Meeting Cost Calculator: Frequently Asked Questions

For a rough estimate, use annual salary ÷ 2,000. For a fully-loaded cost (what the meeting actually costs the organisation), multiply by 1.3–1.5 to include benefits, employer taxes, and overhead. For client-facing teams, use the billing rate to show opportunity cost.

The calculator uses a single average rate for all attendees. For a more precise calculation, add the individual hourly rates of all attendees and divide by the number of attendees to get a weighted average, then enter that.

Yes — the calculator divides (attendees × hourly_rate) by 3,600 to get cost per second, and multiplies by elapsed seconds. The live counter updates every second.

Open the calculator on your laptop, enter the attendee count and rate before the meeting, and share your screen when you want to make the point visually. Click Start when the meeting begins.

The fully-loaded cost includes base salary plus all direct and indirect costs: employer portion of payroll taxes, health insurance, pension contributions, office space per person, equipment, software licences, and HR overhead. This is typically 1.25–1.5× the base salary in most Western countries.

Cost per meeting × number of occurrences per year. A weekly meeting runs 52 times per year. A biweekly meeting runs 26 times. A monthly meeting runs 12 times. Subtract roughly 3–4 weeks for holidays and vacations for a realistic annual figure.