See the real dollar cost of any meeting as it happens. Enter attendees and salaries, hit start — and watch the clock (and bill) run. Make every meeting worth it.
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Set up attendees below, then start the meeting
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Cost / minute
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Total salary cost
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Attendees & salaries
💡 Salary is used only for cost calculation. All data stays in your browser — nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
What this meeting costs vs…
How to use this calculator
01
Add all meeting attendees. Include everyone who is actually in the room or on the call. If someone is partially attending, they still cost the same as being fully present — their time is being consumed regardless.
02
Enter annual salaries. Use gross salary if known. For estimation: a $100k/year employee costs about $50/hour including benefits burden (typically 1.25–1.4× salary). If you don't know individual salaries, use an average — even rough estimates are revealing.
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Hit Start when the meeting begins. The running total updates every second. Pause it during breaks. The purpose isn't to create anxiety — it's to make the cost of time visible in a way that a calendar invite never does.
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Use the cost to set a meeting standard. A weekly 1-hour all-hands with 12 people at $90k avg costs roughly $500 per session — $26,000 per year. That context helps you evaluate whether a standing meeting is worth keeping, cutting, or converting to async.
📋 Meeting History
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is the meeting cost calculated? ▾
The cost per second is calculated as: (sum of all annual salaries) ÷ 2080 hours per work year ÷ 3600 seconds per hour. This gives a per-second burn rate for the room. For a more conservative estimate, multiply by 1.3–1.4 to include benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead — though this tool uses base salary for simplicity. The formula assumes a standard 52-week, 40-hour work year.
Should I include benefits and overhead in the salary? ▾
For a truer cost, yes. The fully-loaded cost of an employee (including health insurance, payroll taxes, 401k match, office space, and equipment) is typically 1.25–1.5× base salary. So a $100k employee costs roughly $125–150k/year to employ. If you want to account for this, multiply each person's salary by 1.35 before entering it.
How many meetings does the average company have? ▾
Studies estimate that US companies collectively spend $37 billion per year on unproductive meetings. The average knowledge worker spends 31 hours per month in meetings, with 50% of that time considered wasted. Managers spend an average of 35–50% of their working week in meetings. Making meeting costs visible is consistently cited as one of the most effective ways to improve meeting culture.
What's the most effective way to reduce meeting costs? ▾
The highest-ROI changes: (1) Set a maximum attendee limit — every additional person dramatically multiplies cost. (2) Require an agenda with a decision or outcome stated upfront. (3) Default meetings to 25 or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60. (4) Audit recurring meetings quarterly — kill or reduce those whose value doesn't justify the cost. (5) Replace status-update meetings with written async updates.
Is this data private? ▾
Yes, completely. All salary data and calculation runs entirely in your browser. No information is ever sent to a server or stored anywhere outside your device. You can close the tab and all data is gone. This makes it safe to use with real employee salary data — nothing leaves your computer.
The cost is calculated by multiplying each attendee's average hourly rate by the meeting duration, then summing across all participants. Average salary data is used when individual rates aren't known. The result shows the direct payroll cost of the meeting time.
How can I reduce the cost of meetings?
Keep attendance to decision-makers only, set strict time limits, share agendas in advance, and default to async communication for updates. Research consistently shows that 30-40% of meeting time can be eliminated without affecting outcomes.
What is a reasonable cost for a one-hour team meeting?
For a typical tech team of 6 people earning around $60,000 each, a one-hour meeting costs approximately $175 in direct payroll time. Add preparation and context-switching costs and the true figure is often 2-3× higher.