does not exist yet.
The short answer
Enter the day rates you have actually seen and where each came from. With three or more it returns the median, the range and how many points named a source. With fewer it returns “not enough data” and no number at all, because a rate quoted from two points is a rumour with a decimal place, and a decimal place is exactly what makes it persuasive.
Rate guides are published without sample sizes because a sample size makes them arguable. The number is the product, and the number has to sound certain.
This does the opposite. It holds a floor of three, tells you how far off you are, and treats a wide spread as evidence that you are looking at two jobs rather than one market.
Your data points
Three is the floor. Below it this tool shows not enough data and no number, because a day rate quoted from two data points is a rumour with a decimal place.
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Why three, and not thirty
Three is not statistically respectable and it is not meant to be. It is the point below which a median is not a median at all — with two points you are reporting an average of whichever two you happened to hear, and the arithmetic lends it an authority the input has not earned. Thirty would be better and you will not have thirty. Three is the floor at which the shape of the thing becomes real.
Why it asks where each number came from
Because a rate you cannot attribute in three months is a rate you will not defend in a negotiation. If half your points have no source, the tool says so rather than averaging them into a confident figure.
What we would do with the answer
Quote the median, hold the range, and write the date beside it. A rate with no date is a rate you will be arguing about next quarter.
Questions people actually ask
How many data points do you need for a reliable day rate?
Three is the practical floor and this tool refuses below it. Below three you are reporting whichever two figures you happened to hear, and expressing it as a median lends it an authority the input has not earned. More is better; three is where the shape becomes real rather than anecdotal.
Why does the calculator refuse to show a number?
Because with fewer than three points there is no number worth showing. Every published rate guide gives you a figure without a sample size, which is precisely what makes them feel authoritative and be useless. Refusing is the feature.
What does a wide spread in day rates mean?
Usually that you are looking at two different jobs rather than one market — different seniority, different sector, or inside versus outside IR35. When the spread exceeds about 60% of the top figure this tool says so and suggests splitting them and running it again.
Where should I get day rate data points?
Quotes you have received, advertised contract rates, invoices you have paid, and figures colleagues will share. Record where each came from as you go — a rate you cannot attribute in three months is one you will not defend in a negotiation.
Sources
- No rate data is published by this page. Every figure in the result is one you entered, and the arithmetic is a median and a range over your own points. — no borrowed statistics, on purpose
- The n≥3 floor, the 60% spread warning and the source-attribution rule are Noxia’s own. DayRate, the rate index this was specified against, has no repository — recorded on the work page rather than implied. — our opinion, labelled
Checked 8 September 2026. Numbers that move — leaderboards, live indices — are re-checked every 30 days; annual datasets and rules in force every six months; dated research once a year. If something here has gone stale before we got to it, tell us and we will correct it and say what changed.
If it refused, the answer is more phone calls.
Three sourced points is an afternoon of asking, and it beats any guide you could buy. If you have thirty and want them turned into something defensible, that is a market study with a fixed fee.
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