See the real cost of a meeting tick up in real time. Add attendees, enter their rates, and press start.
Meetings are one of the most expensive recurring activities in any organization — yet their cost is rarely visible. This free Meeting Cost Calculator puts the real price of your meetings front and centre by showing the cumulative cost tick up in real time as the meeting runs.
Start by adding each attendee with their name and fully loaded hourly rate. Select your preferred currency from the dropdown. The total hourly burn rate updates automatically. When you press "Start Meeting," the timer and cost counter begin running. You can pause during breaks or interruptions and resume when the meeting continues. Use the "Reset" button to clear the timer and start fresh.
The cost breakdown panel shows per-minute, per-30-minute, per-hour costs, and the average cost per attendee. A colour-coded indicator — green (reasonable), yellow (moderate), or red (expensive) — gives you an at-a-glance assessment of whether the meeting is on track. Each attendee's individual contribution is also shown with a proportional bar.
Every minute of compensated time for each attendee. If an employee earns $50 per hour, their time costs roughly $0.83 per minute. A one-hour meeting with eight attendees at $50 per hour each costs $400 in labour alone — not including preparation time or opportunity cost.
Use the attendee's fully loaded cost — salary plus benefits, tools, overhead, and any employer taxes. A common rule of thumb is to divide annual salary by 2,000 working hours, then add 25–40% for overhead costs. For contractors, use their actual hourly billable rate.
When the marginal benefit no longer exceeds the cumulative cost. The colour indicator helps: green means your meeting is costing less than the likely value generated, yellow means the cost is adding up and you should stay focused, and red suggests it is time to wrap up or move to async follow-up.
Invite only essential participants, set strict time limits, and use the tool to build awareness of meeting costs across your team. Ask the question: "Does this need to be a meeting, or could it be an email, a shared document, or an async update?" Awareness alone often reduces meeting duration by 20–30%.
Yes. Remote meetings often carry similar or higher costs due to technology stack expenses, reduced non-verbal communication, and the need for more structured facilitation. The calculator works identically regardless of where attendees are located — just enter their true hourly rates.