Meeting cost = time × people × hourly rate (plus reality)

The simplest version of meeting cost is straightforward: if a meeting lasts one hour and ten people attend, you “spent” ten hours of human time. If those people cost your organization money to employ (they do), then the meeting has a real dollar cost — even if nobody swipes a credit card.

Where most teams underestimate meeting cost is in the “invisible extras”: preparation, context switching, and the difference between a person’s hourly wage and their fully loaded cost (benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, software, office space, management overhead, etc.). This calculator keeps the core math simple, but gives you a few toggles so you can model the situation realistically for your team.

First, convert your meeting duration from minutes to hours: Meeting Hours = Duration Minutes ÷ 60. Then, for each role you add (for example: “Engineer”, “PM”, “Designer”, “Exec”), compute the role cost:

• Role Cost = Role Count × Hourly Rate × Meeting Hours

Add all role costs together and apply optional “real world” multipliers:

• Overhead multiplier: If you choose 1.25, you’re saying “my true company cost is about 25% higher than base salary rate.”
• Prep time: If each attendee spends time preparing, that time is added to the total hours spent.
• Focus tax: Meetings often break deep work, causing extra “lost time” beyond the meeting itself. A 10% focus tax means you treat the meeting as costing 10% more.

1) Compute total meeting hours: H = minutes ÷ 60
2) Compute prep hours per attendee: P = prepMinutes ÷ 60
3) Compute total hours per attendee: H + P
4) Compute base cost across roles: Base = Σ (countᵢ × rateᵢ × (H + P))
5) Apply overhead and focus tax: Total = Base × overheadMultiplier × (1 + focusTax)

• Total meeting cost: the big number for the meeting.
• Cost per minute: total ÷ duration minutes — your meeting “burn rate”.
• Cost per attendee: total ÷ total attendees — useful for comparing meeting sizes.

Example 1 (small team sync): 30 minutes, 4 attendees, each at $60/hr, overhead 1.25, no prep, no focus tax.
Meeting hours = 0.5. Base = 4 × 60 × 0.5 = $120. Total = 120 × 1.25 = $150. Cost per minute = 150 ÷ 30 = $5/min.

Example 2 (cross-functional review): 60 minutes, 2 engineers ($80/hr), 1 PM ($75/hr), 1 designer ($70/hr), 1 exec ($150/hr). Prep = 10 minutes per person, overhead 1.35, focus tax 10%.
H = 1.0, P = 0.1667, total per attendee hours = 1.1667. Base ≈ (2×80 + 1×75 + 1×70 + 1×150) × 1.1667 = (455) × 1.1667 ≈ $530.83. Total ≈ 530.83 × 1.35 × 1.10 ≈ $788. That’s roughly $13.13/min.

Example 3 (recurring meeting reality check): If a weekly meeting costs $600 and runs 52 times/year, that’s about $31,200/year — roughly the cost of a solid contractor month, a new hire’s gear/software, or a meaningful team offsite budget line (depending on your org).

A high meeting cost is not automatically bad — it’s a signal that the meeting should produce high value: decisions, alignment, risk reduction, or speed. The best use of this calculator is to create a healthy “price awareness” culture. If your burn rate is $20/min, you’ll naturally: (1) invite fewer people, (2) shorten the meeting, (3) move status updates async, and (4) show up prepared.

One practical habit: compute cost per minute, then ask: “Would I pay that amount per minute for what we’re doing right now?” That question alone improves meeting quality.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is this calculator accurate for my company?

  It’s an estimate — but it’s usually directionally correct enough to change behavior. If you want more accuracy, use a realistic overhead multiplier and blended hourly rates for each role.

• What hourly rate should I use if I only know salary?

  You can approximate hourly rate as salary ÷ 2080 hours/year. For example, $104,000/year is roughly $50/hour. If you’re using “fully loaded” cost, increase via the overhead multiplier instead of changing the base rate.

• What overhead multiplier should I choose?

  If you want a simple default, 1.25 is common for “salary + benefits/taxes-ish.” Use 1.35–1.50 if you want to be conservative or you’re modeling fully loaded cost (benefits, equipment, space, software, etc.).

• Why include prep time?

  Many meetings cost more in prep than in the meeting itself (status decks, notes, data pulls). If 8 people spend 10 minutes each preparing, that’s another 80 minutes of paid time.

• What is “focus tax”?

  Context switching has a real cost. A meeting in the middle of deep work can turn 60 minutes into 70–80 minutes of lost productivity. The focus tax is an optional way to model that.

• Should I cancel all expensive meetings?

  No — you should make expensive meetings valuable. Use agendas, fewer attendees, shorter timeboxes, and clear decisions. Some meetings (incident response, high-stakes reviews) are expensive because the alternative is worse.

• How can I lower meeting cost quickly?

  Reduce attendees, cut duration, and remove status updates. Swap status for async docs and keep the live meeting for decisions. Even a 60-minute meeting cut to 45 minutes is a 25% savings instantly.

• Can I use this for recurring meetings?

  Yes — calculate one meeting, then multiply by occurrences per month/year. Recurring meetings often become the biggest hidden cost on a team’s calendar.