Enter headcount and annual salary per role. Hourly cost assumes 2,080 working hours a year.
True employer cost exceeds salary. Fully loaded cost is the figure finance teams use.
Meeting Cost Calculator — What That Recurring Meeting Actually Costs
Meetings are the only major business expense nobody puts on a budget line. This free meeting cost calculator turns attendee salaries into a live ticking figure, shows the burn rate per minute, and projects what a recurring meeting costs across a full year. Start the timer at the beginning of your next call and watch the number climb. It runs entirely in your browser.
Why fully loaded cost, not salary
An employee costs an organisation considerably more than their salary. Payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, software licences and workspace all add to the total. Finance teams therefore work with fully loaded cost, typically 1.25× to 1.7× base salary depending on sector and location. The calculator defaults to 1.4×, a reasonable midpoint for knowledge work, and lets you adjust it. Hourly cost is derived by dividing loaded annual cost by 2,080 working hours — 40 hours a week across 52 weeks.
The number most people get wrong: recurrence
A single meeting rarely feels expensive. The damage is done by repetition. A weekly one-hour status call with eight people does not cost one hour — it consumes 416 person-hours a year, the equivalent of ten full working weeks from a single employee. The calculator multiplies the per-occurrence cost by your chosen frequency so the annual figure is visible before you accept the recurring invite.
Cost is only half the question
A high number does not automatically mean a meeting is wasteful. Decisions that unblock a team, resolve genuine disagreement, or build trust between people who rarely interact can justify a substantial figure. The useful test is comparative: would you spend this amount in cash on the outcome you expect? If the honest answer is no, the meeting needs a shorter agenda, fewer attendees, or an asynchronous replacement.
Practical ways to cut the figure
- Cut attendees before cutting minutes. Cost scales linearly with headcount. Removing three optional attendees from a weekly call saves more than trimming ten minutes.
- Default to 25 and 50 minutes. Shorter default slots reclaim a sixth of all meeting time and give people a gap between calls.
- Require a written agenda. Meetings without a stated decision to be made are the most reliably expensive ones.
- Make attendance genuinely optional. Publish notes and a recording so people can opt out without missing information.
- Audit recurring invites quarterly. Standing meetings outlive their purpose far longer than anyone admits.
- Watch the seniority mix. One executive in the room can cost more than four junior attendees combined.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
Multiply each attendee's fully loaded hourly cost by the meeting duration, then add them together. Fully loaded hourly cost is annual salary multiplied by an overhead factor of roughly 1.4, divided by 2,080 working hours a year. This calculator does that automatically for every role you enter.
What is a fully loaded employee cost?
It is the total cost of employing someone, including salary plus payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, software and workspace. It is commonly 1.25 to 1.7 times base salary. Using salary alone understates the true cost of a meeting by roughly a third.
How much do meetings cost a company each year?
It depends entirely on headcount and meeting culture, but recurring meetings dominate the total. A single weekly one-hour meeting with eight mid-level staff typically costs several times a junior salary over a year. Enter your own figures above for an accurate number rather than relying on published averages.
Should I show the meeting cost to attendees?
Used well, yes. Displaying a live cost at the start of a call sharpens focus and shortens tangents. Used punitively it breeds resentment. Present it as a shared budget the group is spending together, not as a criticism of anyone attending.
Is this meeting cost calculator free and private?
Yes. There is no sign-up, and all salary figures stay in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted to a server, logged, or stored anywhere.
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