This meeting cost calculator prices the calendar invite: attendees × their hourly cost × duration — per meeting, and annualized for recurring ones. Send it to whoever scheduled the status meeting.

Cost per Meeting–
Cost per Minute (burn rate)–
Annualized Cost–

“Loaded” hourly cost = salary + benefits + overhead, typically 1.25–1.4× the wage rate — the honest number (our Salary Calculator converts wage ↔ salary). The counter-consideration is real too: the alternative to a $450 meeting can be a $5,000 misunderstanding; this tool prices the meeting, not its value. The actionable levers are the three inputs — fewer people, shorter default (25/50 minutes), lower frequency.

Cost = People × Rate × Time — the Invite Is an Invoice

Nothing exotic: the same multiplication as our Commute Cost arithmetic, pointed at calendar culture. The defense of the calculation is that every term is a decision someone made — the guest list, the default duration, the recurrence — and pricing decisions is how they get remade. Part of our Everyday Life Calculators collection.

Worked Examples (Verified)

  • 6 people × $50/hr × 90 minutes, weekly (defaults): $450 per meeting → $23,400/year — a part-time salary’s worth of recurring alignment
  • The 15-minute standup that isn’t: 8 people × $60 × 0.25 h × 260 days = $31,200/yr — cheap per instance, a car per year
  • Halving duration of the default meeting (90 → 45) saves $11,700/yr without firing anyone from the invite — the highest-ROI edit in corporate life
  • Executive flavor: 4 people at $200/hr loaded for 2 hours = $1,600 — decisions below that value shouldn’t be in the room

Using the Number Well

  • Print annualized, always: per-instance prices underwhelm; recurrences are where budgets bleed.
  • Cost ≠ waste: kick off decisions, unblock work, kill a rumor — a meeting earning its rate is cheap at 10× this estimate.
  • The async alternative (a written update + comments) costs reading time only — price that too (same formula, duration = reading minutes) for a fair comparison.
  • Include prep and context-switch time for honesty’s sake on deep-work teams — the invite’s stated minutes are the floor, not the total.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?

Attendees × average hourly cost × duration in hours. Six people at $50/hr for 90 minutes: 6 × 50 × 1.5 = $450 — and ×52 for a weekly recurrence = $23,400/year. Use loaded hourly cost (wages + benefits, ~1.25–1.4× salary rate) for honesty.

What hourly rate should I use?

Average the attendees’ loaded rates: annual salary + ~30% for benefits/overhead, divided by ~2,080 working hours. A $75k salary ≈ $47/hr loaded ≈ the defaults’ ballpark. Precision matters less than including everyone in the room — the headcount is the lever with the teeth.

Is a $450 meeting a waste of money?

Only if its outcome is worth less. The number reframes, it doesn’t verdict: decisions, alignment and unblocking regularly clear the bar; read-only status recitations rarely do. Price the asynchronous alternative too — the gap between the two is your meeting-culture budget.

How much do recurring meetings cost per year?

Per-meeting cost × occurrences: weekly ×52 (or ×48 accounting holidays), daily standups ×~260. The defaults’ $450 weekly becomes $23,400 — which is why “it’s only half an hour” fails as an argument at annual scale.

What’s the fastest way to cut meeting costs?

Shrink the default duration (60→25/30-minute calendar defaults change behavior organization-wide), cut the invite list to deciders + doers (everyone else gets notes), and convert recurring status to async documents. Each input of this formula is a policy choice wearing a costume of inevitability.

Is this meeting cost calculator free?

Yes — free, instant, no sign-up. Forwarding it to a meeting organizer is also free.